[pct-l] Dowse the Flames. Hike and Share your stories.

[pcnst2@xxxxxxxxxxxx (David hiking PCNST in bits)]

> << Just a historical note.  Back about 1960 when JFK was around, he was
> famous for
> his 50 mile day hikes. I never tried it.

I got the 50 mile hike bug a couple of administrations later, summer of 1971,
but I was
thinking of the Kennedys when I hitched out to Point of Rocks, MD with the
idea of walking back 50 miles to Washington DC where I lived at the time,
along the almost-flat C&O Canal.    This was even then a well-known foot
and bike trail from DC to Harpers Ferry.

I got halfway back (I've forgotten the name of the place),
couldn't walk any more
due to a big blister on the heel of my heavy mountaineering boots, slept
on a picnic table - not exactly slept, perhaps spent several unhappy hours
would be more accurate - the weather was fair - and hitched back home the next
morning.   Sort of a fiasco, in one sense, but the longest hike I made in
one day until fairly recently when I started doing the Ohlone Wilderness
in one day which is 28-30 miles.