[pct-l] PCT Plan in Excel or Google Spreadsheets?

[Jeffrey Olson]

Having done a number of long section hikes I can concur with the 
sentiment expressed below.  My first hike took three months of 
planning.  The last one took a leisurely two weeks.  What takes the most 
time now is repackaging food.

That said, planning is fun.  You'll find yourself looking back as you 
hike, hot or cold, tired and hungry and thirsty with pain moving every 
ten minutes through your body on the planning days as halcyon.  "What 
was I thinking???"  "Why was I looking forward to this???"

Those moments will happen and you will survive them by putting one foot 
in front of the other as you sob and blubber, or if you're an unevolved 
"guy" get angry and just hike faster.  One foot in front of the other - 
the mantra.  You can get through anything as long as you keep walking.  
And it does, or better, can get better.  The next level of consciousness 
is attained at all the negativity courses through rather than affecting 
the act of hiking.

It's when the emotions and attitudes start to make one foot in front of 
the other seem pointless that the end of the hike beckons.  Like a 
sirens song, getting off the trail replaces the goal of finishing what 
you set out to do.

No planning can anticipate the sweet sorrow of just wanting the hike to 
end, the pain and angst be gone...

Jeffrey Olson
Rapid City, SD
> All of our route planning was through Craig's PCT Planner. And
> we updated while on the trail, too, since our initial plan changed quite
> a bit as life on the trail happened. I think it lasted all of a day.
>
> I also wonder how much your need to plan will go away once you get
> hiking.