[pct-l] Southbounders?

[dsaufley at sprynet.com (dsaufley@sprynet.com)]

What makes a good sobo year?  Lower than-average levels of snow in the Pacific Northwest. 

Why is it more difficult?  The elevation profile is higher sobo.  Also, it tends to be a more solitary experience, and for some, extended solitude has negative effects on mental fortitude.

L-Rod

-----Original Message-----
>From: Jeffrey Olson <jolson@olc.edu>
>Sent: Mar 15, 2006 3:15 PM
>To: 
>Cc: pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net
>Subject: Re: [pct-l] Southbounders?
>
>What makes for a good southbound year?  Why is the southbound direction 
>considered more difficult?  Thanks.
>___________________________________
>
>2005 was a good southbound year.  I left Manning on June 10, and there 
>were probably 30 people within five or six days on either side of that 
>date that headed SOBO,  along with the 15 or 20 folks who flipped from 
>Kennedy Meadows/somewhere to Manning.  Perhaps the high point of the 
>"Wave" this year was the Timberline breakfast at which there were 15 or 
>so thru-hikers. 
>
>I wandered into that scene looking for the shop that held food 
>packages.  There was almost a Brughelesque quality to the revelry.  
>Everyone knew this was unique - all those thru-hikers downing 5000 to 
>8000 calories in one sitting -together.  A couple of the men waxed 
>loquacious and loud.  Most were dealing with the calories and the 
>intensity of all sitting at one table in the midst of a restaurant 
>knowing someting special was happening.  Even the tourons knew something 
>was special.  Warner Springs Monte acted the host, and did it well (what 
>I saw in the three minutes I hung out).  His graciousness and warmth 
>were infective...
>
>There was relatively little snow north of Rainy Pass.  This is what made 
>it a good SOBO year.  I carried snowshoes, used them once (I really 
>didn't need them) and left them by the side of the trail an hour after 
>passing through Harts Pass. 
>
>There was a post last spring, just before everyone left, that 
>recommended using a trekking pole shortened as a self-belay device.  I 
>carried an ice axe for the same purpose, and the pole would have 
>worked.  I was more in danger crossing the mud before the Packwood 
>Glacier than any snow I crossed (except for where I slipped and fell and 
>was using the ice axe - handle buried to head almost - that stopped my 
>fall).  I actually slipped for 10' before being able to stop on the mud, 
>scraping one leg unmercifully...  There was also a post from someone who 
>hiked from Manning to Rainey Pass in the wind and clouds and snow and 
>cold and said maybe it wasn't a SOBO year after all.  She was wrong.  I 
>stopped reading the listserv at that point, only three days before I left. 
>
>There was a wave in 2005.   This made SOBO hiking relatively easier.  
>Why?  Why is hiking SOBO more difficult? 
>
>I've been doing month or longer section hikes since 1992 - four of 
>them.  Except for the first one with a 70 pound pack and girlfriend I 
>was madly in love with, I've hiked alone.  I spend at least two weeks 
>each summer hiking alone. 
>
>I realized this year that perhaps I really wasn't cut out to hike for 
>weeks on end alone.  When you're alone the filters that keep your focus 
>in the external world slowly disintegrate.  For most of us, me included, 
>this disintegration involves a slow realization I have to face my 
>demons, the internal stuff , big emotions.  Being-alone for weeks on end 
>is intense.  A person has to have a really excellent sense of internal 
>balance and harmony to greet each day with excitement and curiosity. 
>
>Being alone for weeks on end is intense...  What the hell does this 
>mean???  I still haven't figured it out.  This summer my most memorable 
>moments consisted of the time I spent with other persons, one on one.  I 
>spent three hours hiking with Donkey, and we hiked about ten miles.  
>That was the marker distinguishing the early from later part of my trip 
>- struggling to hike 15 miles a day and then easily hiking 20 miles by 
>3PM.  In Cascade Locks Gizmo, Donkey and I drank beer, and when Burn 
>showed up, we drank some more and had pizza.  I remember talking with 
>Burn and being so damn honest it hurt... 
>
>I spent three hours at the Warm Springs River with Gizmo talking about 
>the meaning of life, how to make what we mean happen.  I spent an hour 
>with two guys in Trout Lake eating burgers served by an absolutely 
>gorgeous woman who smiled equally at us all.  In an hour I had a friend 
>that I knew I could have counted on to help me find a place to live, a 
>job, and good pot...  For those of you in my age bracket - 53 - you know 
>how difficult it is to find kindred souls in the world. 
>
>I saw that Skittles is going to hike the CDT this summer.  He was part 
>of a triad - they were called the VIPs.  They perhaps formed the nucleus 
>of this year's wave.  I would have loved to have spent four hours with 
>every one I met this summer.  However, there was something inside me 
>that eschewed the wave, hiking together and camping together. 
>
>Why is hiking alone hard?  I don't think I'm coming any closer to 
>answering this question.  Maybe I find it difficult because I'm 
>emotional in a man's body and when alone the emotionality emerges I 
>don't have the tools to cope.  How do you continue day after day when 
>every emotion is a potential trigger to cry?  In the midst of this, 
>there is no sensible end, no perceived benefit, no light at the end of 
>the tunnel.  there is only the intense emotions that lead to tears and 
>the seeming inevitability of tears with no karmic resolution. 
>
>It is so hard to trust the process, to maintain a witness to the 
>process, and just let it happen.  Modern society doesn't value this, and 
>hence, doesn't give us the tools to move through this kind of growth 
>process.  As soon as it gets intense emotionally, we go to the fire and 
>huddle with other humans. When  a person spends day after day alone, the 
>desire to leave the trail/trip becomes ever more a lighted torch 
>pointing the way.  Why put up with the intense emotions when you could 
>be hanging with friends and family? 
>
>That this also means having a job, paying rent/mortgage, etc., etc., 
>etc...  It's this part that recedes into the background while alone on 
>the trail.  The pure, intense, emotional pain that living on the trail 
>alone entails makes the routines of boring, meaningless citified life 
>seem attractive.  You laugh!  Go out and spend a month alone on the 
>trail.  Don't plan a thru-hike.  Plan a section hike where your whole 
>intent is to be alone in the wilderness.  See what happens. 
>
>I don't really want to spend a month alone any more.  I want to spend a 
>month, six months if possible, hiking with a lover.  The intensity is 
>the same, but you get to share it with a soul-mate.  The month I spent 
>with Jane, an ex-fiance, on the trail is one that I remember really 
>well.  How many other months in my life do I remember with such 
>clarity?  not many...
>
>I started hiking alone at 19, in 1971.  The challenge no longer has the 
>majesty it once did.  I feel I'd rather hang with a woman and explore 
>with her than do it alone.  I still don't think I could participate in 
>"The Wave."  But that's me. 
>
>Jeff, Just Jeff...
>
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