[pct-l] the subjectiveness of a thru-hike

[vichanson@juno.com (Vic L Hanson)]

Dear "Thru-hikers",

I feel betrayed by those I have looked up to and tried to emulate for
years (1 1/2 anyway), I am totally disillusioned, I don't know that I
will ever be able to trust anything I read on the PCT-List again. As my
mother said when she caught me lying about where I had been one New
Year's Eve, "I thought we could trust you".

Now I find out that a "thru-hike" really doesn't mean that you hiked the
whole trail.  "PCT '77" or "AT '01" doesn't mean that you hiked the whole
trail. One person skipped a half mile of trail, another hitchhiked for 10
or 20 miles, maybe someone skipped the Sierra's because of the snow, or
Oregon because of the mosquitos! Where does it end?? Now I wonder about
the time it took some of you to do your "thru-hike". Some probably didn't
count rest days. Maybe you just added up the total hours of hiking and
divided by 24 to get the number of days to complete the hike!

On the bright side, maybe I am a "thru-hiker" now. I "hiked the PCT"
(class of '02) from Campo to Lake Moreno, Silverwood Lake (Ranger
Headquarters) to Fawnskin ('01), Vincent Gap to Little Jimmy Campground
in 4 days! I did hitchhike part of the way from the campground to
Fawnskin and I skipped the rest of California (except for a few random
sections here and there on other hikes), Oregon and Washington but then I
hiked my own hike and it was valid for me (and my mileage did vary)!
After all it is not about the destination or even the trail but the
experience and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole hike.

Sincerely (with tongue completely in cheek!),

Vic

PS  Did I tell you that I also climbed Mt. Misty, an 18,000 foot snow
capped volcano near Arequipa, Peru this summer? I did it solo in 1 day,
without crampons, ropes or supplemental oxygen. I did stop about 2,500
feet from the summit because I was getting tired and running out of time
but I made up for that by hiking 2 hours from the end of the bus line to
the trail head and 2 hours back again after the climb.