Re: [pct-l] How many are into "Rays Way"?

["Brett Tucker" <blisterfree@hotmail.com>]

From: "Paul Nickodem" <Dharmabum64@worldnet.att.net>:

>I'm sure Ray and his followers are using what makes sense
>to them.  But sometimes I feel like Ray is being downright arrogant with
>anyone that doesn't accept his methods or his way of doing things.  Like 
>the
>thing with the labels, true they are everywhere on modern gear, but I'm not
>destroying my things to get them off.  Plus so many times he says he's
>analyzed other thru-hikers "Mistakes"  true some new long distance hikers
>make mistakes but just because someone wants to take their time and enjoy a
>5.5 month thru-hike it shouldn't be viewed as someone who's lazy.  I took 6
>months during  my AT thru-hike and I wish I could of gone 7 or 8!
>

Best advice I can offer is to pick up either Beyond Backpacking, the new 
all-trails version of the PCT Handbook. Or to wait for this spring and an 
updated version of the Handbook. Updates here make for far more pleasant 
reading.

The author is interested in teaching his own techniques and philosophies, to 
offer them as a catalyst in the reader's thinking. This has always been the 
goal, not to be dogmatic but simply to pass down workable ideas to those who 
might be receptive to them. To take a stand, rather than dilute.

I can't speak about the motivation for some of the "problem" writing you 
mention above. Perhaps the immediacy of the thru-hike experience would 
create that tendency in any of us. But years have passed, and comments from 
readers have really helped in shaping the direction of these new books. 
Cover to cover, they are positive, encouraging, well-researched, and 
entirely original, and I can't think of any other backpacking books on the 
market that nail all four as such. No doubt there will always be 
controversy, but these days the books themselves really offer very little of 
it.

- Blisterfree, the editor
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