Re: [pct-l] room 4 everybody

[Owen <jrowen@ibm.net>]

Mike "Snoop" Paton wrote:
> 
>
><Owen>Thruhikers are not supermen - and they're not "special".
>
>Thruhikers may not be supermen, but they definitely are special (among
>themselves mostly).  Thruhiker friendship is among the tightest I've ever
>known.  I keep in regular contact with as  many as I can, and when I meet
>another thru-hiker I feel like I'm meeting a family member.
>


Mike -
I knew that word would get me in trouble.

When I said thruhikers weren't "special" I meant it in the sense that
they're not "extraordinary" or "exceptional" or "superior" to other
people.
Some of them undoubtedly are - but that has nothing to do with their
being
thruhikers.  After all, I know doctors, dentists, lawyers, engineers,
college professors and a lot of others from highly respected professions
who are thruhikers. I also know truck drivers, ditch diggers, students
and factory workers.  

One of the dictionary meanings of "special" is to "be given unusual
treatment because of being uncommon".  And that sometimes happens - it's
usually called "Trail Magic". But Trail Magic is only "magic" if it's
unlooked-for, undeserved and unexpected. There are occasionally
thruhikers
who get the idea that the world owes them something simply because
they're
thruhikers - and that's not a pretty sight. I've been known to "slice
and
dice" a few of those along the way.  It's one thing to have confidence
and
pride in who you are and what you've done.  It's an entirely different
proposition to expect the "world" to kowtow to you because of it.

I'm an "ex"-Marine and there's a pride in that, but I also recognize
that
Marines are simply ordinary people who do extraordinary things. Rudyard
Kipling wrote a poem about that.  If you can find it, it's titled
"Soldier
an' Sailor Too". In the same way, I see thruhikers as ordinary people
who
have done or are doing something extraordinary. And in both cases, I
think
they deserve respect for it. Not "adulation" or "hero worship" or
anything
of the sort - just plain respect.

You also said :
>I agree that there are a number of people out there that feel thruhikers
>are not that special.

Yeah - I ran across an interesting example recently.  There's a story
that
came out of the recent Gatherings about a ranger (NPS??, USFS??) in
California who found out that the PCTA could issue single permits for
PCT
thruhikers for the whole trail.  While this is second hand information -
it
seems that said ranger objected to this on the grounds that "thruhikers
weren't anything special and didn't deserve special treatment".  If I
got
the story straight, their theory was that "thruhikers" should have to
get a
permit for every National Park and Forest that they pass through. That
would mean you'd have to get off the trail and compete with all the
other
backpackers for permits.  That would kinda put a crimp in the timeline
for
a thruhike. Why is it that some people think it's acceptable to make
life
more difficult for others?

I suspect one of the problems here is that the NPS, USFS and BLM use the
word "thruhiker" to mean someone who's hiking through a particular Park
or
Forest rather than to describe someone who's hiking the whole trail.  It
tends of create confusion.

I wonder if it ever occurred to that ranger that the skiers, horse
packers, loggers adn others get "special treatment" that's a lot more
expensive, resource intensive and, in most cases, environmentally
damaging than permits for a few people to walk on what's supposed to be
a public trail?

Enough - there are too many meanings for the word "special" - and I
shouldn't have used it that way - so I apologize for any confusion about
this.

Walk softly,
Jim
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