[pct-l] Alison

[mark v]

I loved your post the other day, but regarding trail
journals...HARSH!  I happen to like reading all sorts
of different kinds of them, especially the whining. 
If you believe some whining journals, the trail is
nothing but a bed of roses, and then i get out there
myself and POW! it's not so easy.  I'll take
well-written whining...for example Recline's journal.

But since it seems so many sensitive eyes are damaged
by journals not to their liking, i'll give you an
advance primer on my own, so you can decide whether
you subject yourself to reading that first deadly
entry or not:

"few have been able to 
produce a really good
trail journal."  

Mine will be great, as long as you're my mother.

"(journal your own journal)"

I'll only have my sherpa writing for me on weekends,
so yes i'll journal my own journal.

"1.  Be Consistent."

I promise to try.  When i'm in the middle of the
Sierra, or trying to drag myself out of Glacier Peak
Wilderness with a broken leg, my journal updates may
be delayed.  Also, if i'm sleeping or eating that day.

"Genuine is..."how THEN YOU INstill ciao when you're
done now.   (that's almost as hard as rhyming "orange"
for goodness' sake!)


"Include either GPS points or start and stop
locations.  That way we
 can 
track progress on Google Earth."

GPS on the trail?  too heavy.  Start and stop
locations, i promise.  ("Started in California. 
Stopped in California.  AGAIN."

"Try to include daily high and low temps."

Check, i already do that one.

"Tell us up front what gear you're taking.  Then tell
us what you
 got rid of along the way.  And why."

Check, already did that in my 1/17/08 entry.  But i
was hoping some of you PCT vets could tell me up front
what i'm going to want to get rid of along the way and
why.

"Remember that you chose to hike.  It's not a job and
you're
 supposed to 
be enjoying it."

Just like one chooses to, oh i don't know, one chooses
to get married.  That doesn't mean you're going to
enjoy every second of it.  51% is probably ok.
 
"No whining."

No way.  However, i don't generally whine in my
picture captions, so for the whineless version, just
look at the pictures and pretend everything is as
happy as you like it to be.

"Descriptions of breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks
do not a good 
journal make."

Emma and i differ on that, so for her sake i might
include some limited culinary reviews.  Not many
though.

"After a while we don't
care what you ate.  Might as well describe your daily
bowel movements. "

You mean like, "Today my bowels were really moving. 
They've made it Oregon, but i'm still in California
for another couple weeks.  I hope i can put in some 30
mile days and catch up to them by September 1st?"

" Try to keep each days entry under 1500 words."

So, one word for every 1000 steps.  I'll keep count.

"To date, my favorite journal... 
...This
 gentleman
never complained, loved his trip, gave wonderful
descriptions of the
 trail, 
his location, difficulties, joys, etc.
It was just a skillfully simple, straight forward
journal."

This guy will complain, but pretty much only about my
own failings (and VVR's), may or may not love my trip,
give wonderful (to my mom) descriptions, plenty of
difficulties, joys (see: culinary, bowel movements),
lots of etc., etc.  It will be skillessly enigmatic,
complicated, and confusing, on purpose even.  I hope
you enjoy it!

markv

p.s.  Re: soap in the streams...if you've ever hiked
in a slot canyon stream, you'll see what looks like
soap bubbles all the time.  They're actually from
decomposing plant matter in the water from a dry
environment.  I don't know the science of it, or
whether that's what you saw on the JMT, but it's
possible.  When i did the JMT after a high snow year
(2006), i saw no bubbles.  If i had, i would have
written a skillfully simple and genuine description of
them.  Alas, i did not.

p.p.s.  Having free wireless in Phoenix airport is
taking the edge off my 4-hour flight delay!  All
airports should do this...






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