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[pct-l] Re: Outdoor Shops



Employees at outdoor retail shops have little to teach anyone. Their job is
to sell you as much new stuff as possible. Most don't do this on purpose
though, many are young and have little experience in the outdoors and gain
most of their knowledge from manufacturers propaganda and outdoor magazines
( the other source for biased mis-information). As I've posted to this list
before, I suggest going with what you've already got! I carried a 15-year
old pack and a 10-year old down bag that are still in OK shape. You can and
will make changes to your outfit on the trail regardless of what you start
with. My theory why everyone focuses on gear during this time is because it
is easy and kind of fun. The more difficult task of preparing a menu for a
4-5 month trip is much less interesting and gets put off till last.

"Peter Haskell" pchaskell@hotmail.com wrote:
>In a recent PCT List message I noticed that you took
>9 days between Indep. and VVR.  That set off an 
>alarm for me.

Pete, I think it's about 100 miles between the two points. In 1998 we had
tons of snow and just happened to get into this part of the Sierras during
peak runoff. I don't think you'll have this kind of problem in a normal
year. There were a few days when we had to detour miles upstream just to get
across a raging stream. Even though the snow was consolidated at higher
elevations, postholing at the lower elevations slowed us down considerably.





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