[pct-l] section N mostly

[pcnst@oakapple.net (David hiking PCNST in bits)]

Pictures, a few through-hiker sightings and guide corrections:

http://www.oakapple.net/pcnst/past/01-07-02.html

I wondered while I was gone if pct-l had degenerated into a discussion
combining the worst elements of recipes and illegal immigrants, but it
was even worse than that, a meta-discussion of what topics are appropriate,
never a productive activity for any list.     Fortunately that seems to have
died down for now.

And there was some discussion about Brian again; I think 
it would have been better
form to not announce his intentions in advance, but the discussion seems to
have mostly missed the two salient points:

1) it doesn't bother me if a guy tries something extremely ambitious
supported only by his father and the good wishes of his friends... nearly
as much as it does if it becomes commercialized and media-ized, the way
Everest has become.    On a humorous note I wrote a while back

 So far I haven't heard that anybody has attempted to hike/run the whole
 trail in the DARK, in the NUDE, and BAREFOOT, in 90 nights.     Isn't this
 the kind of challenge that guys like Larry Ellison need?   Sure he'd be
 helicoptering into and out of wilderness areas at sunset and sunrise,
 so he could run his company during the day, but by not landing his private
 jet in San Jose late at night, folks near the airport could get 90 nights
 of peace and quiet. 

and though Brian has been on the front page of the San Jose paper, so far
Larry Ellison hasn't risen to this challenge, but there are other rich
narcissists that might try something a little less extreme.    I wouldn't
have believed rock climbing could be commercialized, but I've seen it on 
network TV.   Professional, perhaps sponsored athletes, or rich amateurs, who
hike/run a trail with a paid support staff, if not paid porters, could
no doubt out-perform people who do most of the work themselves, but so what?
Would anybody care?    Can there be anything more ridiculous than
spectator hiking?     "Hike your own hike" indeed!   
Should groups like PCTA and ALDHA even be keeping track of who did what
and how fast?    Wouldn't keeping track of who cleared more brush, planted
more water, or even passed out more unpublished poetry really be more to the
point?    Nobody hikes this trail alone.

Again,
I would not have thought five years ago that so many people would hike
across the Grand Canyon in one day that the park would have to devise special
permits and quotas for groups attempting that, but now they have.

2) a discussion I would like to hear on pct-l is what about the post-partum
depression a month or two after successfully completing the PCT or any other
hiking challenge.    "When the gods wish to punish us they answer our 
prayers" so that we have to grapple with "what next?"     No danger of me
finishing any projects any time soon, but I really wonder how somebody like
Brian would deal with success.   The bigger the success, the harder the
encore.

I've heard that after the Camino de Santiago 800 km pilgrimage 
(http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/square/de95/04000001.htm)
many pilgrims go a few miles further to Finisterre and throw their old clothes
into the ocean to symbolize their new lives.    Perhaps I'll do the camino
in June 2003 unless it continues its current exponential growth in
popularity.

But you successful through-hikers of the past - what did you do differently
afterward?    Besides subscribe to pct-l?   Is the Similkameen full of
old hiker clothes?