[pct-l] cook pots & intro

[christinpruett at hotmail.com (christin pruett)]

About the pots, I was just telling my aussie co-worker about the strange 
little titanium/aluminum war that has been waged on the pct-l.  She said 
straight off that the aluminium stuff is a myth and cited Dr. Karl a famous 
DJ from australian public radio who is also a PhD in astrophysics or 
something.  See the link below if you are curious:

http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/stn/q&a/031030-5.htm

after all this guy just won an ignoble award for his grand study of belly 
button lint.  However, I have a tendency to think this is true, if so it was 
a royal screw up for the people who originally published this study.  It 
must be painful to sheepishly retract such an eye opening, funding bonanza 
paper.

Intro: I've been on the list for about a year and a half.  My name is 
Christy Pruett, I have wanted to do the PCT since I did the AT way back in 
93 when I was a mere child of 23.  If you do the math I'm 34.  I live in 
College Station, Texas where I am a post-doc in the Wildlife & Fisheries 
Dept. at Texas A&M (home of the fighting Aggies).  I have been going to 
school forever and am now finally finished, I think.  I don't have a 
permanent job but need to get one soon or else become a casualty of 
academia.  So I am thinking about thru-hiking next summer, but have to 
summon the courage and submit as many research papers as possible before I 
go flake out (that's what everyone else thinks of my hike plus I often hear 
career suicide).

I love what I do, most of the time, and have worked really hard to get here. 
  I used to watch nature on pbs as a kid and I wanted to be one of those 
people running around in the woods looking at birds... I made it sort of.  I 
work on bird and fish population genetics/evolutionary ecology.  I love 
birds and that is one of the major reasons I love hiking.  I can't wait to 
go out, especially into the desert and see some nice roadrunners, western 
tanagers, scott's orioles, california quail, and whatever else flies, sings 
or runs by.

As for all the first time thru-hikers, I had never been backpacking or in 
fact car camping when I did the AT.  I met quite a few people just like me 
who carried too much stuff, got loads of blisters, got a bit wiser, and made 
it to Katahdin.  If you go, you've overcome the biggest hurdle.  Now I just 
need to take a risk and do it too.

Although, I am here at A&M I just have to say GO SOONERS!

_________________________________________________________________
Concerned that messages may bounce because your Hotmail account is over 
limit? Get Hotmail Extra Storage! http://join.msn.com/?PAGE=features/es