[pct-l] PCT Maps (Without bickering)

[Diane Soini of Santa Barbara Hikes]

I agree with you, Alan.

Was the flower you saw that amazing yucca? Nolina paryi, I think? I  
took many pictures of those. What an amazing flower!

I loved being able to wonder, "Hmm, what is that?" and find the  
answer in the book. Sometimes the answer wasn't there so I wrote to  
ask. What are those strange, bent-over trees coming down to Etna  
Summit? I even got an answer (I think it was mountain mahogany but  
now I don't remember.) I'll always be able to recognize Sitka spruce  
thanks to the book. I never would have known those ugly trees near  
Canada were beautiful tamarack.

I often felt like the guide book author was my invisible partner on  
the trail. He made me laugh by telling me my pace would quicken as I  
pondered some volcano about to erupt or cliff about to fall on me. I  
cursed him to hell when he told me somewhere north of Mt. Hood the  
way was mostly downhill and then he made me climb for two friggin'  
miles before there was any downhill at all! How could he say that  
with a straight face? Ah, the guide book. The Book of Lies. My hikes  
wouldn't have been the same without it.


On Jan 17, 2012, at 10:00 AM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:

> 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.