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RE: [pct-l] big pack or little pack



Blister,

I agree that "everyone should hike his own hike" 

However, you are NOT as comfortable with a light pack as you would be with a
heavy pack. Don't kid yourself. Watch me sit in my Slinglight chair, eating
my freshly baked chocolate cake and reading my novel and tell me you are
more comfortable. Watch me recline mosquito-free in my Stephenson Tent,
relax on my 2" Thermarest SE, my head on my blowup pillow and tell me you
are as comfortable. Watch me eat fresh Golden trout caught on my custom-made
ultra-light rod and say you are as comfortable.

Blister, I don't doubt that you enjoy hiking very much.....but to say that
you are as comfortable with a light pack as with a heavier pack is pure BS.
I have talked to too many ultra-lights that complain of failed pack
suspension, poor sleep because of not enough padding or spending hours
trying to get a tarp set up to protect them from a storm. I have talked to
too many hungry hikers out of food two days from resupply. I have seen too
many blisters from walking too far, too fast with too little shoe.

I DO NOT pretend that a heavier load is just as easy to carry. It is not.
When I have 40 pounds in my pack [24 pounds of food] the passes are hard.
Five days later my 25 pound pack [fifteen pounds of food having been eaten]
is weightless and I fly up the passes. As it turns out, however, with proper
resupply I need to carry a heavy pack relatively rarely.

I have no interest in "trail towns". I like the wilderness and resupply "on
the trail". My idea of a perfect resupply is having it show up while I am
camped at, say, Benson Lake. You light, low-budget types can screw around
with drift boxes and post offices. I'm eating steak at sunset....on the
trail.



-----Original Message-----
From: Brett Tucker [mailto:blisterfree@hotmail.com]
Sent: Friday, January 28, 2000 10:48 PM