[pct-l] Solitude-Humility

[ned at mountaineducation.org]

This will be an interesting thread because when I did the PCT in '74 and the 
CDT in '80 there were weeks when I didn't see another human being, also! 
Now, for this sort of isolation and self-reliance you have to go to the 
Arctic...



Ned Tibbits, Director
Mountain Education
1106A Ski Run Blvd
South Lake Tahoe, Ca. 96150
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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gary Wright" <gwtmp01 at mac.com>
To: "Austin Williams" <austinwilliams123 at gmail.com>
Cc: <pct-l at backcountry.net>
Sent: Friday, October 01, 2010 10:16 AM
Subject: Re: [pct-l] Bear canisters



On Oct 1, 2010, at 12:38 PM, Austin Williams wrote:

> OMG.  Until I saw the "fully tongue in cheek" remark at the bottom, I was
> about two inches away from passing out and falling out of my chair in
> disbelief.  That was hilarious!
>
> Funny thing is, I've had people seriously ask me about doing just that. 
> Not
> even joking!!!  :)

Yep. When I told tell people about my long-distance hikes I often got 
questions that suggest that the trail existed in some some parallel-universe 
where I was cut-off from civilization for the duration of my hike. In that 
world, a gun was needed to fend off predators, hunt for food, and to protect 
myself from the crazy mountain-folk.

I'll admit that prior to my thru-hike my thoughts about the 'wilderness' 
were certainly out of whack with reality.

Andrew Skurka, who just finished a 4,700 mile hike around Alaska, had some 
great comments about what 'real' wilderness is like:

> Humility. The most remote and inaccessible section of the trip was across 
> the Yukon Arctic and the eastern Brooks Range (also known as the Arctic 
> National Wildlife Refuge). During that stretch I went 650 miles without 
> crossing a road and 3.5 weeks without seeing another human being. That’s 
> true wilderness. It may sound romantic, but frankly it’s frightening—was 
> completely on my own, entirely dependent on the space between my ears and 
> the contents of my pack (12 pounds of gear and up to two weeks of food), 
> traveling across an environment that is hardly conducive to life: it has 
> big rivers, big storms, big wildlife, big swamps, and small but prolific 
> bugs. This new level of self-dependence caused me to tap into a primal, 
> ancient, and mostly lost, sense of humility that dates back to when humans 
> were really just another wild animal on this planet, not a higher or 
> elevated species, when overcoming Nature’s challenges and making it to 
> tomorrow was a noble and fundamental goal.


Radar

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