[pct-l] Weapons on the trail?

[blisterfree@xxxxxxxxx (Brett)]

>My latest thought is to carry a 20" curved machete sticking out of my
bag.  I've heard people saying they were thinking about bringing a 45
magnum.
I've been a vegetarian all my life, have never killed an animal and the idea
of hunting enrages me.  I just don't want to be stupid.  Every animal in the
woods has their particular defenses, why shouldn't we?<


The underlying reason why those who have walked the trail will, by and
large, discourage the above suggestions? It's fear-based thinking. This is
the type of thought pattern generated by a fear of the unknown, by fear of
the many, infinite really, negative possibilities that might await you along
the trail.

The antedote to fear is love. It is easy to fear something that is not
associated with feelings of love, and if you step back and view in this
context the antics and the baggage of fledgling hikers departing Campo --
the worry-filled jabber about illegals, the overprepared hikers who carry
GPS units, the obsessive talk about water sources, the packweight
comparisons, and the occasional hunting knives, machetes and handguns seen
in tow -- what we really find here at the start of the long journey is fear.
Ignorance or overcautiousness in some cases, yes. But underneath it all we
find fear, a perfectly natural instinct. And the way to banish this fear, as
almost all successful hikers discover, is to simply walk. As you progress
north, the inertia of positive experiences will grow, your confidence and
capabilities will expand, and nature will find its way into your heart and
mind. You will fall in love with the trail. Might not even admit it to
yourself, but it happens to each of us who goes the distance.

We become attached to the trail experience. Nature becomes our home, the
animals become our family, and the trees and rocks our furniture. All that
lies within our home is beautiful and right and worth defending from the
outside world of man. Indeed, the world of man from which we ascended only
weeks before may now represent our final holdout of fear, and those resupply
point re-emersions into that realm signify our last justification for
striking a defensive posture. Yet in that environment our implements of fear
are next to useless against the overwhelming force of potential evil in
man's world. Knives won't cut us off from trouble should it arise. What
_will_ protect us in most cases is our newfound awareness - that same primal
instinct that keeps us safe in a storm can also work in the towns and at the
road crossings along the way.

This is a gradual evolution, of course, and some might argue that it makes
sense to carry a weapon until the fear has abated. The problem with this
approach is that the fear will not abate until you release yourself from the
weapon. Nor will you truly be safe on the PCT until you have conquered your
fear. So my advice would be to focus less on equipment, particularly of the
dangerous kind, and instead place a stronger emphasis on opening oneself to
the beauty and love that will assuredly be discovered along the way.

Every animal has its defense against an untimely demise, and humankind's
greatest is this unique ability to re-create ourselves, by will, in defense
of the natural world.

- blisterfree