[pct-l] Cheryl Strayed's Pack in Wild...you ain't seen nothing yet.

[Reinhold Metzger]

There has been much talk recently about Cheryl's huge, strange pack and
other hiker's huge, strange packs.

You ain't seen nothing yet until you've seen JMT Reinhold on his first,
post USMC, civilian hike.
  
Hey, I remember my first Mt. Whitney hike in 1968 with my wife,
hauling a monster pack and wearing combat boots.

BTW...you ain't "Hard-Core" until you hiked Whitney in combat boots.

I was a bad a$$ recently discharged Marine Infantry "Grunt", where hiking
is a way of life, used to hauling heavy packs and treating women right.
It went against my grain to burden my recent bride with a pack.
So, everything went into 2 Marine Grunt Packs strapped onto  a Marine
Grunt Pack board and onto my back with Karen(my wife) skip hoping along
and me grunting all the way.
That may give you guys a clue why they call the Marine Infantry the
"GRUNTS."
A pack board is a sturdy plastic board with burlap shoulder straps but
no waist belt, used by ammo humpers in heavy weapons teams like
Bazooka & Machine Guns to haul the extra ammo.

So there I was, with 2 packs strapped on a pack board, with 4 military
water canteens and a military first aid pack on a a military cartridge
belt, stumping up Mt. Whitney....in "COMBAT BOOTS".

You don't see them like that anymore.
  
BTW...I also had to carry "Schatzy", our miniature dachshund most of the way.
But Karen coooing into my ear..."Reinhold you are my hero"...made it all worth it.
That is all I ever wanted to be ....."Karen's Hero."
Of course I was Mitzy's hero also.

Say guys, I understand now-a-days you guys make your women carry their own packs.
Yes,....things have really changed from the days when Switchback and Reinhold ruled
the trails.

JMT Reinhold
"Karen's hero"