Re: [pct-l] Class of '99

[mark dixon <mdixon@bigsky.net>]

Sly,

From my knowledge, most everyone who decided to go through the Sierras in
1998 made it through. I have no knowledge of anyone who turned back, quit
or flipped after they had decided to go through. There may have been some
people that attempted it and were turned back in early June, but that would
have been too early this year anyway (the second part is my opinion). The
truth is that walking on the snow in the Sierras wasn't all that bad (this
is my opinion). It was occasionaly slow going, but not as bad as some who
were not there may believe it was (this is also my opinion). 

As we approached the Sierras the trail buzz was that the Sierras were
impassable this year (this is a fact). There were people preaching the
flip-flop hundreds of miles before they even reached the mountains. The
PCTA was partly responsible for the heightened paranoia and ultimately the
mass exodus to Manning Park (this is also a fact). After going through the
Cascades from I-90 to the border last month, I'm not sure that those who
flipped had it any better than we did in the Sierras. My point here is be
careful about misinformation being thrown about on the trail and on this
mail list. Many times people pass on stories about how bad something is or
how ugly a particular part of the trail is when they had never been there.
From the listeners standpoint this is know as mistaking someones opinion
for fact. Even if someone had been there, their perception could be
completely different. 

Fuller Ridge is impassable, Baden-Powell is unclimbable, the Sierras are
undoable, the Hat Creek Rim sucks, section O is terrible, Oregon is boring,
it's too late you'll never make it...... I don't know how many times I
heard this kind of stuff last year and being surprised when I found out the
story was mostly BS. Take any information you get about the trail with
skepticism. Do the facts add up? Are you hearing the same recycled story
from different people? In fact you shouldn't necessarily beleive me either,
most everything here is my opinion. Question what you hear!

Mark Dixon

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