[pct-l] pctl IS ALIVE again...

Fri Mar 20 19:59:25 CDT 2020

It's great to see a couple posts on this almost defunct listserv. My 
guess there are few, if any of us who are under 50 years old.

I no longer aspire to long distance hiking - I'm 67.  I was 43 when I 
joined the listserv - 1995 I think it was.  I think I could work myself 
back into shape, but I have lost the focus to do so.  In 2005 it took 
about six weeks for me to get up to a 20 mpd average.  That was a low 
snow year in Washington and I headed south.  I carried snow shoes and 
left them by the side of the trail just south of Harts Pass.  I bowed to 
them, and was so glad to have lost the four or five pounds.

Because of family stuff, I left the trail at Santiam Pass.  I started 
north again at Burney Falls.  That lasted for a couple days.

David Hough's post about being lonely compared to being alone hit the 
nail on the head.  I was hyped to hike again after dealing with the 
family stuff.  I was still in shape after a month.  I have a distinct 
memory of hiking 20 miles and being done at 3PM - I reached my goal for 
the day.  Rather than continuing to hike, I set up camp and sat there.  
I was dry camping - I had three quarts of water to carry me through the 
night and morning.  AFter the family stuff I was living at my nerve's 
edges.  It wasn't loneliness - it was the stark realization I was alive 
and doing what I wanted, and I wasn't "comfortable" with it.  Weird.

I think there is another dimension involved in long distance hiking that 
gets lost in black/white distinctions.  To be sure we feel lonely, 
longing for family, mate, partner, friends.  I think that most of us 
work through that to feeling alone.  That's a whole other dimension that 
first time felt, makes us feel like we're an adolescent again.  Being 
alone in modern day America is a space that has to be discovered, 
usually by chance.

The distinction between lonely and being alone is profound.  Once worked 
through, the exploration of being-alone is even more extensive, more 
rife with possibility.

I know I've left a long hike - planned for a couple months - because I 
felt lonely.  In an important sense, the experience "girded my loins" 
and set me up to move to feeling alone, day after day.  I don't think 
I've ever been comfortable being alone on the trail. But this is the 
challenge, isn't it?  Being along for any length of time, apart from 
internet and social media now is a real anomaly.

I haven't attempted a long distance hike - I define that as a month or 
more, and that's totally personal/individual - since 2005.  15 years of 
following the discussions here, and then joining the facebook groups, 
mostly filled with youngsters querying about gear. It's been a couple 
years since I hung out on a facebook pct group. I got the excitement, 
but couldn't share it.

I have to ask myself why.  I'm retired.  I have a decent income from 
social security and 401k stuff.

Why did I lose the anticipation of the opportunity to start hiking and 
do so for a month or two or longer?  Sure, I had a knee replaced, the 
other reamed out.  My back has been an issue for 40 years, and flames up 
at awkward times.  I'm overweight, and I live in a 140 year old, balloon 
framed house I tore to the studs and am rebuilding.   While ripping out 
lathe and plaster last fall I pulled/tore my sartorious muscle.

Lots of reasons.  Right now I'm healthy - no structural problems or 
muscle crap.

I've read Marmot's stuff for years.  She's pretty amazing - the just do 
it, enjoy ethos.

I feel a bit of the anticipation, again.  Is the flutter enough???

Jeffrey Olson
Laramie, WY

On 3/20/2020 6:10 PM, Richard Brinkman wrote:
> Thank you Marmot!
>
> Let's please not be the spring breakers on the Florida beach ("If I get corona I get corona")  We all have people's lives in our hands.  The risk is too great, and I fear it is going to get much worse and that our hospitals are going to be overrun.
>
> Roadwalker
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Pct-L [mailto:pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net] On Behalf Of marmot marmot
> Sent: Friday, March 20, 2020 4:26 PM
> To: virgil; PCT
> Subject: Re: [pct-l] PCTA is recommending folks postpone or cancel their thru hikes this year.
>
> I wish this were true but there’s more to think about. Please understand the impact you could have if you pass on the virus from town to town. Maybe ,at the very least, consider starting the the hike later than normal at a place where you might have reached if you had started when you planned. And then do a flip-flop. As much as it is hard to imagine, it will make no difference about how you feel about the hike. I’ve walked across the country 5 times. Thru-hikes ,Myths, section hikes have made it clear to me that there is no one way or best way to do a long distance hike. It’s much more honorable to look clearly at the situation ,make decisions based on doing the least amount of harm and do the hike in a way you can be truly proud. At this time that means staying off the trail. It’s not a joke or something to not take seriously. You could be now or become contagious and not be aware.
> It’s impossible to stay clean out there. You will not be able to do what is needed if you touch a contaminated surface. That could even be a smooth rock or a faucet or a sink in the MacDonald’s at hwy 15.
> The plane, bus or train trip could be your exposure point. Right now ,so that more people don’t die, this virus needs to be contained. The next person to die could be your mother or grandmother.
> Marmot
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On Mar 20, 2020, at 2:10 PM, virgil <virgil at baloney.com> wrote:
>>
>> If everybody is going to stay home....
>> It sounds like a great year to do a thru-hike, no crowds! ;-)
>>
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