[pct-l] Re: Brian's hike.

[ROYROBIN@aol.com (ROYROBIN@aol.com)]

First let me say that I am stepping into this discussion with grave 
misgivings since I am, after all, only TrailDad, and therefore suspect at the 
least in anything I say about this subject.  However, my wife and I have just 
returned from a most wonderful visit to Alaska (my first and not the last, I 
hope), and have caught up on the 276 email messages that were dropped on me 
during our adventure up north, including this thread about "Brian's motives". 
 

I believe that any trail-related discussions should be welcome on this list, 
including recipes, alcohol stoves, horses, cattle, and "Brian's motives".  If 
you or I are interested in any of these threads, we can respond; if we're not 
interested, we can hit the delete button.  I don't recommend filters since a 
person whose opinions we can't digest on one subject may have something 
valuable to say on another (I've discovered this to be true on the PCT list 
more than once).  

An opinion may be either informed or uninformed.  Which it is obviously 
depends on the person's experience with the matter being discussed.  Opinions 
about "Brian's motives" seem to fall into two bins, depending on whether the 
person doing the opining has, or has not, met Brian or read his journals or 
discussed his motives with him face-to-face.  That's enough caviats.  Here's 
my opinion:         
          
In a message dated 7/8/01 5:16:57 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
pcnst@oakapple.net writes:

<< And there was some discussion about Brian again; I think it would have 
been better form to not announce his intentions in advance....

Brian announced his intention to try for the Calendar Triple Crown for two 
reasons:

1.  He wanted company on his hike.  You who have hiked the trails know what a 
positive force a companion can be when things go wrong.  A hiking companion 
can help you find the right route or cross a stream, and can talk you into 
facing another day when you feel like quitting.    

2.  Have you ever tried to stop smoking?  One of the best ways to attain that 
goal (or face any tough challenge) is to announce your intention to family, 
friends, strangers, anyone who will listen and give support when needed.      
  
  

<< 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! 

Brian is hiking his own hike.  Here are his "rules":  

1.  He will hike each trail from end to end, carrying his pack.  If he must 
leave the trail to resupply or for any other reason, he will return to the 
same point to continue his journey.  If he chooses an alternate route, he 
will walk it, with pack.     

2.  There isn't any rule two.  He wanted to hike each trail in turn.  Snow on 
the northern AT prevented him from doing that, so he jumped to the southern 
CDT and has now completed the PCT.  He will next return to the CDT at the 
Canadian border and head south to the CO-NM border where he started that 
trail.  If he's able to do that, he will return to finish the AT.  He would 
very much like to finish his journey at Mt. Katahdin.  Could there be a 
better finale?  However, Katahdin closes on October 15 so, if he runs short 
of time, he will hike the remainder of the AT N-S, finishing at Bennington, 
Vermont.  


Is he committed to "Hiking his own hike", his way?  My wife and I picked him 
up last Sunday at Stevens Pass, and we stayed overnight at Skykomish before 
returning him to the trail (in a drizzling rain).  When we reached the pass 
Monday morning, I started to turn into the left (north) side of the road 
where the trail resumed.  Brian asked me to pull into the parking lot on the 
south side of the highway where we had picked him up the night before.  We're 
talking about maybe a hundred yards of trail which he otherwise would not 
have "hiked with pack".    


<< 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.

Absolutely!  Like it or not, the National Scenic Trails will survive and be 
protected only so long as the general public cares.  We hikers are a vast 
minority.  The general public weighs the worth of these trails against their 
jobs, the national trade balance, private property rights, water rights, 
competing "highest uses" of public lands, other ways to spend valuable 
vacation time, etc., etc. etc....  Our trails need this publicity.
   
 
<<  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. >>

Again, right on!  Brian is already worrying about post-hike depression.  He 
experienced it when he did the PCT in '97, and that time he had a home and a 
job to return to.  It's difficult for any long-distance hiker to return to 
"real life".  I really applauded one recent story here on the list where the 
guy found it impossible to drive over 35-40 mph when he first got behind the 
wheel.  Life is different when you measure time by the phases of the moon.

A final word about "the competition":  Brian is pretty anticompetitive.  He 
thinks that someone will soon hike all three of the National Scenic Trails in 
one year.  He wants to find out if he can do it.  He's giving it his best 
try, knowing that many things beyond his control may still prevent him from 
succeeding.  One way he has talked about easing back into reality after his 
hike is to stay on the east coast for a while and help Peeps and Fiddlehead 
in their attempt to hike the Triple Crown in one year.  The last I heard, 
they were to start south on the AT from Katahdin in October.  Perhaps he will 
have the chance to hike with them for a way, or help their effort any way 
they would like.

Okay, let's give a loud cheer for the bad poets and trail maintainers!  It's 
the only payment they get for their efforts!

Latest update from the trail:  Brian reached Monument 78 at about 2 PM 
yesterday, Saturday, July 21, and is now enroute to Waterton-Glacier National 
Park.