[pct-l] Scott Williamson's Workshops / My thoughts

[enyapjr at comcast.net]

My random ('incoherent' is probably better!) thoughts...
 
1.  I started backpacking in the early 60's when I was just a 'kid'...
Learned via the experience(s), mostly by "trial and error" (yet, for the many errors, I did survive!)...
While thinking of this "whore" issue - can anyone honestly say that they have 'learned' without ANY outside 'help' whatsoever?
I bought a book in the late 60's by one of the early "whores" - Colin Fletcher's "The Complete Walker" - and never regretted it (it was a great 'catalog' for gear choices at the time)...
Colin Fletcher's books made me 'comfortable' hiking solo, too - for me he opened up a much more 'personal'/intimate interaction with the wilderness environment...
 
2.  Years ago, in the latter half of a steep 3,000 foot climb to a pass, I figured if I was going to continue backpacking into the future that I needed to 'lighten up' my load and change my 'old school' habits...
So I sought 'guidance' in articles and books...  More "whores", I guess...
 
3.  In planning my PCT thru-hike, I knew that for my age I would have to lighten up even further to be 'successful' and enjoy the trek...
I adopted ultralight strategies from even more "whores" to become 'comfortable' with that style on short treks (my thru-hike plans, though, are to be lightweight - 11 to 15 pound base, not ultralight by 'definition' - I want to be 'prepared', and some habits are really hard to break free from entirely!)...
 
4.  I've purchased gear from some of the "whores" who know what thru and long distance hiking is all about - they have already done it!  I have packs by ULA, GVP (now Gossamer Gear), and SMD, a Tarptent, an Oware tarp (thanks Brian, Glen, Ron, Henry, and Dave)...

5.  Regarding 'career'/job, what happened to the adage "If you don't like what you're doing, do something that you enjoy/love/interests you"?  More power (and good luck) to Scott in his endeavor to 'teach' what he truly loves...
I haven't met Scott personally (as yet), but everything I've seen, read, or heard shows him to be a very humble, unassuming, plain ol' nice, likeable guy...
My closest encounter with Scott is 'second-hand' but from a very trusted source - my son...  He is a trail worker for Klamath NF - I guess that makes him a "whore", too, since he gets PAID to do trail work (?)...
He met Scott in the Marble Mountains in July when Scott was nobo...  Scott stopped and talked to the two young men for quite a while - and as if they had known each other for years...
I'd like to thank him, in person, for that - too many thrus don't realize what trail workers 'give up' to live and work in the wilderness year after year (but Scott does)...

6.  I haven't seen nor heard that any of the "whores" have ever been on Forbes' or Fortune's "rich" (as in $$$) lists...  I don't think any of them have become independently 'wealthy' ($$$ only, again) from their business concerns, either...  I think they keep doing what they do for the love of "the trail" and the life experience it gave to each of them...

7.  Instead of being fixated on the supposed "commercializing" or "profiteering" by a very few in the trail community, shouldn't we be much more concerned by the threats to the trail from OUTSIDE the trail community?
Examples - Squatch's post about the power lines in the San Felipe Hills (even though the PCT 'should' be in the Vulcans as originally planned) and 'mood' swings in the political world that MIGHT impact the trail (some of which we are not supposed to talk about on the list because it isn't "specific" enough to the PCT - such as wholesale selling of 'public lands' or encouraging development within roadless inventory areas so that they will NEVER become more "useless wilderness" or trying to push through oil/mineral exploration in areas that you thought were already 'protected' - but it is that pervading 'ideology' that endangers not just those other specific areas, but also the PCT!)...
Sorry, Brick, I couldn't help myself...

8.  How does one become "experienced"?  Everyone has to START from zero - no one is born "experienced"...
Should one have to take a proficiency/knowledge exam to even attempt a thru?  No -"the trail" IS the exam!
If some want to take what others may consider a 'shortcut' to "experience" - so what?
Each year "the trail" itself will sort out the 'chosen ones' - and there will probably always be at least one "novice" in the group, no matter what the conditions that year...

9.  Now, about horses, dogs, bear canisters, boots, water caches, speed records,...................

Enough rambling!
To each his own 'hike'...  bka HYOH!

HAPPY trails!!!  (and Happy Holidays to everyone)