[pct-l] (Guest Post) Re: why do you like hiking?

[benedett@xxxxxxxx (Mike Benedetti)]

* Message posted to PCT-L from the National Scenic Trails Website
* by our guest Mike Benedetti <benedett@ugcs.org>.
* Please use <mailto:benedett@ugcs.org> to reply to the sender.

Yogi Hicker writes:
>Why do you want to thru-hike?
>...
>These questions always floor me.

Last year on the AT, when someone asked
why we were thru-hiking, Fire Fly and I would
reply: "For the money and the girls."

By the end of my hike, when I felt like giving a
serious answer, I'd go all zen and say: "I am
hiking because I am a hiker."

I don't hike to gain personal insights, any
more than I hike to lose weight or for the
benjamins or the girls or to _get_ anything.
These are nice side benefits, but I hike to hike.

Mike, who still enjoys hearing other people's
answers
--
"The hardest part of climbing The Priest was
beating back the women while counting my
money."
 --Fire Fly