[pct-l] Re: Top 10 Ways

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

Top ten ways to tell that you are dealing with an old thru-hiker:

10. Can't seem to throw away those twenty year old wool socks for sentimental reasons.


9. Wants to mount his two wooden handled ice axes over the fireplace to his/hre wife's/husband's terror.


8. Can't get through any conversation without turning the topic to something that relates to THE HIKE.


7. The pants STILL don't fit around the thighs.


6. Can sit with another old thru-hiker talking and laughing for 16 hours straight before realizing that the kids have all fallen asleep and the wife has begun divorce proceedings.


5. Uh, I forgot!


4. Oh, yea, the stories get more and more fantastic as the memory fades.


3. Estimates his base pack weight at somewhere in the 50 to 70 pound range still, even in light of the heated peer pressure of the ultra-lite rage, just to save face for not wanting to change anything. (read bull-headedness) 


2. His/her wife/husband is SICK, SICK, SICK of the same old comment when pulling into any parking lot: "You know honey, no parking spot is too far to walk from and the walking will do ya good"




and the #1. way to tell that you are dealing with an old thru-hiker:



1. That far away look and sparkle in his/her eyes that tells all who share any kind of love of life that this person here has truely seen, has truely lived, has truely loved a great part of this world.



Greg "Strider" Hummel