[pct-l] North to South directions/ attitude

[pumpkin1 at thegrid.net (Nancy Sexton)]

Glad the list is back up. Thanks for your efforts! We will be hiking from Castle Peak on Hwy 80 in NCal, to Mt Whitney. The JMT book has good north to south directions, but does anyone know of a book that gives directions north to south from Castle Peak to Tuolumne Meadows? It is a bit confusing to have to read the guidebook backwards!
On another subject, I too have been enjoying the discussion about trail attitude. When I attended the ADZPCTKO, I was really impressed by the positive, serviceful, joyful atmosphere and attitude of the group as a whole, and it made me think that, since hiking the trail is what everyone had in common, it must have had quite a positive effect on people. I was particularly interested in Jeff's story of his brother, the Buddhist monk. I live in a community that practices meditation and yoga, and one of the things we do is take regular seclusions for a few days to a week, usually. We have an oft quoted saying here, "The price of greatness is seclusion". It is a wonderful and, many times, very tough experience, but you almost always come out having learned a lot, and with a fresh outlook and deeper calm. Although I haven't done it yet, I expect hiking the trail will be a lot like that, only probably more so. I look forward to finding out!
Sunny Skies