[pct-l] PCT Trailfest in Seattle

[Brian Lewis]

Pretty new to this list, I'm lucky enough to live near Seattle, and enjoyed
the Trailfest there today a good deal.

A few take-aways I had from the event might be of interest to the larger
group ...

In a session where Yogi (Jackie McDonnell) and Ben Schifrin (of the PCT
guide series by Wilderness Press) talked about various trail guides, a
question was asked about how up-to-date the guides are.  Yogi's answer was
concise about her guide: "March 5th".   Wow.  I bought it at the event and
was happy to have a brief chance to talk with her.   The PCT guide series
answer was good too; I expect most here know that pdf updates are available
on the Wilderness Press website, for example,
http://wildernesspress.com/book123.htm

Ben Schifrin is currently focused on the OR/WA guide, and the word is that
it will be updated in time for Christmas 2007.  Some folks in the audience
were pleased to hear that UTM tickmarks will be added to the edges of the
maps (not clear if that will be in the new OR/WA book ...).   Ben also said
that the plan is to update both CA books in time for Christmas 2008.

I came away impressed with how focused Ben is on providing a very accurate
map of where the PCT actually goes.  I'm going to try to keep in mind in
future that if I see anything in the guide books that is at all confusing or
looks wrong to me in any way --- rather than just grumbling about it, I'll
hopefully send very specific detailed feedback to them (contact info is at
the bottom of their about page, http://www.wildernesspress.com/about.htm).
And it sounds like giving feedback on the ever-changing town details to Yogi
is just a matter of being clear in messages on this forum!

The question came up about insurance for thru-hikers, and Ben recommended
the American Alpine Club (http://www.americanalpineclub.org/) --- I don't
promise this is a precise quote, but he said it's the best (worldwide)
outdoor evacuation insurance you can have --- and that initial evacuation
and associated costs can be very high if you end up in a situation where you
need evacuation.

I had recently purchased the "Freezer Bag Cooking" book, and was pleased to
talk for a while with author Sarah Svien Kirkconnell and her friend (Dani?).
They were very easy to talk to and very giving with their time and
information.

It was a real pleasure to listen to a couple of sessions by Scott
Williamson.  Both interesting and educational, but I'm not sure that that
many people really want to try to do everything he does (I think he said
that three folks plan to yo-yo the PCT this year?). At one point in his talk
on the "other trails" (AT & CDT) he mentioned having to break down and drink
from water sources on the AT that were signed as having zinc and mercury in
them ("don't drink").   I almost piped up and asked him if this might have
been the source of his superpowers (hey, that sort of thing turned Peter
Parker into Spiderman after all ...).

I really enjoyed the chance to personally thank Henry Shires for shipping my
new tent out to me so quickly.  And then having a moment of mixed feelings
when I saw the setup of the *other* of his solo tent models that I had
considered and found it to be better than I had anticipated ...

A great event, great folks, and put on by a lot of friendly volunteers.  I
hope I'll see some of these on the trail sometime so I can thank them
personally.



	Brian Lewis
	Bellevue, WA