[pct-l] Hello

[Scott Williams]

Hey Joe,

Glad to have you aboard.

You don't need to worry about a "spoiler alert" with any of the books, DVDs
or anything else in regards to a thru hike of the PCT. The experience is so
big and so wonderful that no picture or movie or description will even come
close to the sights and smells and sounds and personalities that you will
meet on trail.  Read anything you want.  You can't hurt the hike.  It will
be what it will be, and the millions of moments of awe and beauty and fun
will leave those pictures you'd seen before as pale representations by
comparison.  Being there and falling in love with the trail is so far
beyond words you can't possibly ruin it ahead of time.  As long as you hike
it that is.

That being said, in prep for the hike, get out there and hike as often and
as much as you can.  Don't rely on just the mental excitement to carry you
on up to Canada.  Hike enough that you really get to love walking, and
walking and walking some more.  If you like what you're doing all day, day
after day, month after month, then Canada becomes inevitable.  It's just
where you end up by walking north long enough.  But getting there is so
much easier if you love the day in and day out walking.  And the more you
walk in the year before attempting this, the easier it becomes and the more
used to it you become.

Get Yogi's books and the Wilderness Press books and pour over them.  Watch
Squatch's DVDs and many more.  You won't remember most of it anyway, but
you'll learn some stuff that will get you started off on the right foot for
gear and strategies.  Keep your head in the material, as all you learn
before hand will help immensely, but remember it is a profoundly physical
endeavor.  Learn to love the very physicality of it and you can't go wrong.


Good luck in your planning!

Shroomer


On Mon, Jun 17, 2013 at 8:43 PM, Sean Nordeen <sean.nordeen at gmail.com>wrote:

> I'm an engineer. Its my nature to plan. Because even if your plan doesn't
> work out after contact with the trail, there is meaning in the planning
> process because that research stays with you allowing you to make informed
> spontaneous decisions no matter what comes your way.
>
>  I read numerous trail journals in the couple of years before I hiked,
> watched every documentary on the trail I could find, and took all the
> guidebooks with me (having seperated the pages so I only carried the ones
> for the section I was on). I didn't find knowing some of what was ahead to
> be a problem.  One I was able to discover common problems with past
> thru-hike and hopefully learn from them and thus avoiding the issue in the
> first place.  It also allowed me to enjoy some sections that other hikers
> hated because I knew what was around to see off the trail (such as in
> Lassen Volcanic NP where the PCT avoids all the parks best features). Even
> then, the trail will always have surprises you can never prepare (often in
> a good way).
>
>  -Miner
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