[pct-l] My Accomplishments

[Ed.Welter@xxxxxxxx (Welter, Ed)]

I can relate to this...Imagine if you ran into somebody on the trail that
told you they had been hiking on it continuously for longer than you'd been
alive?  Of course, there is no such person and it is not feasible on the PCT
but at one point I was mapping out this large epic bicycle tour and stumbled
across a man by the name of Heinz Stucke.  He started on his 3-speed bike in
1960 and has been on the road ever since (with something like almost 300,000
miles covered).  His goal is not mileage or some end destination, it's to
visit new places and be in them long enough to learn and appreciate the
geography, cultures, etc.  To put it in PCT perspective it would sort of be
like taking a section of the PCT for the entire extended summer to really
explore the entire area and people around it (if any) rather than basing
your perspective on a single pass at a 15-45 mile-per-day pace.  Most of us
only get this perspective in the local hiking areas we live close to.
Anyway, I have nothing but admiration in reading Heinz's story and his
philosophy on life.  Here is a link if you are interested...it's off topic
for pure PCT/hiking but not in the sense of pursuit of your dreams...

http://www.bikechina.com/heinzstucke1z.html

-swoosh

From: 	Ginny & Jim Owen
When we hiked through the Winds on the CDT I found it very hard to brag
about what we were doing.  Some of the hikers that we met were very proud
and happy that they were hiking in the wilderness for a week or ten days or
two weeks, until they met us.  When we said that we were out for six months,
some of them seemed to deflate a bit and say something along the lines of
"oh, I'm only out for a week, not a real expedition like yours."  I had no
desire to make their very real accomplishment seem less than it was. So I
quickly stopped saying that we were thruhiking, I would just say we were
going to Big Sandy. I didn't need the ego boost and they didn't need the ego
bust. We were all out to enjoy the mountains, whether for a day or a week or
a year.