[pct-l] Anticipating tomorrow...

[Jeffrey Olson]

I've been participating on this listserv since it began.  I've loved how 
posters went from 99% men in 1994 to 60% men today.  The whole idea of 
"hiking the PCT" has changed because more women are taking on the 
challenge, planning, and hiking the trail.  There is much less of the 
macho "me" orientation that so drags down exploring, asking questions, 
and making tentative statements about learning. It's still alive on the 
listserv, but dying.

20 years of hikers sharing their questions, experience, fears and 
knowledge has bred a robust community accepting of newcomers and their 
questions and the experienced wisdom of trail elders.  I love how 
Shroomer frames a perspective that ostensibly answers a question.  He is 
doing so much more.

My folks took me backpacking - not camping - for the first time in 1960, 
when I was eight.  We hiked up into the Eagle Cap Wilderness in 
northeastern Oregon and spent two days under a 12' wide and 20' long 
clear plastic tarp while it rained.  My mom guided our energy into word 
games and crazy eights and imagining being warm.  Those two days shaped 
me in ways I can't begin to express.

How do five people handle shitting for two days?  I remember walking out 
in the driving, constant rain to the hole my Dad had dug that was filled 
with excrement and toilet paper, and having to squat and dump.  A part 
of me was horrified!  The part of me that grew over the years reveled in 
crapping on top of other peoples crap.  I liked the fact we had to crap 
in an  18" deep hole filled with excrement and toilet paper.  This was 
COOL!!!

The morning of the third day we began to hike out under leaden/foggy 
skies, and a half mile down the trail met a sheepherder.  He offered to 
take our packs to our car.  He strapped our packs to his mules and we 
hiked the six miles downcanyon in a different state of emotional mind...

I think that persons like Yogi are setting the historical stage for a 
shift in perspective.  What she's done in her documenting resources and 
realities of the PCT and CDT has let 20 somethings awake in a world that 
makes a thru-hike far more possible than it appeared 40 years ago.  The 
wise oldtimers - - Shroomer - and others who humbly share their 
experience balance Yogi's business efforts so that my grandchildren can 
awaken and feel affirmed and supported in their dream of hiking a long 
trail.

20 years of participating in and watching threads emerge here on the 
listserv has made me incredibly hopeful about our - the human races' - 
future.  Most of us here on the listserv are privileged - we come from 
at least the middle class.  I've met lots of trust funders hiking the 
PCT.  Not many Native Americans or African Americans hike the trail in 
this era.

Newcomers ask questions about gear and hiking with dogs and what it's 
like to hike for week after week.  Shroomer and Diane maintain a 
perspective that fosters curiosity.  The more experienced hikers like 
them write of their experience and the perspective that comes from 
experience, the more persons dreaming of hiking a long trail feel 
supported.

I hope that young women feel the choice to hike, to set out hiking 
alone, is safe.  Statistics comparing what happens to persons on the 
trail compared to those in cities make it apparent - obvious - hiking is 
safer.  You'll find safe, friendly, interesting, and intriguing persons 
who will become lifelong friends.  Feel confident to start at Campo 
alone.  You are strong and can meet the challenges the trail throws at 
you.  You can.

If you become part of the herd (and apparently, this happens in the 
first week or two) you'll always have someone to bounce your reality off 
of.  Whether others will want to take it or not is another story...

I began this missive extolling the positivity that the change in posts 
from mostly men to much fewer men.  I hope that women, one woman at a 
time, can create her dream and find other women who are dreaming the 
same vision - hiking a long trail.  I think this reality is growing here 
on the listserv.  Diane is declaring her presence and offering a kind of 
wisdom that's never been here.  Yogi - self-effacing and at the same 
time in your face - gives us a larger perspective within which to 
organize our fears and projections and growth needs.

You 20 somethings women looking for direction and meaning and purpose 
and latch onto the vision of hiking the PCT need to be supported.  This 
is a good forum for that.  Yogi and Diane and others will help you shape 
your dream...

Jeffrey Olson
Rapid City, SD