[pct-l] Re: New On-Trail List?

[m.karon@attbi.com (Marshall Karon)]

Don't bet on the US Forest service unless the post is current and has been
verified. In 2000, the Forest Service trail conditions were totally
inaccurate. The reports kept saying ice axes were needed on trails where
there was no snow.

Marshall Karon
Portland, OR
m.karon@attbi.com
(503) 232-5271
----- Original Message -----
From: "Nathaniel Strauss" <nstrauss@bigfoot.com>
To: "PCT-L" <pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2002 9:51 PM
Subject: [pct-l] Re: New On-Trail List?


> It sounds like some people might like to benefit from a mailing list like
> this. For all others, don't subscribe and your precious wilderness
> experience will not be ruined.
>
> Another thing. Yes, a lot of information may flow by word-of-mouth on the
> trail, but as Ken Powers says, it's not always reliable. I would trust an
> e-mail that quotes a public announcement by the USFS infinitely more than
> an offhand statement by a weekend hiker.
>
> Fleischman
>
> ----- Bighummel@aol.com wrote:
>
> I'll probably start a war over this one, but here it goes.
>
> The amount of communication that is available today on the PCT and related
> trail conditions is so overwhelming relative to what was available in past
> years that all of you hiking this year or in future years have it damn
> easy,
> IMHO.
>
> There is no need on the trail for pocket emails, separate trail conditions
> list, barometer, altimeter, GPS, cell phone, satelite phone, short wave
> radios, computers, magnamometers, gravitometers, or other well intentioned
> and inappropriately applied technical communication strategies in an
> apparent
> "wilderness" environment.  Not even a watch nor perhaps even a thermometer
> is
> necessary.  I can keep relative time of day from the sun and the day of
> the
> week is easily kept track in a journal if I need to get to a particular
> spot
> at a specific time for whatever reason.  If it is raining, snowing or
> foggy,
> then the amount of time that my estimate may be off adds to the flavor of
> the
> experience.
>
> Oh, sure, I find these gadgets just as fun as the next guy and even own a
> few
> of them myself for entertainment, business and personal communication
> purposes.  However, I find this phenomenal quest for collecting and access
> to
> more and more information is bewildering and completely antithetic to the
> "wilderness experience".
>
> The hugh amount of information and advice avialable to you current and
> future
> hikers is entirely sufficient to get you there, IF, you have what it takes
> in
> the other necessary categories.
>
> I put it to you; what is the fun of going out into the wilderness if you
> know
> what time it is to the second, what the weather will be for the next
> minute
> to week, what the trail conditions are over the next 100 miles updated
> every
> hour, and you never, ever come even close to getting lost?
>
> IMHO,
>
> Strider
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> PCT-L mailing list
> PCT-L@mailman.backcountry.net
> http://mailman.backcountry.net/mailman/listinfo/pct-l
>