Unlike the Appalachian Trail and many other trails on the east coast, the PCT requires a permit to hike the trail. “If you plan on hiking or horseback riding 500 or more miles along the PCT in a single, continuous trip, the Pacific Crest Trail Association can issue you an interagency PCT Long-distance Permit.”

Those permits are not easy to get for a desired start date. The PCT Association uses a lottery system to assign permits. You can only apply for one permit once per hiking season. Between October 22 and October 31, 2025 you need to register for a PCT permit. This is simply the process of signing up for the lottery. You provide your basic information (name, birthdate, etc), and get registered for the lottery and assigned a login to the PCT Permit Management Portal. The portal is where you can apply for a permit, check availability of permits for specific dates, check the status of your permit/application, and make changes to your permit if you are lucky enough to get one.

For the 2026 hiking season, Permit Release Day is November 13, 2025. The day before Permit Release Day, everybody who registered for a permit is assigned a random 20 minute application time slot between 10:30 am PST and 3:00 pm PST. 

The way Permit Release Day works is that there are 35 permits available per day from March 1 through May 31. On Permit Release Day, people login to the portal any time beginning at their assigned time and view a calendar that shows how many permits have been taken for any given day. You need to quickly select a date with available permits, fill out the rest other the permit application including your start point, end point, and estimated number of days to complete your hike. The permits for a given date are assigned on a first come first server basis. That means the earlier in the day you get assigned a time slot, the better your chance of getting a good start day. Later in the day (typically by 1:30-2:00), all the permits are taken for all the dates. Hence why not everybody who wants a permit gets one. It is a lottery!1

After Permit Release Day, you don’t actually have a permit. You have applied for a permit starting at a specific location on a specific date with a specific destination and duration. All permit applications are reviewed and manually approved. This takes up to 2 more weeks. There needs to be something really messed up on your application of rat to get rejected.

On November 12, 2025 I received the email for my application time slot:

Are you hoping to submit an application on the Permit Release Day tomorrow? 

Your unique appointment time is:
Thursday, November 13, 2025 – 12:20:40 PM Pacific Time

Log in to your Permit Management Portal and be ready to click the “New Application” button at the time that is assigned to you. If you want the most choices, you’ll apply right at that time. You could wait until later in the day, but the longer you wait the fewer permits will be left. There’s no reason to log on more than a few minutes before your assigned application time as the system will not allow you to apply any earlier. 

I was happy with my draw in the lottery. A 12:20 application time put me a little before the half-way point, which should mean that there are a few dates in April still available. 

On November 13, I logged into the portal a few minutes before 12:20:40 PST and hovered my mouse over the APPLY button. The moment the clock struck 12:20:40 I pressed that button and was presented with the calendar of available dates and permits. I wanted April 23, 2026 (more on why that date later). I was immediately presented with this calendar for April.

Less than half way through Permit Release Day and half of the April permits were already gone, including April 23 permits. Luckily there were only 28 permits already assigned for April 24, so I jumped on that fast and completed my application. The entire process took about 3 minutes. I immediately received an email that confirmed the details of my application including:

You must start on the day and at the location listed on your permit. If you start somewhere else or on a different day, your permit is not valid and you will not be able to apply for a new long-distance permit. Now is a good time to review the Terms of the PCT Long-distance Permit (PDF).

Your application details

Name	Charles Stump
Starting location	Mexican border near Campo (CA SR 94)
Ending location	Canadian border
Starting date	2026-04-24
Ending date	2026-09-30

Out of curiosity, I looked at the available permits once I finished my application, and there were only 2 permits left on April 24. This process moves FAST!

For people who don’t get a permit in this initial lottery, there is another smaller lottery in January where an additional 15 permits per day are available. Also, any permits that were declined by the hiker are added back into the pool for the January lottery. 

On November 20, I received my email from the PCTA that my permit has been approved!!!!

Your permit application is approved! It’s getting real.

Hi Charles, 

We’ve looked over your application and it’s approved. Incredible!

I will start my PCT thru-hike on April 24, 2026 with a goal of completing by September 30. That completion date is not set in stone. That is an average of roughly 16.75 miles per day for 158 days. My plan is to average closer to 19 miles a day and take a zero day approximately every 10 to days. That comes to 158 days on trail with 18 zero days at 19 miles per day for 2,660 miles. That is a rough plan as there are some big wild cards including the amount of snow that the Sierra’s receive this winter as well as wildfires next summer that can mess things up. More on those later.