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[pct-l] re: '82 thru-hike of Cowman and the Pup-Ape Expedition Team

Hmmm...that does sound familiar!  Darn, guess I'll be spending the weekend
going through my journals!  I'm not sure we met, though there's a good
chance; if so you might remember Harry, since (he insists) he is 6'9" tall
(he lies; he's at least 6'11") but only weighed 225 lbs. at the start of the
hike...he got much, much skinnier by time we arrived in Manning Park.  Blond
hair and beard/Viking-Warrior-type/occasionally mentally defective.  Since I
was 175 lb., 5'9" with black hair and Ray was just barely taller than me,
blond, only 145 lbs. dripping wet, and looked (looks) like a particularly
obnoxious type, as a group we would have been hard to forget.

We started Easter Sunday and when faced with the avalanche/etc. situation in
the Sierras, decided to skip them temporarily by going by bus from Weldon up
to Soda Springs, and picking up the trail there.  We then continued on the
trail up to Cascade Locks, caught a bus back down to Soda Springs, did the
skipped portion of the Sierras North to South, then went back up to Cascade
Locks from Weldon by bus and picked up where we left off. Then Washington.
Worked out pretty well for us, except we ran into deeper snow out of Soda
Springs and unmaintained trails (blowdowns) throughout Oregon due to our
arriving on those sections earlier than we normally would have.

I agree about the great weather, except we ran into some nasty freezing rain
up in Washington and had to hole up for three long days until we could get
good enough footing to continue, and then got hit by a big-time snowstorm
just three or four days from the border and had to wade through the wet,
heavy stuff the rest of the way.  Of course, just at that point our stove
gave out on us. Anyway, we finished up on September 29th.

Hey, Cowman (hmmm, liked that pond water, eh?), by chance did you ever meet
the Doodah Man?

Kelly Flowers
kkflower@students.wisc.edu

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