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Re: [pct-l] Better late than never

Tom wrote:

>4.      A good attitude will make up for a serious shortage in training
>miles.  Right???

YES!!!  A good attitude is the best thing you can have.  If things go well for
you in the beginning, your body will toughen as it gets used to what's
expected.  Though I am a firm believer in training (as Jardine AND many others
recommend) to increase your chances of accomplishing your goals, if you do
nothing more than see your trip as a great adventure with a whole new world to
discover (complete with all the aches, pains and depression that a good
challenge can thrust at you), then you will be just fine.
  If it helps, 22 years ago today, I was packing and re-packing my Kelty Tioga,
trying to make sure I had everything, going over my resupplies with my dad,
long past the point of being able to sleep; it was my last day in Ohio before I
started the journey towards Campo.  I had never been west of the Mississippi
River before nor had I ever been in real snow country and used an ice axe and
snowshoes.  Though I had been walking to work (just a couple of miles a day)
since the previous fall, I had not prepared myself in any other way, unless
reading the guidebooks cover to cover several times counts.  I was actually
underweight and not as strong as I should have been, as I had been eating just
a meal or two a day for the last several months even though I worked in a
restaurant - that's how nervous I was!  I arrived in Campo the early morning of
April 17, having hitched a ride from my "camp" along a road just 10 miles north
with a guy heading into work at the Border Patrol.  It had snowed the night
before (an ominous warning it turned out; the last snowstorm of the season for
me was at Donner Pass on the first day of summer) but quickly melted in the
morning sun.  My pack was way too heavy.  The guy from the Border Patrol told
me and my buddy that the "real" border lay 100 feet beyond the fence (I would
kid a lot of thru-hikers about this, that they really hadn't walked from Mexico
but had missed it by 100 feet and I was the only true "Mexico to Canada" out
there) and he said it would be OK (since we were obviously Anglos) to sneak
under the fence and go to the old Customs building (I do not know if the
current "trail" is at this same place - probably not), which we did.  Then, on
the way back into Campo, the heavens opened up on us as we scrambled to take
shelter under a huge oak, as we have left all our gear and packs in the Post
Office.  That day it poured and hailed on us 5 more times, and it seemed that
some supernatural force had aligned itself against me, that it would do
everything it could to stop me (or test me ala Job), but I guess I had the
right attitude, for as it turned out it was simply the first day of a very
wonderful adventure.
  Best wishes to all heading for the trail.

Alan
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