[pct-l] Reality check on Sierra snow scare

[Chris Bailey <hikertrash@earthlink.net>]

      >Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 16:59:31 -0800
>From: "Joanne Lennox" <goforth@cio.net>
>Subject: [pct-l] What about the tedium and boredom?

>Well, folks I have been ticking off my training miles about 10 miles at a
time, 3 times a week, and one thing is for sure: ya don't need a lot smarts
to truck on down the trail...My mind quickly seems to submerge into a porridge of daydreams,
schemes, imaginary conversations, and attempts to solve various mundane
problems.

>What do the people on the list do to cope with the tedium and boredom of so
many hours of walking?

>Sometimes, I wonder whether or not I will emerge from a thruhike in a
permanent state of mind - numbness, akin to what I saw in my mother who
died of Alzheimers.  If this is true it appears that at least some of the
people on the list have recovered<G>, and I only have to worry about that
one if I am on a bad genetic or physiologic timeline. What was your mind
like at the end of a thruhike of the PCT anyway?  

Joanne:

I like what Stephen Pern wrote in his book about his CDT thru-hike:

"I'd drift along for hours with my head full of comforting guff, one internal channel running highlights of past love affairs, another showing read-your-stars stuff, like: what would I be doing a year from now?...Thoughts, when they came condensed around some strange nucleii.  Octopuses, for example, though I've no idea why."


>Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 16:16:29 -0800
>From: "William M. Stenzel" <manjovin@concentric.net>
>Subject: [pct-l] weather reality

>I prepared for my first long hike on the PCT while living in Alaska; I
heard glowing reports of trail conditions, packed up my stuff and headed
south. Imagine my surprise as, riding on Amtrack south through the
Central Valley, I see snow-capped peaks looming up in the distance! 
>	This winter, I live in Davis, CA, and watch those distant mountains day
by day. Yesterday, the Sierras received 10 feet of snow. There is no way
I would consider starting a through hike before mid-May without heading
up to the trail and checking the conditions out myself. Even then I
would leave prepared for late season storms. 

>Living in the shadow of the range gives you added respect for its moods.
I have only seen the entire valley clear of storms for one day since
November. Analogy: very view native Nepali have any desire to climb the
great peaks; they know what the weather is like. 

>will

It's starting already.  One big storm in the Sierras and the dire warnings begin.  If I listened to everyone who gave this kind of advice in '98, I would have missed out on the one of the most magical parts of my thru-hike:  the Sierra in mid- to late-June in a big snow year.  You do absolutely no one a favor by trying to scare them into a mid-May start based on one big storm in January.  It could well mean absolutely nothing.  The snow/water content measurements I've looked at indicate a normal to below normal year and so what if it turns big!  It could snow like crazy the next two months, but with an early, warm spring, be back to normal or below normal by mid-June for the thru-hiking season.  And even if it becomes big and stays that way, the Sierras are passable when lots and lots and lots of people swear up one side and down the other that they are not.  To borrow a word, Bullfeathers!  Ugh!

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