[pct-l] Reasons for quitting

[Steel-Eye]

Good evening, Jeff,

Thank you for the thoughtful insight.  Maybe this is a good lesson for those
less-experienced hikers who are trying to decide if they want to try one of
the less crowded variants of hiking the PCT, such as SoBo, or skipping
around away from the herd.  Even with the herd, the further one hikes the
more spread-out it becomes to the point where an individual has the options
of closely associating with others or to keeping substantially to
themselves.

I agree with the General whose writing is quoted below.  I like to plan for
hikes .. and train for them .. because it is a reason to dream.  During a 
hike
more dreams keep me thinking about what is over the next rise, in the next
state, on the next hike.

Steel-Eye




"Men speak of dreaming as if it were a phenomenon of night and sleep.  They
should know better. All results achieved by us are self-promised, and all
self-promises are made in dreams awake. Dreaming is the relief of labor, the
wine that sustains us in act. We learn to love labor, not for itself, but
for the opportunity it furnishes for dreaming, which is the great
under-monotone of real life, unheard, unnoticed, because of its constancy.
Living is dreaming. Only in the grave are there no dreams."



- Lew Wallace, from the novel Ben-Hur

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jeffrey Olson" <jolson at olc.edu>
Cc: <pct-l at backcountry.net>
Sent: Saturday, November 25, 2006 6:18 PM
Subject: [pct-l] Reasons for quitting


                                                     I'm crazy imaginative
and that
> won't stop, or hasn't yet.  Perhaps when imagination finds itself
> unfettered by the dulling routines of modern life, for some of us, the
> lack of focus and direction morphs into sweet suffering.  I don't know.
> I can still only guess...
>
> Jeffrey Olson (Jeff, just Jeff)