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[pct-l] alternate routes



In my book, I couldn't deny that such a hiker walked from Mexico to Canada,
but because of the chosen route, I'd have trouble looking up to him/her as
one who "hiked the PCT."
                                        Charlie


ouch Charlie!!  That sounds like an awfully narrow definition of the PCT
considering these alternate routes consume such a small percentage of the
entire trail.  If you consider the PCT a dirt trail that gets you from point
Mexico to Point Canada, then I guess a person who does not stick to the
entire trail hasn't fulfilled the standards you subscribe to.  I think the
PCT entails more than a dirt trail, and it is the adventure of how they
arrived in Canada or wherever their destination that allows a person to say
they hiked the PCT.  The trail itself is just the excuse to begin.  Just so
you have a reference of where my opinion is based, I likely "hiked the PCT"
to your standards and at the time I was slightly irritated when I watched
others slack-packing and taking alternate routes all over the place and god
forbid even hitchhiking.  Turns out all of those people had a different goal
than me, but when it comes down to it, we all had a similar adventure.  The
PCT is the adventure, not the path and separating groups as those who have
hiked the PCT and those who have Hiked to Canada does not seem to serve a
valid purpose.