[pct-l] Thru Hiker Mentality

[glenhubbell at yahoo.com (Glen Hubbell)]

The experience of two PCT thru hikes, a calendar year
of hitchhiking around North America and many thousands
of miles of freight train hopping have taught me that
the sense of wonder and awe that grow within long
distance hikers / travelers comes from the simple fact
that society is no longer forcing us to react to its
contradiction filled agenda. 

After a month or two on the PCT (or any wilderness
trail), your motivations and values will come from
within you rather than be determined by society?s
needs, and you will act directly upon your world
without waiting for permission from the authorities.

I think this is why thru-hikers are distinctively
different from all other hikers. 

I hope that by pointing this out it will help more
hikers reach that point of self ownership sooner and
will help them retain a greater share of self
ownership after the hike is over.

Chance
Hike Your Own Hike!

--- kenandeb@sover.net wrote:
> That night, around a small fire, we sat talking for
> hours trying to assess our 
> position and how much further we had to go. When the
> conversation flagged, the 
> extraordinary stillness and silence of the brooding
> mountains engulfed us. 
> 
> With the coming of morning the outlook was always
> more hopeful. Fear remained a 
> lurking thing, but movement and action and the
> exercise of the mind on the 
> daily problems of existence pushed it into the
> background. We were now, more 
> strongly than ever, in the grip of the compulsive
> urge to keep moving. It had 
> become an obsession, a form of mania. Like
> automatons we set out each morning, 
> triggered off by a quiet ?Let?s go? from one or
> another of us. We just went, 
> walking the stiffness out of our joints and the
> chill of the dark hours from 
> our bodies.
> 
> Actually from "The Long Walk" by Slavomir Rawicz
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