Re: [pct-l] reunion hike tape a hit

[Greg Hummel <ghummel@hydrogenburner.com>]

To Jeff, Monte and PCTL,

ARGH!  Don't get this video from Jeff!  It shows an old, tired, washed up
Strider mimicked and cursed upon as he is dragged up Mt. Banner by Jeff and
his 21 year old co-hort charging ahead!

I prefer the image of Strider be preserved in his former 21 year old glory
and not tarnish this with the image of the overweight, office tethered,
bum!;-)

I'm currently working on restoring that image, but gosh it's hard at 43!

Greg "Strider" Hummel
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Cc:            "'PCT List'" <pct-l@backcountry.net>
From:          Jeffrey Olson <jjolson@u.washington.edu>
Date:          Mon, 1 Feb 1999 09:36:04 -0800 (PST)
Subject:       [pct-l] Life Changing experience...
Content-type:  TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

On Mon, 1 Feb 1999 reynolds@ilan.com wrote:

> In a couple of instances I've seen a thruhike described as a life changing
> experience. In this case a person being exeuberant about the experience is
> similer to a new Christian being "Born Again"--totally understandable. I,
> for one, like to hear about life changing experiences -- of any sort.

I've done two section hikes of a month or longer.  The first one was with my
fiancee who had never hiked before in her life.  I taughther everything she
knows.  While hike up Gibralter Ridge in northern california, on snow, at
the end of the day, she slipped and started sliding down the slope toward a
stand of trees.  Probably not life threatening, but scary nonetheless.
Without thinking I leapt after her, grabbed on to her, and we skidded to a
stop after 15' or so.  We helped each other up to the trail and to the top
of the ridge.  The south side was totally clear of snow.  We hiked for about
100' and I turned around around and stood facing her.  We both broke into
tears of incredible relief the snow was gone, and stood there in the middle
of the trail, packs on, hugging each other and crying.  After a couple
minutes she looked up into my eyes and said, "You really love me." WE didn't
make it as a couple, but the bond that came out of that moment, is one of
the strongest I've had with anyone, and remains so eight years later.

That is one of the ways being on the PCT transformed my life.  A poignant,
intense single experience.  On another trip, a solo hike through Oregon to
White Pass, it was the trip itself, being on the trail, with the filters of
"busyness" falling away that was transformative.  My life now is rich and
full and very busy.  The calmness I feel, my sense of being a vehicle of a
larger process, comes from 35 days of hiking alone.  The living presence of
the trail is my personal doorway to my spiritual feeling.  It is not the
only one, but it is the strongest.  The trail exists for me as a metaphor
for all I do, as a way to make sense of the craziness, to make meaning where
so often before there was only divisions and emptiness.  I am always
walking, pack on back, on "The Trip."  In the midst of absurdity and
surfaces there is a core to me that is unruffled...

Jeffrey Olson
Seattle, WA...where the streets are wet and hearts are warm...

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