[pct-l] Running Events On The PCT

[Dennis Phelan]

Looking for the like button
On Mar 15, 2015 8:17 AM, "CHUCK CHELIN" <steeleye at wildblue.net> wrote:

> Good morning, ,
>
> An important reason why I hike on the PCT is to enjoy the peace and quiet
> of the mountains.  If I want to dodge a bunch of people I’ll hang around a
> mall or a supermarket parking lot.
>
> The ultra-marathon I recently describe near Mt. Hood was particularly
> aggravating for several reasons:
>
>
> It was of long duration.  Some of the tail-end runners apparently required
> 10 hours to complete the 50 miles.  That’s a full day for a hiker who
> happens to be there at the same time.
>
>
> The out-and-back nature of the race meant I had to encounter most of the
> runners twice.
>
> The outbound leg of the run was bad enough, but I could at least see them
> coming. The convention while hiking is for the person with a load, or the
> person going uphill, to be offered the right-of-way.  The runners did not
> observe that:  I had the load, and that stretch of trail isn’t steep, but
> they took the center.
>
>
>
> On their return leg they approached quickly and quietly from behind so I
> had to spend several hours looking over my shoulder.  Some shouted to alert
> me of their approach while others just brushed buy.
>
> I don’t know what’s in other peoples’ minds but I expect they believed they
> were the “official” users – See the number on my shirt? – doing something
> real while I was only up there wandering around. I don’t recall anyone
> demanding that I get out of the way, but it seemed implicit that they
> expected I should.  As a grizzled old hiker-guy I’m not readily
> intimidated, particularly by a bunch of rail-thin ultra-marathoners wearing
> colorful panties, but as a matter of common courtesy I stepped off the
> trail.
>
> Many of those same runners probably also enter the annual Hood-to-Coast
> Relay from Timberline to Seaside on the coast.  I wonder if they expect to
> have the right-of-way down the middle of Rt-26 while all the vehicular
> traffic gets out of their way.
>
> The race organization had many check points – usually at road or trail
> crossings – with water and some other kinds of drinks, plus snacks and
> fruit.  While all of that was aggressively pushed to the runners I wasn’t
> offered, and didn’t request, anything.
>
> Broad expansion of shared usage is a step down the preverbal
> slippery-slope, but at least runners – being foot travelers – have some
> claim to PCT use.  However, with the virtual plethora of other hiking
> trails -- many that can form a convenient loop -- it’s unclear to me why
> they would want to deliberately disrupt of the traditional and defined use
> of the PCT.
>
> Steel-Eye
>
> -Hiking the Pct since before it was the PCT – 1965
>
> http://www.trailjournals.com/steel-eye
> http://www.trailjournals.com/SteelEye09/
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