[pct-l] Fear

[Bighummel at aol.com (Bighummel@aol.com)]

John writes:
"Generally, the things one regrets most are the things one never did. 
Even it you do it and don't like it, still you did it and learned and 
can move on."
Ah, that was the other fear that I didn't mention; that I would decide to not 
take the risk and go through the hassel of all the planning and setting time 
and money aside in order to hike the PCT, and then, years later, sitting in a 
rocking chair, without the use of these strong young legs, I would wallow in 
my regret that I did not do then what I could have done and did not experience 
what I could have, back then, when I was young, strong, driven and able.  

We all make tradeoffs in order to go hike the PCT.  There are personal costs. 
 It's just that the rewards far outweigh these costs to us.  

Mind you I made a HUGE tradeoff by deciding to go hike the PCT.  I am 6'9" 
and was on basketball scholarship at a division 1 school with the promise of 
starting in my Junior year on and possible other prospects beyond.  I not only 
traded the time and money of hiking the trail, but in hindsight, I also traded 
that opportunity and the prospects beyond.  The basketball was fun and still 
paid for my education, but I never developed into a pro-caliber player possibly 
because after the PCT I could move really well at 3.5 mph, but those muscles 
just weren't in the right type of condition for sprinting up and down a 
basketball court and leaping for rebounds.  Imagine the discussion with the 
basketball coaches when I announced that I was going to redshirt my sophomore season 
and go hike across the U.S.!

Remorse?  Naw, I try to never look back and question those decisions I made 
in the past, and, I will never, ever, ever regret one moment that I spent on 
the PCT.

And, at a recent basketball reunion, the one thing that anyone who knew me 
remembered, was that I had walked the PCT.  

Set your fears aside and go live life to its fullest.  Walking the PCT is 
quite simply and arguably the greatest expression of the freedom we all take for 
granted in this nation.

Greg