[pct-l] Europe's wilderness

[saskia.home@wanadoo.nl (Saskia Daru)]

In response to Mountain Dave's message about Europe:

We come to the US for its wilderness, so I won't disagree that it is
harder to find in Europe. But still: there are enormous areas in
Scandinavia that are very wild. And you won't see many lights in the
north of Scotland, even from a satellite. And if you want to really
hike in places where there are no huts or anything else, try Eastern
Europe, e.g. Romania or Russia. Even in the Alps or Pyrenees you can
find solitude, anywhere where there are no big trails or well-described
national parks. In any valley you find a village, but the heights are
'free'.

Still: the best of a trip to Europe is the mix between culture and
wilderness. The lands are not set apart as they often are in the States
(to our delight) but used for low density grazing or other things. The
trek along the huts is more like the Appalachian Trail, I guess. The
special thing of for example the GR5 route that goes all the way from
the Netherlands to the Mediterranean (through France) is that you walk
all day in woods and meadows and end your day with a nice glass of wine
in a medieval (yes, there is a lot of culture to see dating back before
the Renaissance) village.

One of the great things for us on the PCT was that it was 'wilderness
made manageable'. We felt reassured by the trail, amidst the wilderness
areas. It led somewhere, others had taken it, we knew where there would
usually be water and food, where a bail out route could be taken etc.

Saskia