[pct-l] Heavy Hiking

[Montedodge@aol.com]

Attitude is everything in distance hiking and your attitude is always better 
if you are warm and fed. If it,s 25 degrees and snowing, you,ll be better off 
in a standard tent and warm bag than some lame bivy sack and lightweight bag. 
 I remember when Eric Ryback, the Jardine of the 70,s, did the PCT with only 
five food drops in 129 days as the first thu-hiker and triple crown hiker of 
all three big trails. The Jardine attitude in the hills has lead to an army 
of whispy little hikers shooting down the trails like its a 10K race. The 
thu-hiker should remember, it,s the trail that matters, not the end of the 
trail. If I pack on the heavy side, it allows me to stay out through thick 
and thin and plug along at a 15 mile a day pace. In my home stomping grounds 
of the Olympic Mts., we get sloppy wet snow all winter and rain showers all 
summer. The ultra light hiking attitude doesn,t work well with our weather 
here so most prudent hikers tend to carry a little more reserve food and 
gear. In the Southern Sections , I would carry up to 2 and a half gallons of 
water in the drier parts of the trail. ( I drank 1 gallon per day ) No water 
caches needed ( just pack it ) P.S.  I also remember a little plywood cabin 
on Mission Creek in 77 with three guys and about 20 empty gallon bottles of 
T-bird in front of it. Camped there and had some of their pancakes for 
breakfast. They said they leased the land on the creek for 25 dollars a year 
because of their gold claim in the creek which they had to mine 100 dollars 
of gold per year to keep. They had a real good claim and could pan 100 
dollars a day when they ran out of pancake mix and wine. ( gold was about 40 
dollars an ounce then ) -------- The bakery at Stehiken is still great!
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