[pct-l] Contemporary Thru Hiking

[Diane at Santa Barbara Hikes dot com]

On Feb 23, 2009, at 8:46 AM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:
>
> When I realized that hiking to Canada wasn't going to happen, I sat in
> my hotel room in Idyllwild and cried.

I did too, in my hotel room in Dunsmuir. Actually, I cried all the  
way from the night before when I went to sleep somehow knowing it  
would be my last night in the wilderness, all the way down the hill  
in the morning and all the way along the railroad tracks and the road  
where I didn't even try to hitchhike, and then for hours at the  
hotel. Then I cried all the way home on the train.

I cried both for the loss, my dream coming to an end, and for the  
incredible sense of accomplishment. My god! I had walked more than  
1000 miles all by myself! So what if other people do more than that?  
It's incredible and I will always have the memories.

But you know who I admire even more than those who hiked all the way  
to Canada? It's the people who hike all the time. The ones who keep  
going out on weekends and vacations and put in more days out there in  
a year than I normally do. I want to be more like that.