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

[moosemunch_7 at hotmail.com (Tom Kowalik)]

Jeff,
Im sure you'll take solace in the fact that you'll hiking the pct solo!  No 
constraints, no restrictions.
Stop and eat when YOU want, hike 4 miles an hour when you want, drink coffee 
or don't, eat breakfast or don't.   The option exists, but do as you wish.  
Its a rare a occasion that everyone in camp leaves at the same time in the 
morning with plans of hiking together on the pct.  Reasons similar to what 
you've stated are why I choose to hike alone most often.  Love to hike with 
others in the area to take breaks with, but actually hiking, naw thats a 
solo thing.

"The women got the men like a puppet show"

Munch

>From: "Jeffrey J. Olson" <jjolson@uwyo.edu>
>CC: pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net
>Subject: [pct-l] Trail-centered vs. Camp-centered hiking...
>Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2005 12:46:44 -0600
>
>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...
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>pct-l mailing list
>pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net
>unsubscribe or change options:
>http://mailman.hack.net/mailman/listinfo/pct-l