Re: [pct-l] Horses and thruhikers

[charliethorpe@worldnet.att.net (Charlie Thorpe)]

Hello Jim -

Enjoyed your post.

I agree using horse packers (or any other means to bring resupply items
into remote trail settings) would be quite an exercise in logistics on a
very long hike.  I met a couple of long section hikers on the PCT in the
Cascades that did that (friends backpacked their resupply in), but they
were all willing to put up with the natural dead time caused by trying to
match different loose schedules.  I think that the beer must have helped a
lot...

Is that what bj was talking about?  I certainly don't want to try to speak
for bj (she does fine for herself <VBG>)...but I wonder if you might have
changed the discussion around a little by your going-in definition of
terms?

I have noticed that we in the distance hiking community have been slow in
coming to some kind of agreement on what to call our "hikes".  When I hiked
the AT in '93, the majority of distance hikers that I ran into called what
I was doing a "southbound end-to-end single-season thru-hike".  Now, many
on the various lists would just call it a "thru" <g>.

I have been interested in the evolving use of the term "thru-hiker" (in
part) because I believe that much acrimony has been caused by folks "hiking
their own hike" (the ONLY way to go!) and then being so loose about how we
describe it (the words we use) that we have sometimes lost the ability to
have a common language to discuss what could very well be shared (or
completely different!) experiences.

I agree with your efforts to provide specific meaning to what the distance
hiking terms mean.  Not because I feel that one way to distance hike is
better than any other...just because I want to know what someone is talking
about when they use the various words.

I do have to admit, though, that the usual definition of "thru-hiker" that
I have run into is NOT the one that you gave.  The most common definition
that I have seen used in the general outdoor community is that a
"thru-hiker" is "a hiker who is going through this place".  As opposed to a
"destination hiker", who would be "a hiker whose visit to the backcountry
is for the purpose of coming to this place".  What the word "place" means,
of course, is completely up to the user (no "Monica" joke intended...).

I don't have any doubt that this particular set of definitions would be
particularly useful for folks who are "place oriented" (maintainers,
managing agency, etc.) and who need ways to describe the various users of
the "place" they are interested in.  I recall that this meaning seemed to
be commonly used on the AT in '93...and resulted in that jaw-breaker
description of my hike <g>.

Using this particular definition for "thru-hiker", I find that I would have
to agree with bj's assertion that there are more than a few hikers who are
using horse packers to aid them in their thru-hikes.  My son and I even
made a joke of how we could always tell when a weekend was coming up as we
hiked the PCT up through the Cascades...we started seeing the long pack
trains carrying all those backpacks (for the destination hikers) and
resupply bundles (for the thru-hikers).

All the thru-hikers that we happened to see being resupplied were on
relatively short hikes (week or two) and were waiting (camping) where the
pack train dropped off their goodies.

We, of course, volunteered to help them dispose of their extra food <g>.

- Charlie II  AT (MEGA'93)
             PCT (Mex@Can'95)
        Chipping away at the CDT


* From the Pacific Crest Trail Email List |  http://www.backcountry.net   *

==============================================================================