[pct-l] Unfit father of a hiker baby

[Eric Lee]

David wrote:
>
In reply to "not knowing how tought the PCT is.":  I give up.  You're right.
I know nothing.  Thru-hike the Pacific Northwest Trail, and please, please,
please tell me how tough a trail is.
>

If you're a reasonable, capable, experienced hiker who can make good choices
(and it sounds likely that you are) then I'm sure you and your family will
have a great time and you'll have an amazing story to tell.  I look forward
to hearing about it.

However, you have to understand our perspective.  I'm not sure what kind of
reaction you expected to get from the list, but you have to understand that
we see a lot of people come through here with wildly unrealistic
expectations of what the PCT is and what long-distance hiking is.  People
who intend to thru-hike in mid-winter, or people who intend to hunt and
gather all of their food along the way, or people who intend to hike
Washington in September without any tent or rain gear of any kind.

They announce their "crazy" scheme here on the list expecting us to be
impressed and applaud them.  Every once in awhile they happen to be that one
person in a thousand who can actually do it.  But the vast majority of the
time they're just idiots who don't have the faintest idea what they're
talking about.  Sitting on the other side of a keyboard, it can be hard to
tell which is which, you know?

Now, there are no PCT police and anyone is free to do anything they want to
do to.  The people here aren't judge and jury.  But if you come on to the
list and announce that you're going to do something that raises people's
eyebrows, you should be prepared to get some reality checks.  It's not
personal - how can it be?  No one knows who you are.  It's just us figuring
the statistical odds and telling you that they don't look good.

In your specific situation, you and your wife thru-hiked the PNWT.  That's
huge.  It's half the length of the PCT but a lot less developed so it seems
that you ought to have at least as much trail-cred as anyone here.  Ok,
great.  On the other hand, lots of people have trouble just keeping
themselves in one piece while thru-hiking the PCT, let alone a toddler as
well.  I don't know how you'd expect us to *not* point that out.  If you've
thought about it and are sure you know what you're getting into, then go
ahead and do it regardless of what anyone says.

In my personal opinion, the overall safety of your family probably hinges on
one key point: are you heading out committed to a thru-hike or are you
headed out to have a great family experience on the PCT?  If you're
tunnel-visioned on Canada then, yeah, the odds are you'll make stupid, risky
choices along the way.  I know that because thru-hikers make stupid, risky
choices every year.  But if you're going into it with no hard-and-fast goals
and are willing to alter your plans in response to the conditions you find
on the trail, then great!  I'm sure you'll have a good time.

Eric