[pct-l] ''Ode Coyote''

[Reinhold Metzger]

Hi gang,
I spend Thanksgiving at Pismo Beach, by San Luis Obispo, an decided to hike
out to Point Sale by Vandenberg Air Force Base. Spectacular scenery, sand
dunes, an isolated beaches.
On my way back I saw an old backpacker, with a white beard, scrambling up a
sand dune.
My first reaction was it's ''Billy Goat,'' so I waited for him to catch up
with me.
Turned out it was ''Ode Coyote'', his current trail name, his old trail name
was ''Squid or Squish'' or something like that.
We walked and talked for a while until he set up camp for the night at the
top of a ridge with a panoramic 360 degree view of the beaches an dunes.
''Ode Coyote'' goes back a long way,and like ''Billy Goat'', is retired and
spends all his time roaming around in the wilderness. He knows many off the
old timers and  attended the earlier
ALDAH-West meetings until he developed a anti-establishment mentality and
decided he had nothing to prove  anymore and just withdrew to go solo.
He purposely skipped 5 feet of the CDT as a protest against the Triple Crown
award which, he claims, is for glory and publicity hounds not for hikers who
hike for the pure joy of hiking.
I disagreed with him of course, but his mind is set.
It turned out ''Ode Coyote'' is doing his second ''Coastal Trail'' through
hike SOB in 7 month.

DO  ANY  OFF  YOU  OLD  TIMERS  REMEMBER  ''ODE  COYOTE''?

JMT Reinhold
Another of your ''Old Timer'' trail companion
P.S. ''Old Timers'' are becoming an endangered species