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[pct-l] Journals



For those of us trail fanatics and dreamers that would like to do the trail
but do not have that kind of time commitment, the journals of those that can
are our way of living the trail.  I travel a fair amount on these ungodly
10-14 hour flights and I tend to bring printouts of journals as my reading
material rather than some paperback.  Yes, I have printed out a lot of
journals to read later.  I'm glad I did too, because many of these journals
are no longer online - which is really too bad because there were some great
ones.  It would be nice if there were a repository on the PCTA site rather
than just links to a bunch of sites that are no longer there.  And who cares
whether it was a real-time journal or just your completed journal put out
much after you actually did the hike.  As soon as you finish the trail, it's
all historical information anyway.  Heck, I'd love to read the journals of
those that did the trail in the 70s for that matter.  You might be surprised
at how much is still relevant today.

I will agree with everyone that has already posted that it is the emotional
side of the experience that is the most interesting.  The least interesting
are the more factual statistics that seem to always get written.  I think
another thing that people do with journals is to compare their impressions
of a specific area to what the journal author wrote on that area.  What did
they write about my favorite area?  Stuff like that.

I live in Portland, so my backyard PCT is the Oregon section.  I naturally
am interested in impressions of how thru hikers perceived the Oregon
section.  Were they blown away with Eagle Creek and Tunnel Falls as much as
I was the first time?  In reading several journals back to back, I find a
lot of preoccupation with mileage when documenting the Oregon section.
There are exceptions, but many read..."Hey, did my first 30 miler.  Going to
do 28 tomorrow..." and very little about their thoughts/impressions of that
section, how their routines have changed in going through the forests, etc.

Just my two cents...



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