[pct-l] Fwd: Pct-L Digest, Vol 112, Issue 7

[marmot marmot]

Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

From: marmot marmot <marmotwestvanc at hotmail.com<mailto:marmotwestvanc at hotmail.com>>
Date: June 23, 2018 at 9:12:47 AM EDT
To: Randy Forsland <randy_forsland at hotmail.com<mailto:randy_forsland at hotmail.com>>
Cc: "pct-l at backcountry.net<mailto:pct-l at backcountry.net>" <pct-l at backcountry.net<mailto:pct-l at backcountry.net>>
Subject: Re: [pct-l] Pct-L Digest, Vol 112, Issue 7

Every time this is talked about people miss the point. No one is dismissing any hike. Each year there are challenges. Sometimes a particular year is so difficult that some hikers have to return and hike the parts that were closed. Once again --that is part of what we do. It is so sad and disappointing when you cannot do the hike you imagined. But it can sometimes be reality. I remember in Cindy Ross' book (87?) PCT---she called it finishing her thru-hike. She did it over two years. That's why the phase MYTH exists. I can't imagine anyone ranking or being disrespectful of the choices people make out there. It's just not a finished hike (continuous footpath) unless it is. It has alway included reasonable alternatives.
The TC states that.
Marmot

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 22, 2018, at 5:58 PM, Randy Forsland <randy_forsland at hotmail.com<mailto:randy_forsland at hotmail.com>> wrote:

Well said...that was my main beef. Listening to some of last year's hikers bash others was hard to hear. That was the reason that I was hoping that the PCTA had officially defined a thru-hike as the entire trail that was open to hiking that particular year...I was a thru-hiker in 2003, but could not finish due to injuries..I did go back over the next 5 years to complete my hike before filing for a certificate. None of my fellow 2003 classmates ever thought any less of me....I would hope that the bond and comraderie of thruhikers doesn't devolve into a ranking system...




________________________________
From: Pct-L <pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net<mailto:pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net>> on behalf of Rachel Egger <egger888 at gmail.com<mailto:egger888 at gmail.com>>
Sent: Friday, June 22, 2018 1:36 PM
To: pct-l at backcountry.net<mailto:pct-l at backcountry.net>
Subject: Re: [pct-l] Pct-L Digest, Vol 112, Issue 7

Hello all,

Long-time lurker on the list, and a member of PCT classes 2016 and 2017. I
have not completed the trail, but I was a thru-hiker in 2017; let me
explain.

I completely agree that no one who hasn't finished the trail should be
accepting completion awards, but much of the rest of this issue is just
semantics between hikers. There was an aggressive attitude on the trail in
2017 that anyone who skipped any part of the Sierra, (whether they intended
to flip or come back in a more favorable year was irrelevant), was not
thru-hiking. In my book, anyone who sets out intending to walk the distance
between borders is a thru-hiker, and finishes their hike when they decide
they can no longer continue that season, for any reason. In most cases,
that "finish" is not actually trail completion, but that shouldn't negate
the experience of a long-distance thru-hike or belonging to the hiking
community. Self-proclaimed "purists" who refuse to accept reasonable
alternates (which are part of ALDHA-West's definition for the triple
crown), or who shame other hikers who made choices to skip sections for
personal safety, are part of the problem. The phrase "continuous footpath"
on trail is often invoked to justify walking through wildfire closures, or
trespassing on private land to walk around closures.

I think we're all on the same page really, i.e. just be honest about what
you did or did not do. But we don't have 6 words for the variety of
thru-hike any one person completed, and I think the backlash against
perceived non-traditional thru hikes has frustrated a lot of folks who were
victims of circumstance. This causes them to decide to just round up in the
face of a lot of trash-talk about the personal choices they made. I don't
mean to excuse that behavior, only to add a little context for folks who
weren't on the PCT in 2017. It's disappointing not to hit 100%, and people
need to learn to cope with that, but the community at-large could also do a
better job of accepting hikers who missed the mark. (Is that a problem
created by the young people like myself who happened to come to trail
post-Wild? Meh, maybe.)

Anywho, thanks for listening. I appreciate that pct-l still exists in a
world where the Facebook group is often too noisy.

-Do-Over, PCT '17
(For the record: 2200 miles done and a few more to go. I skipped the
sections in fire closures and flip-flopped back for half the Sierra in the
fall to avoid 2017's lethal peak-melt.)
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