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[pct-l] Getting Into Trouble on the Trail



Life without risk isn't worth living. There's about 6 million steps involved
to complete the PCT, and it only takes one misstep to lead to disaster. If
climbing or descending Forester Pass doesn't make your heartbeat the loudest
sound you hear, then you need to extend your boundaries. One must understand
your experience to accept a wilderness challenge, and when that unknown risk
or challenge is met, then you must make wise choices to survive which will
extend your experience boundary. These wise choices are based upon the gear
you carry, the circumstances present, and your experience. There have been a
few hikers that made wrong decisions, and met their fate with nature in the
wilderness. Is this a bad way to die? when we will all die in time?  I'm not
convinced yet that Seabreeze met his fate, but if he did, it was due to a
sequence of choices he made and not the PCT route itself. If he did, he is
one with the wilderness, and will be remembered by all for accepting a great
personal challenge and the inherent risks involved, than if he passed on in
a car wreck, or etc.. My greatest wilderness challenges have been going
cross country where few have ever been, and a single misstep, injury, or
mistake would only be another lost hiker mystery. I accept the chance to get
into trouble on the trail or off-trail, but my experiences give me the edge.
If you want the PCT and the wilderness to be tame enough for everyone to
survive, then is it really a wilderness??. I find trail hiking the tamest
wilderness experience;  I prefer the  wilderness that can be found where
there are no trails, horses, and few people, and getting lost could be
forever.  I have had a few days where I felt like I could have died going
cross country on cliffs and boulder fields in the Sierra's and Winds', and
I've stared down a few charging bears. It only made me crave the wilderness
adventure more! Hikon!
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  Fortunately the dangers on the PCT are still real and you actually still
can
loose your life out there.  This is one of the things that makes the
adventure
real and exciting and difficult.  If it was a paved trail with markers every
twenty yards and park benches every mile and shelters every ten with running
water and stocks of food, then it wouldn't be much fun anymore.
Strider