[pct-l] O.d.Coyote??? Not quite...

[gwtmp01 at mac.com]

On Nov 30, 2006, at 8:28 PM, Ginny & Jim Owen wrote:
> I said that many, if not most, of those who have hiked the CDT in  
> the last 5 years ,as well as those who plan to hike next year, have  
> announced the Triple Crown as their primary motivation.  That’s  
> fact – not guesswork, opinion or argument.

Hmm. I'm not sure I would agree with this statement but I'm only  
speculating--I certainly don't have any 'data' to prove that my  
thoughts are representative of past or future CDT hikers.

If I hike the CDT next year it will indeed complete my triple-crown  
but that isn't the reason I'm considering hiking the CDT.  The reason  
I'm considering the CDT is that I haven't hiked it before and I think  
that I now have the skills for that trail--I didn't even know about  
the CDT before I set out on my AT thru-hike.  I don't think that my  
desire to hike a *new* trail is all that uncommon.  The inevitable  
side-effect of the desire to hike new long trails is to complete the  
triple-crown.  But I think it is a side-effect, not the primary  
goal.  At least that is the way I'm thinking about it.  I don't think  
that my CDT completion will satiate my appetite for long-distance  
hiking and as such I don't think of the triple-crown as and endpoint  
but just an inevitable milestone in this long-distance hiker's journeys.

Gary Wright