[pct-l] Grid, Graph, Spreadsheet in Preparation and During Hike

[Gary Wright]

On Jan 5, 2009, at 1:46 PM, Will Hiltz wrote:
> How can you possibly expect to keep to a schedule for 2650 miles  
> that you
> planned out months beforehand?  I never understood people who do  
> this... has
> there even been a year in recent memory for which some part of the  
> trail has
> not been unexpectedly closed during hiking season?!

Plans are nothing; planning is everything.
   Dwight D. Eisenhower

I made a spreadsheet for my AT and PCT hikes.  The key is to realize  
that the plan or spreadsheet should be subservient to your hike and  
not the other way around.

I would say that very few long-distance hikers work without a plan of  
some sort.  At a minimum you need to decide how much food to carry  
until your next resupply.  Many people have a deadline in the fall  
that they have to meet to return to a job, school, or a family.  I ran  
into lots of hikers having a conversation like "If we hike 25 miles/ 
day for the next month we'll be able to get to Ashland before XYZ  
otherwise ...".  If nothing else imposes a schedule on a thru-hiker,  
Mother Nature surely does.

Radar