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

[pct-l] Defeat On The Pacific Crest Trail



It seemed like a good idea at the time: Vanessa Oklejas and Bob
Moision, chemists at Salt Lake City's University of Utah, decided to
hike the entire 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail ? from the Mexican
border in Southern California to the Canadian border in Washington ?
in 119 days.

They managed to get a sponsor (a protein-bar company) and had kids at
SLC's Rowland Hall-St. Mark's School working as "mission control" via
the Internet and the GPS/cell-phone gadgets used on the trail. But the
whole thing ended in agony after 83 days. The pair gave up while
hiking through the Sierra Nevada west of Lake Tahoe. Blistered and
infected feet were blamed. Hiking 20+ miles per day is serious work
even for those who've done it before, as Bob Moision did a dozen years
back. (About half of all PCT hikers give up their dreams of a
Mexico-to-Canada hike, and the usual result is shame and a whole bunch
of crappy "hiking food" abandoned at post offices along the way.)

Complete article: http://highwayswest.com/archives/2005/02/defeat_on_the_p.htm