[pct-l] PCT-L - Most Common Causes of Thru-Dropout

[nina white]

At the same time, there are many people who decide happily that 500,

> 800, 1000 miles is quite enough but they get lumped into a pile with
> all the "failed thru-hikes" that others like to repeat in their
> statistics. Is it really a failure if you go out, hike an astounding
> distance few will ever complete, enjoy yourself and go home?
>

Thanks for posting this. It looks increasingly likely that I want to take a
job that starts August 15, 2012, most definitely cutting short any attempt
at a thru-hike. I have been starting to feel like I'm "failing" before even
beginning, and thinking that I shouldn't even start. Maybe I'll only get
through California next summer, but I that's ok. Thanks again.

>
> Then there are many people who hike the entire distance in one go,
> who spent the final months gritting their teeth, who never took a
> side trail to see a view or soak in a hot spring, who know deep down
> that a thru-hike is not necessarily the best way to take in this
> magnificent trail but "success" is bestowed on what they've done.
>
> Finally, even if you do finish all in one go and even if you loved
> every minute of it, you are never finished. It's likely you will
> return to hike the trail in smaller pieces and you will know then
> that it doesn't define success or failure either way, because the
> most important thing is that you keep hiking.
>
> On Sep 22, 2011, at 7:21 PM, Charles Doersch wrote:
> >
> > It was a terrible thing to learn that I could be so wrong about
> > what would make me deeply happy. Apparently I did know what would
> > make me comfortable.
> >
> > Now, we stick to the difficult.
> >
> > Charles & the gang.
>
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