[pct-l] visual memory of the trail

[ca_radiance at hotmail.com (Ryan Christensen)]

Llamalady,

That was a well put and beautiful post. I too get those moments of moist eye 
bliss out on the trail. I remember in Northern California, after 4 months on 
the PCT and just a couple days North of Burney Falls, I rounded a bend in 
the trail and before me a view opened up to a vast valley. A hawk was 
soaring on a gentle breeze in front of me. The warm glow of the setting sun 
kissed its feathers--- and I felt waves of joy and bliss as tears streaked 
down my face. What a feeling I had! My heart soured as well and everything 
was perfect.

Ya, I am just a lowly section hiker too.

Ryan

>From: Marion Davison <mardav@charter.net>
>To: "Jeffrey J. Olson" <jjolson@uwyo.edu>,PCT List 
<pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
>Subject: Re: [pct-l] visual memory of the trail
>Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2005 20:55:45 -0700
>
>Jeffrey J. Olson wrote:
>
>>
>>I'm wondering what you all feel when you repeat a section of trail,
>>or the whole trail?  When you start the climb up from the San
>>Joaquin River to Emigrant Meadows, and you've done it twice, what's
>>going through you?  What does looking at slideshows, over and over,
>>do for you?
>>
>>
>We are major offenders when it comes to repeating pieces of the
>trail.  We have been hiking the PCT between Trail Pass and Phipps
>Pass since 1992.  We never do the same hike twice, but we keep
>finding our way back to favorite places....Island Pass, Iva Bell Hot
>Spring, Marie Lakes, Lake Virginia, Evolution Lake, Forester Pass,
>while thoroughly exploring all the connecting trails...Kearsarge
>Pass, Bubbs Creek, Big Whitney Meadow, Granite Pass, Paradise
>Valley, Desolation Wilderness, Emigrant Wilderness,  Kern River,
>etc.  Anytime I see a video presentation of the PCT I sob all the
>way through the part from Whitney to Tahoe. While I am in the
>mountains I experience frequent moments of ecstasy I call "bliss
>attacks".  I choke up, tear up, heave many happy sighs. It is
>possible to totally love the PCT without having thru hiked.  I've
>read the list daily for at least five years (except in the summer),
>worked several trail projects, used the local PCT that is 15 minutes
>from home for hundreds of miles of llama-conditioning hikes for the
>last 8 years, give my financial support to the PCTA, and have
>attended 4 ADZs.  The PCT is my backyard, my home.  Some people call
>me a hanger-on with no right to an opinion, but that won't change a
>thing about my feeling for the mountains and the PCT that opens them
>up to me and my way of wandering in the freedom of the hills.  The
>PCT is not a once-in-a-lifetime ultimate experience for me;  it is
>my daily life. If it weren't for the local volunteers that keep
>working on the PCT, it might not exist for the people who fly in.  I
>wager that Pete Fish and most of his regulars aren't thru hikers
>either, but where would you be without them?
>llamalady
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