[pct-l] old stuff in our closets

[David Hough reading PCT-L]

> most of this stuff is just sitting in our storage bins and closets never to be used again

Now that's an old man conversation for sure.     One I'm engaged in often.
My 12 point crampons and the boots that fit them.    I'm not front pointing
up anything now.   I never did, actually, though I did use them more routinely
a lot - 50 years ago.     And my beautiful Simond Super D wooden ice axe.
And my JanSport D2.    And a whole closet of fishing gear.
And all those white gas and Bleuet stoves.

The odds are I'll never use any of this stuff again, but I hate the IDEA
that I won't ever again have even the OPTION of using them again!
Somebody will eventually have to deal with them, and I would do my heirs
a favor by getting rid of as much as possible while I can.
That's what my father did for me.

And then I remember my Summits - about twenty years of Summit's heyday in the
1970's and 1980's before the old ladies sold out and it got slick.
I think they got thrown out, possibly by mistake, and it makes me sad because
they would be worth something - but there was no way I'd every dig them out
and reread them.

In contrast, I at least yearly have occasion to look at the 1974 first edition
of the Wilderness Press guidebooks to see how the trail evolved from a vague
route and roads to its current much more complete state.   There were huge
gaps from Campo to Crabtree Meadow and Tahoe to Lake of the Woods.
Does anybody ever try to rehike the 1974 route?

Anyway I've decided the emotional content is not so much the throwing
away of old things as the feeling of throwing away of the part of my life 
that they were attached to.    
These things were attached to my life.  
But my life was not attached to these things.

Yet we old guys know we are all going to lose it all in the not too distant 
future.     
None of this old stuff means anything to my kids.

David Hough