[pct-l] hiker scum?

[jape at nethere.com (Eckert)]

I read the following passage and thought immediately of the long 
distance hiker. <g>

"She didn't want to get out of bed.  Beds were treasures, unspeakably 
sweet places.  She had not known what a bed could mean until she had 
gone a week without one.  She grew conscious of her own greasy hair, an 
aching body that hadn't been scrubbed for a long time, teeth that had 
not been brushed, fingernails that had not been trimmed, ..."

written of a ficticious character living in San Francisco, 1906, 7 days 
after the "big one"
from AFTERSHOCKS by Richard S. Wheeler