[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

[pct-l] it's a very small world



It's a small world.  The PCT thru-hiker world is even
smaller.  Rarer still are the times when those two
intersect by total coincidence.

Why am I going on about this?  Because according to
the numbers, more folks have summited Everest than
have done a PCT thru-hike.

So what are the odds that a guy I just happen to be
talking to in a bar walked the trail in 1977?

I was at a neighborhood bar in Potrero Hill in San
Francisco last night, carousing with a "drinking group
with a running problem," otherwise known as the SFH3
chapter of the Hash House Harriers.  For those of you
who aren't familiar with them, they run around, drink
beer (often at points along the run), refer to one
another by silly nicknames, attract stares, etc.

Not all that different from thru-hikers. :)

A conversation with one of the group went in the
direction of mountaineering and backpacking.  He
mentioned he'd backpacked a lot when he was younger,
all over the Sierras and Cascades.  Thinking to myself
that he'd covered a wide range, I was sure that we'd
seen some of the same territory.  I mentioned that I
hiked the PCT last year, and he exclaimed "I hiked it
too!  In 1977!"  I'd met Tom Newland.

Now I've attended the kickoff.  1977 is a respectable
pedigree -- not only due to the kickoff, but do to the
stellar pct77.org site.  I was surprised to hear that
he had never seen it.  Immediately, facts, stories,
and details started flowing out of this guy. 
"Strider?  Yeah, I know who you're talking about. 
That guy was always three weeks ahead of us, the whole
way!  There was also this 16-year-old kid who was
trying to be the youngest thru-hiker.  God there was a
lot of road walking!"

I mentioned the only '77 hikers I could think of
(Strider and Monte), and mailed him about the 77 site.
 I heard back, that he'd gone online and found it
right when he got home, and spent three hours browsing
it, until about 2:30am.

I can only hope that 25 years after my hike, something
half so cool should happen to me or to any of my
fellow hikers.

Iron Chef

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month!
http://sbc.yahoo.com