[pct-l] O.d.Coyote

[gwtmp01 at mac.com]

On Nov 28, 2006, at 12:53 AM, Ginny & Jim Owen wrote:
> Why would you disagree with him about that?  He's largely right.  
> The Triple Crown award may not have been intended that way, but  
> it's certainly become largely what O.d. claims.  If you pay  
> attention to the words of those who want to hike the CDT next year  
> (or those who've hiked it over the last 5 years), you'll find that  
> the great majority of them are doing it only for the Triple Crown -  
> not for love of the trail.  This has been an increasing trend for  
> the last few years.

No doubt that some people do the long-trails, or bike across the  
country, or climb Mt. Everest for the glory/awards/publicity.   
Other's do those things for pure pleasure.  Lots of people tackle  
those challenges for some combination of those reasons as well as  
many others.  I'm not so sure that I could assign some sort of right  
or wrong to any of those reasons.  In many ways the pursuit of the  
'triple-crown' is like the never-ending debate on the AT about  
purists.  What is always so puzzling to me about the purist debate is  
why so many people get sucked into *judging* hikers based on that  
criteria.  Why are their right and wrong ways to hike the AT, or  
reasons to complete the triple-crown?

Another area that seems to generate this sort of controversy is pack  
weight/gear selection.  I've spoken with hikers who carry a little  
more gear than average and are constantly chided by the lighter- 
weight hikers about their gear choices.  At some point that endless  
scolding is no longer friendly banter but is more about attempting to  
enforce some sort of pack-weight pecking order.  Why?

> BTW, that "dilutiion" is not the fault of ALDHA-W or any individual  
> or group of individuals.  Rather, it's a cultural artifact that's  
> inevitable with respect to ANY award in our society - even  among  
> the hiker community.  We can discuss that if you like.

I think that would be an interesting discussion--though I'm not sure  
if this list is the right place for such.

Gary Wright (Radar)