[pct-l] Thank You All! (and some other questions)

[Diane at Santa Barbara Hikes dot com]

On Aug 22, 2008, at 7:49 PM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:

> Monkey see - monkey do is a very powerful thing... identifying this  
> decision as something that PCT hikers in general
> should not be doing for a whole host of reasons that don't need  
> rehashing
> here.

I don't understand why anyone thinks being able to walk 40 miles a  
day somehow qualifies someone to walk through closed areas and not  
being able to disqualifies. I'm not slamming anyone, I'm saying that  
those annoying fire closures were so stupid that maybe we all should  
have walked through them as a protest. I had the feeling they just  
wanted to keep us out of the wilderness. The PCT itself often felt  
like one big forest service exercise in keeping us away from things,  
such as water or pretty places, as if none of us could be trusted to  
simply walk on through without an impact, and as if all of us had  
some kind of super-human ability to exert ourselves in extreme heat  
without a need for water. One thing I learned out there was the  
wilderness is much safer to live in than "civilization." At the same  
time, the wilderness is over managed in a way that favors development  
and extraction and punishes those who would simply walk through  
quietly, and there isn't much of it left, either.

Anyway, congratulations to Scott and Joe on your achievement. I'm  
sorry you have to go back to work so quickly. That would be  
incredibly hard, but at least you were only away for a short time.  
Maybe the adjustment won't be so difficult compared to those of us  
away for much longer. I was only out for 90 days but it's taken me 3  
weeks to start to feel normal again. Imagine spending 5 or 6 months  
away.

I wish I could make my life around hiking the trail. How do you do  
it? Do you hike fast to make it happen? Do you think it would be  
possible to make a life around hiking that didn't involve a high- 
profile trail like the PCT? Maybe quietly connecting trails, beaches  
and open spaces into a network of trail to spend one's life on? Is  
fame and sponsorships the only way to do this? (Not singling you guys  
out, others out there had sponsors. I'm not superlative enough to be  
sponsored, but I want to live out there too.)

~Piper