[pct-l] Hiking alone

[Phil Newhouse]

Just Shelly,

I very much appreciated your thoughts...

Thanks

On Sun, Jan 11, 2009 at 9:21 AM, shelly skye <shelbel26 at gmail.com> wrote:

> I'm mostly a lurker here but I read with interest everything (almost)
> that comes over the list serve. I have had a hard time trying to
> figure out how to jump into conversations but here goes.
>
> For at least ten years I have been dreaming of hiking the PCT. I am
> very close to retirement now, five semesters away (but who's counting)
> and then I'll be free to hike as long as my legs hold out. Being a
> planner, I have tried to address my fears in a step by step fashion.
>
> Fear #1 - Hiking alone. As a woman currently age 57, I have a full
> lifetime of stories and experience to tell me to be fearful when in
> strange environments.
>
> Fear #2 - Can I do it? I've been sitting at a desk for the past 21 years.
>
> Fear #3 - Bears!
>
> To address these fears, a few years back I decided to hike the JMT
> thinking that it would be a good test of being alone in a wilderness
> area where bailing wasn't too easy and a good test of my physical
> ability, not to mention psychological strength. I found that indeed,
> one is rarely alone out there if one doesn't want to be. I met and
> hiked with some interesting people and also really enjoyed being on my
> own. After the first bit I became more comfortable with the idea of
> bears, in fact I never saw a bear, but I did practice stealth camping
> principles. No sleeping where I cooked, etc.
>
> The "can I do it" part was more of a challenge. In fact the last night
> in Crabtree Meadows I wrote in my journal " I can't believe still
> don't know if I can do it". Yet 18 miles the next day brought me up to
> Whitney and back down to Whitney Portal, tired but victorious.
> Confidence (for me) can only be earned the hard way, by doing
> something hard and succeeding.
>
> Once these fears were addressed it became clear that I had other
> issues of concern I would have to face while hiking the PCT.
>
> New fear #4 - Hiking in the heat
>
> New fear #5 - Lack of water and water management
>
> New fear #6 - Hiking in areas where there was much more road access,
> thus more of a likelihood of crazy, dangerous critters. The two legged
> types.
>
> So last summer I decided to thru-hike the Tahoe Rim Trail which had
> all three of these elements and a safe way to see how I do. Voila, I
> managed to meet and address all three of these scary, to me, fears. So
> again, my confidence level increased and some of the things I thought
> could stop me on my PCT hike are things I have done before and been
> successful.
>
> Some people might read this and think, "Geeze, she sure carried around
> alot of fear" and it may be true. However one of the benefits of age
> is knowing who you are and what limitations you might have. Also how
> to mitigate those limitations. Or even how to change ones self-imposed
> limitations.
>
> I hope this has been helpful to someone who might have similar concerns.
>
> Shelly
> (With a lifetime of nicknames but no trailname)
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