[pct-l] What is a Thru Hike, synopsis

[ned at pacificcrestcustombuilders.com]

It would seem that there are three points to garnish out of this discussion,

A Thru-Hiker is one who is attempting to hike from the beginning to the end 
of his/her trail in one extended trip.

You can "thru-hike" the JMT, the TRT, or the Oregon Skyline Trail, for 
example, and that says that you completed that trail in one trip.

Everyone who starts to thru-hike the trail is a "thru hiker" in intent and 
should be able to proudly call him/herself such.
If this hiker discontinues the attempt, he/she has hiked a section of the 
trail.

In my case, I hiked the CDT in 1980, got injured near Steamboat Springs, and 
had to abandon my attempt as a Thru-Hiker. I can say that I
am section-hiking the CDT. If I were to re-start in Steamboat and finish up 
in Canada, I could say that I section-hiked the CDT in two trips. If, 
instead, I were to start again from Mexico and make it all the way to Canada 
in one trip, then I could claim that I thru-hiked the trail.

A Section Hiker can hike like the Thru, same style, but covers shorter 
lengths of the collective total.

Once all sections have been completed, the Section Hiker can claim he/she 
has "hiked the entire PCT in sections."

To quickly address what Rod Miller states the Australian Track Foundation 
declares as an "end-to-ender." It is, without a doubt, much harder to 
complete the PCT in one extended trip versus many sections. Thus, there 
needs to be some distinction between how this accomplishment is achieved, 
whether in sections or not, to honor those who had it in them to meet the 
challenge and go all the way in one trip, whether they had to bounce around 
or not.


Mtnned
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Rod Miller" <rod at rodmiller.com>
To: <pct-l at backcountry.net>
Sent: Monday, February 23, 2009 10:04 AM
Subject: Re: [pct-l] What is a Thru Hike


> IMHO the Australians have this issue nailed.
>
> On the Bibbulmun Track in Western Australia
>
> http://www.bibbulmuntrack.org.au/
>
> Section hiking is very common. Those who have
> hiked from one end to the other are end-to-enders.
> Some complete the e2e in one go, most it seems
> just stitch the entire track together, one section
> at a time until they have completed the track, and
> they then become end-to-enders.
>
> The e2e status is given by the Track Foundation who
> don't car whether you completed your e2e in one or
> twenty attempts.
>
> Seems pretty sane to me.
>
> Sticks
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