[pct-l] Pct-L Digest, Vol 112, Issue 6

[marmot marmot]

2017 was a terrible year. Very very difficult. Many tears were shed. I sat for half an hour in Hot Springs and listened to one hiker explain how he and a group of hikers found a cross county and dirt road route around the Oregon fires. What a feat. I've always said that if I had done the PCT in '93 or '95 I would not have had the skills to do it. Too much snow.  I was lucky I chose '94. 
It's always sad when the year you pick has such terrible challenges. That's a part of long distance hiking. It's a part of looking yourself in the mirror. It's one of the reasons ALDHA and Aldha-west were formed. Being around others who know what it is to be out there for months is priceless. 
Can't tell you how many hikers on the AT this year are the walking wounded. With braces/tape/supports on their ankles and knees. 
Hiking on
Marmot

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jun 21, 2018, at 8:33 PM, Bob Bankhead <wandering_bob at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> As I understand it, completion of the Triple Crown does not have a time
> limit on any trail. In other words, I could spend 20 years section hiking
> one or all of the trails or thruhike each in any continuous 12 month period.
> 
> 
> I respectfully submit that a thruhike (in any given continuous 12 month
> period) is completed when the hiker covers all of the trail that is
> currently open at the time they reach it. If any portion of the trail is
> legally closed, they should not be penalized for not having hiked it. If a
> safe alternate route around the closure is available, they should hike it.
> If no such safe alternate is available, there should be no foul if they get
> around it by any means possible. The fires of 2017 closed large portions of
> the trail. Fires from prior years still have parts closed. The Eagle Creek
> fire last year COULD have resulted in the closure of the PCT from Lost Lake
> to the Columbia River - a 50 mile section with no safe walkable alternate.
> Kudos to the USFS, the Mt Hood chapter of the PCTA, and other volunteers who
> put in 5000 hours of labor repairing the trail, which is now open.
> 
> Section hikers should meet the same standard. Section hiking purists have
> the time over the course of the years it takes to complete the trail to go
> back and hike sections they were forced to miss due to closures. Season
> changes and weather conditions mean that most thruhikers will likely not
> have that option, even if the closed sections reopen during that continuous
> 12 months.
> 
> And lest we forget, it is illegal to enter the USA from Canada on the PCT,
> so most thru-hikers will need to yo-yo the 30 miles from Harts Pass to the
> Canadian border, unless they have the Canadian entry permit.
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Pct-L [mailto:pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net] On Behalf Of marmot
> marmot
> Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2018 5:00 PM
> To: Susan Virnig; pct-l @backcountry.net
> Subject: Re: [pct-l] Pct-L Digest, Vol 112, Issue 6
> 
> At least when someone says they are section hiking the trails I know when
> they are finished they actually did it.
> 
> I don't care if someone yellow blazes. I don't care what they do.
> 
> Being proud of the miles you have hiked is understandable. Just don't claim
> a finishing certificate/Metal. And Please do not show up at the Gathering as
> one woman and one man have done and receive a Triple Crown Plaque.
> 
> Marmot
> 
>