[pct-l] PCT verses HCM trail

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

After thinking why aren't there more thru-hikers on the PCT and for that 
matter, the AT before 1977, one thing came to mind. Many young folks in that 
time period may have been raising families instead of hiking but I think 
another reason may have been a stopper. Many young men in the late 60's and 
early 70's were already hiking the Ho Chi Minh Trail instead of a AT or PCT!! 
If you stayed in college, you stayed out of the war, but then you couldn't go 
hike for 5 or 6 months. Many folks who came back started families upon 
returning to states and were " Locked In" for the next 20 years or so. It was 
only after that war was over that thru-hiking began to roll. I know most 
thru-hikers in the mid to late 70's were in their late teens or early 20's. ( 
Those older hikers were raising kids) Now days , many of those fathers and 
mothers of the 70's are now today's thru-hikers. With the average thru-hiker 
age being much higher than it was in the 70's. ( The Vietnam War stopped more 
people from doing a thru-hike  than all the Sierra Storms, heavy backpacks 
and bad boots combined!!!)  Where were YOU in 72???????