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

[cmkudija at earthlink.net (Christine Kudija)]

What a neat experience.  Similar to my meeting Jason Porto's parents at the
kickoff this year and learning that they had both grown up within blocks of
where I did in Richmond, Calif. - Jason's dad's Scoutmaster was my best
friend's dad, and they were also friends with another friend's sister....
amazing.  I wish the small world effect could extend to other places in the
globe!

Christine "Ceanothus" Kudija

"Never measure the height of a mountain, until you have reached the top.
Then you will see how low it was."  Dag Hammarskjold


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Matt Geis" <mgeis@yahoo.com>
To: <pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2003 10:25 PM
Subject: [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
|
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