[pct-l] Trail-centered vs. Camp-centered hiking...

[jjolson at uwyo.edu (Jeffrey J. Olson)]

My hiking partner of many years has resisted the "trail-centered hiking" 
model that I've adopted over the last decade and a half.  For example, 
while he is perfectly willing to get up early, he is not willing to hit 
the trail 20 minutes after awakening and eat a cold breakfast on the 
trail. 

Even on a two week trip with a food drop in the middle (for the last 
trip I hiked up from Rio Grande REservoir to Weminuche Pass, which is a 
huge, wet meadow at 10,000', and hung food for three for a week from a 
tree 100' off the trail.  We then met at Spring Creek Pass and hiked 
south.) he didn't want to give up coffee.  Imagine!!!

When in trail-centered mode, I like to stop in the middle of the day for 
a couple hours, when it's warmest, and wash my shorts, shirt and socks, 
and my body and its rash prone crevasses, and lie down and nap for a 
bit.  Lunch can take two or three hours.  The afternoon starts with 
clean body and clothes, and a spring in my step.  If I'm going to drink 
coffee, it is just before starting hiking again for the afternoon leg. 

No matter how much I try to ignore him, I can feel his tension grow, and 
after a couple days, I give up and we eat, hang for a bit until the 
"official" lunch time is over, and start hiking.  This puts us into camp 
around four or five, with three or four hours of daylight left.  It 
always takes a half hour to find a suitable campsite because the 
campsite can't be in sight of the trail, and he has to have a view, and 
the door of his tent facing the view.  So he runs around a lot and I, 
and our other hiking partner, Deniece, stand in bemused tolerance, 
waiting for him to do his circling and finally be ready to frump down, 
like my old dog used to do. 

I on the other hand, like the two or three hours to hang and putter and 
marvel and nap.  Once on the trail, sometimes at 3PM, there is another 
four or five hours and 10 or 12 miles of  hiking left, depending on 
terrain.  I like finding a stealth type camp, set up camp, eat if we 
already haven't, and go to bed.  A perfect day has the final dusk fade 
to darkness as I wiggle down under my sleeping blanket. 

I no longer take a book because my stop in the middle of the day is 
spent with chores, eating, staring at stuff, and napping.  I have tried 
to read, but tend to fall into a doze, or drift off as a cloud passes 
over and sends a bit of a chilly wind over me.  At night I just want to 
fall asleep.  Maybe on my SOBO, now 41 days from its first step I'll 
remember this and take a pocketmail and leave the book at home. 

As an aside, I no longer hike with this friend on these 10 day to two 
week trips.  I started feeling like I was being dragged from place to 
place on an important plane or level.  The camraderie started being 
driven by tension - no sense of being in cahoots together - everything 
had to be his way. 

Last spring I hiked on the Lost Coast of California for a week with our 
mutual friend Deniece, and it was really eye-opening.  We didn't have 
any conflicts.  There was no tension.  When something dicey emerged, 
like crossing seaweed-covered rocks up against a cliff that were being 
battered every ten seconds with a wave, we expressed what we felt, let 
it sit, explored options, and it seemed to all work out. 

Perhaps the Grateful Dead are right, "Women are Smarter..."

Jeff Olson
Laramie WY, where it's 36 degrees and snowing...  6" of reallly wet 
stuff on the lawns, nothing on the streets...