[pct-l] Trail attitudes

["David B. Stockton" <davstock@tiac.net>]

Me, I'd like all the advice I can get from successful thru-hikers about 
techniques of the inner life that will help me achieve my goal of hiking 
the entire trail, hopefully this summer.  I'm almost all geared-up in the 
way I want to be, with backups in case my techniques don't work.   I'm at 
the gym several times a week on the treadmill.  I've read the guide books 
more than once.  I've had ice-axe training, crampon training, and snow 
camping training.  I may have finally solved my shoe/boot problems.  I'm 
doing better with my trail diet.

Now I'm most concerned with the 90% mental part -- boredom, depression, 
loneliness.  I don't really know techniques or ways to "train" in the next 
three months to increase my ability to handle the inner workload.  I've 
heard from the CDT hikers about the technique of taking an extra day in 
town.  Any other tangible, non-vague techniques, methods, approaches, or 
whatever that anyone can recommend from a successful PCT or CDT thru-hike? 
 I'll carefully consider your suggestions and do my best to "train" with 
them for the next three months, along with whatever I come up with on my 
own.

One thing I've been thinking about a lot is the concept of living in the 
moment; not abstracting to some faraway place to escape the pain or 
difficulty.  I think this will help me handle inner things more completely, 
rather than letting them build up in a vague sort of way.

-- Dave Stockton

David B. Stockton
davstock@tiac.net


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Cc:            pct-l@backcountry.net
From:          Owen Kittredge <owenk@quiknet.com>
Date:          Sat, 29 Jan 2000 20:05:11 -0800
Subject:       Re: [pct-l] hiking to Mount Whitney
Content-type:  text/plain; charset=us-ascii

After looking at Ty's Whitney trip I remembered a hike/trip that I took in
1972 and I went over Whitney Pass which is south of Trail Crest Pass and I
found old build up switch backs at the top. Does anyone know the history of
this pass?

Owen K

Ty wrote:

> I got the all but just a couple of the pictures from the Mount
> Whitney hike.  Here are is a quick description and the link to the
> pictures:
>
> This past week, we drove for about 8 hours before finally getting to
> Whitney Portal (8,300 feet in elevation) which is off of Highway 395.
> We then hiked for the next couple days making our way to the summit.
>

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