[pct-l] Speed Hikers

[Jim and/or Ginny Owen]

Talk about twisting someone's words!  
 
It's quite simple really.  Some of us actually enjoy the time we spend on the trail so much we want to prolong it rather than hurry home to the rat race.  Some of us enjoy, as Mtned said, spending time simply BEING in nature, instead of rushing past it.  Not a put down on speed hikers, just a different way of enjoying life.
 
Ginny
 
 
Reinhold,Like Sly says, hike slower on your PCT thru-hike and you will have a better chance to join the crowds that didn't have a chance to complete their thru-hike this year because they pushed the weather envelope to far before the bad weather hit the Cascades.  Additionally, if you hike "slower" you can spend more time hiking in the social packs that are quite common along the trail now days.  And lastly, if you hike "slower" you will likely have more zero days than some of the folks that finish in early September.In the years prior to my 2006 thru-hike I had been an avid reader of trail journals and one of the things I noticed is that many of the stories from Washington were of folks hiking for days on end through rain and foul weather.  Through this type of weather there is very little chance of seeing the incredible beauty of this section of trail.Sly, for some of us, it is not about how many days we spend on the trail, but the quality of the experience we have in the time we do spend on the trail.  How quality is defined is an individual measurement and we should not judge how others choose to hike and be so bold to suggest that our experience is better than someone elses experience because we chose to hike it differently.http://www.spiriteaglehome.com/
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