[pct-l] Through Hiking as a job

[Danny Wormington]

     My wife and I recently hiked from Steven's Pass to Steheken.  It 
was early September and before all this snow and terrible weather. We 
only had three days of rain and miserable drizzle.  We met many through 
hikers and they were very pleasant for the most part.  One hiker had 
stopped briefly at Lake Sally Ann and when he passed us he said he 
wished he could spend a zero day there but there was no time.  That was 
when I realized that for most of these through hikers the hike is a 
job.  It's as if they don't have any sick leave left so they have to 
plug on and on.  They don't have time to stop and enjoy, they only have 
a deadline to meet even if it means pushing the envelope.
     At one point in the trail a huge tree lay across a switch back so 
that you had to climb down a vertical slope to the trail   You had to 
cling to slender tree roots, digging your toes into the soft, wet duff 
to make your way down.  As my wife climbed  down, a tree root snapped 
and she bounced to the trail below, laying on top of her pack like a 
turtle on its back.  There was a through hiker who had just caught up 
with us and  was waiting impatiently for us to finish our short descent 
so that he could hurry on to meet his schedule.  Time was a-wasting.  
When he got his chance he danced down the steep slope danced by my still 
prone wife.  And hurried out of sight without a pause or a word.  Time 
was a-wasting.  I checked my wife out, helped her to her feet and only 
then did I begin to wonder what was so important about a through hike 
that you didn't have time to help another hiker in distress.  Well, I 
was there, so I guess that took the load off him, and his job was so 
important that he didn't have time to slow down.
     Just a thought.  Perhaps it is the same kind of thinking that drops 
a hiker unwittingly into chest deep snow without warm clothes or enough 
food.
     It isn't really a job.

Danny