[pct-l] Choices and Completion Rates

[Diane Soini of Santa Barbara Hikes]

On Sep 2, 2010, at 5:31 PM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:

> On 9/2/2010 4:04 PM, Bob Sartini wrote:
>> The completion rate is more like 50% and the failures are because
>> people run out of money and time. (They underestimate the need for
>> both and spend to many "zero" days in town.) My take is that injury
>> is a small portion of people who quit. In fact many of the injured
>> (usually shin splints and the like, hole up somewhere until they heal
>> and then get back on the trail.
My first section I was supposed to go from Campo to Ashland but I did  
not make because of injury. My feet hurt too much to go on. I did  
some research and learned all the ways that shoes maim your feet and  
determined the shoes I wore at the end were too stiff and had too  
much toespring, a quality that boots tend to have. So I went to a  
running store and asked for flexible shoes and got some trail runners  
that I then took on my second long section which was to complete the  
trail. No more injuries.

I might have quit the second section because of mosquitoes. I was  
prepared except that I had never seen mosquitoes like that before.  
They bit through my clothes. At the first opportunity I bought more  
layers and more DEET in a huge fogging spray can. I could afford the  
extra weight for my sanity. I made it. Then the rain drove me nuts.  
I'm from Southern California. It doesn't rain here and I don't hike  
in the rain if it does. But I made it to Canada. I would not give up.