What is the best way to hike up the West coast???

Pacific Coast Trail? I live in California; I've never heard of this trail, and don't believe it exists. There is a famous Pacific Crest Trail. The web references to the Pacific Coast Trail I've found are all typos, and actually refer to the Pacific Crest Trail. (The person who gave the first answer may be thinking of people who bicycled up the coast highway.)

Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail would be a fantastic experience, presuming you are in good physical condition, but note the following:

1) Much of this trail goes through wilderness (such as the parts that overlap the John Muir Trail in the Sierra Nevada), and you will spend many days at a time away from roads and stores; so you must carry a pretty heavy pack. In the Sierra Nevada, the John Muir Trail runs 211 miles without crossing a road! (By the way, the other answer is incorrect. You are not allowed to ride a bicycle on these parts of the trail.) I've hiked over half the Muir Trail, and it is extremely scenic but not easy.

2) Part of the trail is in desert, so you must carry a substantial water supply in those stretches.

3) You have to get the timing right. You don't want to be hiking through the southern California desert in the hot months. Also, the portion of the trail through the Sierra Nevada is blocked by snow much of the year, so you want to pass through this section after the snow has melted. The trail might be mostly free of snow starting sometime in July or August, depending on the snowfall of the previous winter. You also don't want to be in this section too late in the year (say, mid October or afterwards) because of the danger of a major early winter snowstorm. (For more information, read about the Donner party.) People tend to hike from south to north, but there is a limited window each year for starting the trip so that things work out well in terms of climate. I'm less familiar with the stretch of trail north of California, but the same considerations apply.

If you are serious about hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, I suggest you get more information from books or web sites to make sure that you are prepared for the trip. A trip like this really requires careful planning. You might start here:

http://www.pcta.org/

If you want to hike across California at a lower elevation, you have to create a custom route from the highways and parks. I'm not sure what to recommend. As the other answer mentions, hiking along Highway 101 (or its frontage roads where pedestrians are not allowed on 101) would not be pleasant.

For example, consider how you would might walk north through the western part of central California. Although Highway 1 is beautiful along the Big Sur coast, hiking there would not be enjoyable because of the traffic. There are much less crowded roads, such as state highways 25 and 33 east of 101, and county roads in Monterey County west of 101. These are very pretty in the spring, but can be really hot in the summer, and towns are relatively far apart.

If you want a custom route, I'd recommend the following: Purchase detailed paper or computer maps of the three Pacific states. I have the two DeLorme atlases for California (one Northern, and one Southern and Central), and these are excellent books. (It appears that some of the DeLorme atlases are now published under the name Alpen instead.) These show every road in each state along with elevation contour lines, so you can plot your route in these books.

There are a few stretches where you can use local trail systems. For instance, the San Francisco Bay Area has two trail systems (Bay Trail and Bay Area Ridge Trail). You can read about these on the web:

http://baytrail.abag.ca.gov/

http://www.ridgetrail.org/

Here are the atlases for California:

http://www.amazon.com/Alpen-Atlas-Gazetteer-Northe...

http://www.amazon.com/Atlas-Gazetteer-Southern-Cen...

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Here's another organization you might be interested in:

http://www.coastwalk.org/

Coastwalk offers day hikes and multi-day hikes on the California coast. They handle the transportation of your heavy equipment and camping arrangements, so you just carry your daypack. I don't think they offer anything nearly as ambitious as you have in mind, however.

Also, their web site mentions the "California Coastal Trail", which would run along the California coast from Mexico to Oregon. This sounds like the trail you'd really like to take; but, unfortunately, it is at present more of a dream than reality. Here's the web site for the California Coastal Trail:

http://www.californiacoastaltrail.info/cms/pages/m...

The above site shows you which trails are available along the coast, and where you have to walk on the highway.

I don't know whether a similar plan exists for Oregon and Washington.

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Oregon has a similar plan, the Oregon Coast Trail. Like California, this is a mixture of trails and roads. Parts of the trail involve beaches that can only be crossed at low tide, so you should have a tide table with you.

http://www.kenneke.com/oct.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Coast_Trail

http://www.oregonstateparks.org/images/pdf/2005_Co...

The effort for Washington seems less well defined. The following is a web site by two people who actually hiked the entire west coast from the Canadian to the Mexican border. If you want to hike along the coast, you should read about their trip and other information on this trail:

http://www.coasttrails.org/westcoasttrailevent.htm...

http://www.coasttrails.org/

I know people that have done the pacific coast trail on bicycles and even though you are along the coast, there are plenty of small towns along the way to get a motel, or supplies, or whatever you need and it is by far the most scenic. Highway 101 would be boring and a drag and the cars would drive you crazy.

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