[pct-l] Great Quote

[Brick Robbins]

On 10/26/07, Paul Magnanti <pmags at yahoo.com> wrote:
> >>The plan is useless; it's the planning that's important."
> Prior Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance

As un "PC" as war may be on a backcountry mailing list, there are a
lot of similarities between planning and completing a thru hike, and
planning and winning a war.

From
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmuth_von_Moltke_the_Elder
with a few edits to make it fit the PCT

[His] main thesis was that thru-hiker's strategy has to be understood
as a system of options since only the beginning of a thru hike was
plannable. As a result, he considered the main task of a thru hiker to
consist in the extensive preparation of all possible outcomes. His
thesis can be summed up by two statements, one famous and one less so,
translated into English as "No plan survives contact with the trail"
and "a thru hike is a matter of expedients."

When I hiked the trail, I had a plan that I tried way to hard to stick
to. I would have been a lot better off following the advice above, and
rolling with the punches..

All IMHO, YMMV.

-Brick