[pct-l] Planning...

[Jeffrey Olson]

My experience in terms of planning - having done numerous section hikes 
of a month or more - is that it gets easier over time.  Someone who has 
never hiked for more than a week is likely going to be intimidated with 
the thought of planning for a month, two months, or four or five months 
of hiking.  I remember pouring over guide books, identifying camp spots, 
big climbs, taking notes, making spreadsheets, etc.  I didn't feel ready 
until I'd walked the hike in my head at least a dozen times (or so it 
seemed).  I look back at my first couple hikes of a month or more and 
groan.  I was pretty stubborn... 


As Patti says, once you start hiking pretty much all detailed planning 
goes out the window.  It seems that the food part needs to be together, 
mailing it or re-supplying on the trail.  Everything else can slide. 


In my eyes the most important part of planning is knowing yourself - how 
you act in dicey situations.  A dicey situation is one in which you are 
tired and/or cold or hot or hurt on one side, and there is a decision to 
be made regarding what's happening outside of you.  If you're never 
found yourself beginning to shiver uncontrollably, or spaced from 90 
degree heat, or walking with a pain you've never had before, consider 
yourself untested.  All this means is that you have reached the edge of 
what you can plan for and now you have to make a good decision. 


Sometimes a person makes a bad decision because of mood.  Why head off 
alone, before anyone else the loose herd you've been walking with, to 
climb Forester Pass?  95 times out of a 100 that is no biggie.  But is 
it a good decision - to hike your first big pass alone?  Maybe if there 
is no snow.  How about the first crossing of a spring-melt creek?  
What's your decision? 


On a JMT hike in 1971 I headed up from Tyndall Creek as a lightening 
storm moved in.  Rather than hunkering down in the trees, my 19 year old 
"gotta make miles" attitude had me walk out into the boulders, where of 
course, lightening started hitting.  When one hit 40' from me I realized 
I was in danger.  I have lots of little stories like this that involved 
decisions that could have easily had me hit by lightening, or be swept 
over the cascades at the foot of Evolution Basin, or slip and bounce 
down a snowfield to rocks below, etc. 


If you're a moody person you need to own up to it, and plan for it.  If 
you're impetuous and rash, own up to it. 


I think most people learn quickly, but there are always the stories of 
those who put themselves into danger because of mood, stubbornness, or 
rashness.  Probably other reasons too. 


Just a thought as I look out the window on a gray day in early winter. 


Jeffrey Olson
Martin, SD/Santa Rosa, CA

patti kulesz wrote:
> yeh that's what I'm doing...reading them now and highlighting and making notes. So I have all my stops and camps estimated ahead of time. Of course nothing is written in stone until you're actually out there on the trail. I do this with every trip, even if it is only two days...   Like I said...it's not written in stone, b/c everything changes once you're on the trail...wtaer sources, foot pain, energy, weather...we can't, unfortunately, calculate that in advance!