Re: [pct-l] Trail attitudes

[Bighummel@aol.com]

Dave,

I planned to only hike 6 out of 7 days a week.  I didn't always just stop and 
take a layover day automatically on the seventh day, I usually tried to look 
ahead and find a particularly suitable or spectacular spot.  If I happened to 
come across one, I would just stop and take my layover day there.  I would 
clean out my pack and reorganize food, catch up on my journal, climb a peak, 
fish or just explore the wildflowers in the meadow.  These breaks from the 
day-after-day routine I think helped my mental outlook.  I only tried to 
average a high mileage rate for an extended period once, in the mosquito 
infested low lands of Oregon.  

And there is nothing like taking an afternoon siesta on a warm afternoon in a 
beautiful spot for the mental refreshing.  

I also hitch hiked into San Francisco for a pack changeout, other equipment 
changeouts and a week of city R&R with my brother.

Otherwise I think the mental fortitude is possibly a matter of personality, 
i.e., you either got it or you don't.  And, no, it isn't any negative thing 
if you don't happen to have the mental fortitude, unless you judge yourself.  

This isn't uncommon.  In a college course on crystallography the first day of 
class the professor asked us all to draw a three dimensional hexagonal box.  
About 20% of the class could not do even a reasonable job of it.  He 
suggested that they quit the class before failing because they could not 
picture 3D objects in their mind.  It wasn't anything bad but simply a fact 
of life.  No object in pursuing things that your body or mind is simply 
incapable of doing.

IMHO,

Greg "Strider" Hummel
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