[pct-l] End of Earth in 2012

[Diane at Santa Barbara Hikes dot com]

Here's an example of how all the fear mongering ends up being mostly  
hype:

You hear all kinds of dire warnings about the snow on Apache peak.  
Should you carry an ice axe or crampons? People weigh in with all  
kinds of warnings about the dangers of snow travel, they argue back  
and forth about crampons and ice axes, maybe a heated argument flares  
up about how unprepared ultralight hikers are, yadda yadda.

Meanwhile, you're just out there hiking. Snow appears on the trail.  
There's one spot that is a little scary. You carefully place each  
step and use your trekking poles for balance. You breathe a sigh of  
relief on the other side and continue on your merry way. That was it.

Over and over again with every new thing you get the hype and then  
the reality. Sure the log over the Suiattle river is scary. I hiked  
for months with the fear of it in the back of my mind. I met a guy on  
the trail who was driven to complete perseveration and mental illness  
over it. He was coming up with all kinds of crazy schemes for how to  
deal with it. Good old PCT Mom snapped him out of it by telling him  
to stop being a wimp, if a 10 year old girl could do it, he certainly  
could. Knowing that 10 year old girls can do back flips on balance  
beams while I can barely stand up straight, I simply told myself if I  
didn't like it, I could always wimp out and turn back.

When I got there, I stepped out on the log and carefully placed each  
step, using my trekking poles for balance. At the end of the log, I  
leaped to shore and breathed a sigh of relief. Then I continued on my  
merry way. That was it.

All of it is like this.

So yeah, use your head but don't succumb to the fear. It really is  
all hype.