[pct-l] Water Caches

[Pea Hicks]

Tom Reynolds wrote:
>  There were some objections to this because the San Felipe
> Hills was seen as a "rite-of-passage" and the water cache made it
> less so.

to my mind, any sort of sentiment to this effect is entirely arbitrary. 
ie, it's not as if the pct designers had a meeting and said "ok, let's 
route the trail through here so as to create a nice waterless 
rite-of-passage to sort out the men/women from the boys/girls, because 
we definitely want to make this trail interesting!" as if they were 
designing the trail as some sort of racetrack or obstacle course, 
intended to test the physical/mental abilities of those willing to take 
on the challenge, only to be thwarted by crafty conniving trail angels 
dead set on ruining the course with a well-placed water cache.

if the trail had been forced for legal (or other) reasons through, say, 
a 100 mile waterless stretch, would this also be seen as some sort of 
"rite of passage?" maybe for a small percentage of extreme sports 
enthusiasts (who could just as easily design their own course anywhere 
they want), but not for most folks who just want to go out and enjoy 
themselves outdoors and be as minimally encumbered by life-support 
equipment/supplies as they can safely and legally get away with.


gs