[pct-l] Colin Fletcher Passed away. :(

[Paul Magnanti]

We lost a person who was definitely one of the founding fathers of our little tribe. 

His COMPLETE WALKER books introduced many people to backpacking.

More importantly, in my opinion, were his writing about his journeys. It was not how many miles he hiked, or how far he went. It was about his sense of discovery, about being immersed in nature, of seeing what is around the next bend of the river, the trail or the canyon.

There are two quotes from Colin Fletcher I always think about when I do my own long journeys and return from them:

Before a hike:
I also realized that I'd grown soft, Things had been going to well 
lately. Too easily. I needed something to pare the fat off my soul, 
to scare the sh** out of me, to make me grateful, again, for being
alive. All I knew, deep and safe, beyond mere intellect, that there
is nothing like a wilderness journey for re-kindling the fires of 
life. Simplicity is part of it. Cutting the cackle. Transportation 
reduced to leg- or arm-power, eating irons to one spoon. 
Such simplicity, together with sweat and silence, amplify the rhythms
of any long journey, especially through unknown, untattered 
territory. And in the end such a journey can restore an understanding 
of how insignificant you are - thereby set you free.
--Colin Fletcher, RIVER


After a hike:
It is always there, of course, when you come back from the green world. You
have been living by sunrise and sunset, by wind and rain, surrounded by the
ebb and flow of lives that respond only to such simple, rhythmic elements.
But now the tone and tempo of the days switch. Instead of harmony, jangle.
--Colin Fletcher, WINDS OF MARA

RIP Colin.



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The true harvest of my life is intangible.... a little stardust 
caught, a portion of the rainbow I have clutched
--Thoreau
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