[pct-l] PCT article in the Ashland Daily Tidings: "They're Coming!"

[CHUCK CHELIN]

Good morning, All,

I enjoyed Eastman’s article for several reasons:  First because it’s a
well-written piece that fairly represents “hiker-trash” and our activity,
and second because of Swami – I didn’t know he was on the PCT this year.

In ’07 I hiked, off and on, with Swami – whose Cam Honan name I didn’t
learn until today – and experienced one of the interesting and common
occurrences within a traveling community of long-distance hikers:  People
may show up at the strangest times and places.

I had known Swami from the start, but one encounter I documented was at the
Kearsarge Pass Trail junction.
http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=186913  From the hiker logbook at
Kennedy Meadows Campground I knew he was a day ahead of me, and indeed he
arrived at the Kearsarge junction just barely ahead of me, but somehow
earlier that day I had crossed Forester Pass about an hour ahead of him.
Strange…  How could I have passed him before Forester, and how did he pass
me between Forester and the Kearsarge junction?

>From the Kearsarge junction Swami continued north while I took a short
break at Independence – my first zero day of the hike.  Then, two weeks and
220 miles later, he catches up to me.
http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=189944  How do things like that
happen?

There’s a lesson in that:  If you want to be sure of hiking with a person
you better keep them in sight or the next time you encounter them will be
at the ALDHA-West Annual Gathering two years later.  If you know – or
believe – someone is just ahead of you, you may want to speed up a bit to
catch them only to find out later that they were really behind you –
somehow – and now you’re are pulling away instead of overtaking.  About the
only way you can be sure to encounter someone with whom you do not hike in
close proximity is to make some specific arrangement about where and when
to meet, and even then it’s “iffy”.

I hiked, off and on, through the Sierra with Tree Whisperer.  I was up and
on the trail early and he had trouble getting out of bed, but he was fast
so by noon he had caught and passed me.  Around the time I started looking
for a campsite in the evening I’d see one of his hiking poles on the edge
of the trail pointing to camp.  Later, I departed VVR the same day I
arrived but Tree Whisperer wanted to stay overnight and he said he’d catch
up with me, probably the next day.  It’s been five years now and I haven’t
run into him yet.

This interesting phenomena troubles people who really think they need to
hike with some person or posse, but I just enjoy the company whomever I
happen to encounter without any expectation that it will last for long.

Enjoy your hikes,

Steel-Eye

-Hiking the Pct since before it was the PCT – 1965

http://www.trailjournals.com/steel-eye

http://www.trailjournals.com/SteelEye09/


On Fri, Jul 13, 2012 at 9:27 PM, Brian Montgomery
<bmontgomery746 at gmail.com>wrote:

> Here's a direct link to the article...
>
> I stayed with Cam at Etna (Hiker's Hut) one nite...  changed what ever will
> become of my hiking life forever....
>
>
> http://www.dailytidings.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120713/NEWS02/207130304
>
> It's a good read...
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