Re: [pct-l] I'll be doggone..!

[Owen <jrowen@ibm.net>]

I wouldn't get involved in a "dog" discussion because I won't own a dog
as long as I intend to thruhike long trails. I miss my dog - but I won't
subject one to the places I go right now. On the other hand, I know dogs
(and their owners) who have happily thruhiked the AT and the PCT.  But
enough of that.  

"Big Mac" just can't seem to to stay on topic - in spite of exhorting
others to do so.  So I'm gonna make a comment about something that
caught my attention -

"Big Mac" wrote:
>
> Have I gotten myself into a flame-war with one of those guys who 
> fantasizes about being attacked or crushed or in general "faces death" 
> every time he goes on a camping trip? Oh boy... 

Seems like "Big Mac" doesn't understand that that's exactly what every
one of us face every time we go into the backcountry. Every time you
walk out your front door there's a finite probability that you won't
live to get home again.  Camping/backpacking/thruhiking are simply
multiplication factors applied to that basic probability. And anyone who
doesn't recognize that certainly qualifies as a "backcountry idiot".  
How many people die every year of hypothermia, lightning, drowning,
anphylactic shock or a couple dozen other causes? How many died on Mt.
Whitney because they'd taken refuge in a shelter with a metal roof - on
the highest point they could find?  Idiocy??  In this cas - absolutely
yes, but there's no guarantee that ANY of us won't make that kind of
mistake at some point.

How many die in the Colorado high country every year - sometimes because
of "idiocy" and sometimes not. I very often hike on trails where if I
break a leg, it might be 2 or 3 weeks - or more - before anyone finds
me. How many of us do things like that?  And how often? Regardless - the
risk is there for all of us. Do you really not recognize that risk, bj? 
Or are you just being deliberately offensive? ;-/

Walk softly,
Jim


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