[pct-l] O.d. Coyote

[Steel-Eye]

Good morning, Roger,

 

Thanks for the interesting perspective.  Your comments make me feel better because about that same time Jardine tossed me out of ALDHA-West as well when I didn't agree with him.  Does that put me in bad company with O.D. Coyote, or is O.D. is in bad company with me?  Maybe Ray was in bad company with us, or we were in bad company with him. Or maybe .. aah, to-hell-with-it.

 

Steel-Eye
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Roger Carpenter 
  To: pct-l 
  Sent: Saturday, November 03, 2007 10:48 PM
  Subject: [pct-l] O.d. Coyote


  I'm finally catching up on the posts from the last couple of weeks.  It's a shame that O.d. left the list, and it's a shame the action between him and the list got to be too negative.  For those of you who have met O.d. and (hopefully) seen one of his slide shows you will remember him as a very colorful person yet very opinionated.  In the early days of ALDHA-West in the mid-90's when Jardine ran it Jardine banned O.d. from attending the gatherings simply because O.d. did not agree with Jardine's philosophies of long distance hiking.   O.d. stayed in touch with ALDHA-West by re-joining under the name name ":Dutch Chocolate"!  After Jardine abandoned ALDHA-West O.d. eventually knew it was safe to come back to the gathering and he gave an amazingly entertaining slide show one year.  His photos would include things like bugs he watched while hiking the AT, and perhaps he spent much more time observing things like bugs and less time trying to make his miles for that day.  He would also show up with a printed manifesto called something like the "Slackpacking Journals" which I have kept in my personal library of long distance hiking materials.  One thing is for sure, O.d. was, and still is, very passionate about what he does when he goes on a hike.  Nobody personifies the expression, "hike your own hike" more than O.d. Coyote.  

  My point?  Appreciate the positive things someone like O.d. brings to the community and try to understand that his opinions are based on a passionate sense of his beliefs and approach to long distance hiking and not some attempt to prove that his way is superior than anyone else's.  I have met one other person in the distance hiking community who was equally as opinionated (not someone who posts to this list) as O.d., but that other person was really dangerous, verbally abusive and had issues that I would rather not get into.  To me O.d. is a refreshing voice who could be misunderstood, but means no harm.  After reading his posts I could see why someone would construe his words as flames, but in this case I would let O.d. be O.d., and just appreciate the guy for who he is.  
  Roger Carpenter 
  Vancouver, Washington 
  www.elkpass.com 




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