[pct-l] PCT Maps (Without bickering)

[Alan Artman]

Back in the day, pre-Halfmile, pre-Erik the Black, pre-Postholer, pre-Yogi, 
even pre-Databook, and certainly pre-PCT-markers-at-most-intersections, all 
we had (or at least all I could find) was the Wilderness Press Guide Books 
and a hodge-podge of rarely topographical USFS maps.  With the WP books, it 
was always that intricate dance you do where you find--buried in the 
narrative--your last datapoint, hold it with your finger while you leafed 
through the next few pages trying to find the correct piece of map, which 
inevitably did not contain your next datapoint and so involved more 
shuffling, then going back to locate that datapoint on other pages in the 
narrative.  Most hikers did not like that dance.  I myself may even have 
uttered an unkind word, maybe more than once.  So when the databook came 
along, it seemed a godsend.  And things have just continued to get better 
and better.

In my 2010 (attempted) thru-hike, I and just about everyone else carried 
some version of just-the-data:  Halfmile/Erik the Black/Postholer etc.,  but 
few of us had the WP pages, and I have to wonder if in the process of 
streamlining the data accessibility we didn't throw out the baby with the 
bathwater.  I find myself squarely in the camp of Stone Dancer, Piper, 
Steel-Eye, Eric, et al --- HYOH notwithstanding :  without the WP narratives 
to give me "the lay of the land", my PCT hikes would have been pretty bleak, 
kind of like a months-long treadmill workout (except add bugs and weather).

For example, just in the Sierras leg:  (1) taking a break just north of 
Tehachapi, I read about a particular rare plant which grew in that area, 
identified by the young man who researched that portion of the trail for the 
guidebook, and as I looked around, not 20 feet away was one of those plants, 
in bloom no less!  (2) hiking north out of Kennedy Meadows, I passed through 
an old burn that, just as the WP pointed out, was growing back but not as 
the same forest, perhaps due to environmental change; (3) somewhere in the 
vicinity of Crabtree Meadow, the WP mentions a creek with wild onions 
growing a few feet upstream from the trail.  Wow!  There they were!  I 
confess I had wild onions in my stew that night.  And (4) somewhere north of 
Yosemite, as the geology of the terrain changes, the WP spoke of a large 
white boulder of anomalous origin smack in the middle of the trail.  I'm 
sure that I would have just walked right past it had not WP alerted me to 
it.  So:  do not disdain the WP books.

And now, speaking of not disdaining, I'd like to segue into my annual 
harangue for the current year's PCT class:  after you've eaten your fill at 
the Incredible Breakfast Buffet at Timberline Lodge (in northern Oregon), 
and you're back on the trail and you cross the Sandy River and soon come to 
a junction where the PCT directs you to the left, but a sign saying Ramona 
Falls directs you to the right.  GO RIGHT, YOUNG PERSON!  DO NOT MISS RAMONA 
FALLS!  Stop and rest a few moments at this magical place, sit and be 
mesmerized by the dappled light playing on the cascading waters!  Then, 
instead of backtracking,  follow Ramona Creek on down to the PCT junction. 
The whole "detour" is actually (slightly) shorter than if you'd gone to the 
left as ordered and skipped the show. And though I cannot speak for him, I'm 
pretty sure Eric the Ryback will still present you the PCT medallion, for 
Ramona Falls was once a part of the official PCT (and, in my book anyway, 
will always be a part of the REAL PCT).   And, HAVE A WONDERFUL HIKE!  I 
hope to see you on the trail in the Siskiyous this summer.

Patchwork