Join me for an early season - but only barely, 2 nighter on the Howe sound!
I want to do the HSCT before the heat truly arrives and the water dries up. 

I am currently leaning towards starting at the north end and going south: so starting at porteau. Yes, this means about +1000 vertical right at the start of the hike, but I tend to do better on my knees ascending than descending. We would have the choice of multiple lakes to camp at the first night. Deeks or brunswick, really.

2nd night could be anywhere, Magnesia, or fill water up at magnesia and do a dry camp to avoid the skeeters.

I'm not really planning to ascend the major peaks on the way, there's still significant snow on the ascents, and the finishing the trail is my real goal. Everything else is bonus. I would consider small extras, depending on how everything is feeling.

The plan:
-Leaning to a North-south
-I have a car
-North shore taxi would do a pickup, so we don't have to have 2 vehicles, but it would really be nice.
-This is more for early season fitness check, as opposed to a peak bagging venture.
-Limit 4 for now, might allow more.
-Meeting / video chat before hand to align on gear, goals, and times. As well as texting for smaller things.
-Unless weather is incredibly bad, I will still be a go in rain. If rain forecast, I may bring a tarp. 
-I have high quality rain jacket and pants that will come in my bag regardless, and expect others to as well. ( this can be reconsidered based on the forecast, but I lean heavily towards playing it safe.)

The gear:
-I will have water filter to share, and tablets as backup,
-Micro spikes and ice axe mandatory
-I have a garmin with active subscription for emergency calls
-Bring bug gear. I will have jacket and/or head net.
-Enough water carry capacity 

The bad:
-I'm told the bugs will be bad. I'm ready for that, and will bring either bug jacket, head net, or both. Pants, long sleeves, maybe even gloves.
-There will be one or two snow traverses. Microspikes and ice axe are mandatory. Yes it will be annoying to carry these items for at most a couple mins of usage, but I've no interest in being picked up by NSR.