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[pct-l] Mathematics of the PCT



2,650 miles is 13,992,000 feet.  If your stride is 2 feet long then you will 
take nearly 7 million steps!  If you're lucky and happen to have a three foot 
stride then you will save approximately 2.3 million steps!  Of course, in 
order to have a three foot stride you might have to be 6'9" and then all of your 
equipment and clothes will be larger and therefore heavier and then you will 
require more calories in order to carry all of that and so, perhaps, the amount 
of calories burned per mile is a realitive constant.  

One other thing about this; the chances that you will take every one of those 
7 million steps without turning an ankle, twisting a knee, falling and 
breaking your hip or wrist or leg or ankle or shoulder blade or accidentally falling 
upon your ice axe, is pretty small.  Thus in calculating what it takes to 
thru-hike the PCT a significant percentage must be assigned to "fate".   I will 
wager that a significant number of people who intend to thru-hike and do not 
succeed succumb to "fate".  What does this mean to someone planning on hiking 
the PCT?  I suggest that it means two things; 1) Be prepared and 2) Be flexible.

Late Spring musings,

Greg "Strider" Hummel