[pct-l] Fw: cell phone coverage

[Wayne Kraft]

Below, Bob asks me to explain myself.  As you proceed north from Timberline 
Lodge around the west flank of Mount Hood, you'll cross the canyons of Sand 
Creek, Little Zigzag and Zigzag and then arrive at a junction.  Official PCT 
to the left, Paradise Park to the right.  Official PCT is a non-descript 
trail through the woods.  Paradise Park trail wanders through a big, open 
beautiful alpine meadow.  The .original PCT and its forerunner the Oregon 
Skyline Trail went through Paradise, which got beat up due to overuse. An 
alternative trail was built to take the pressure off Paradise Park.  If I 
recall correctly, livestock are now prohibited on the Paradise Park Trail. 
Paradise Park Trail rejoins the PCT a few miles to the north, adds little 
distance and a bit of elevation gain to the official route.  You may want to 
avoid camping in Paradise Park, but walking through it won't harm the meadow 
and may very well benefit your psyche.  I am really not sure though where 
you would camp in this general area that is not, in some sense, over used. 
If you start at Timberline Lodge in the morning you will be well clear of 
this area and somewhere north of Lolo Pass by bed time.

Wayne Kraft

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bob" <BobandShell97 at verizon.net>
To: "'Wayne Kraft'" <wayneskraft at comcast.net>
Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2008 5:21 AM
Subject: RE: [pct-l] cell phone coverage


>> Just north of Timberline there's a PCT alternate route through Paradise
> Park (only a horse, mule or donkey should take the PCT route here).
>
> Would you post just a sentence or two of explanation?
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net [mailto:pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net]
> On Behalf Of Wayne Kraft
> Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 11:19 PM
> To: pct-l at backcountry.net
> Subject: [pct-l] cell phone coverage
>
> I don't think there is really very much predictable about cell phone
> coverage.  In the areas I know about there is coverage where you'd least
> expect it and no coverage where you would expect it.  There's a cell
> transmitter or repeater or whatever you call it within a few hundred yards
> of Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood.  There must be another one over in the
> Meadows Ski Area east of there because my son called me from there 
> ("missed
> my bus, dude. bummer. it's like, y'know, a freakin' white out here.  can 
> ya
> come get me?").  Just north of Timberline there's a PCT alternate route
> through Paradise Park (only a horse, mule or donkey should take the PCT
> route here).  I am always able to call home from there.  Years and years 
> ago
>
> I called my office from a boat in the middle of Odell Lake.  I am such an
> idiot.  There's a little hillock on the south end of South Mathieu Lake in
> the Three Sisters Wilderness from which I've called home.
>
> Because I'm hearing impaired I do a lot of texting.  Incoming text 
> messages
> apparently wait for coverage in a cue and transmit to your phone when you
> have coverage.  While hobbling along this spring injured, alone and
> discouraged on a heavily wooded trail miles from the road in the Columbia
> River Gorge, my phone received a text message from my daughter who
> apparently wasn't even aware I was gone for a few days.  I was able to
> respond to her by text, but I could not get a voice call through.  So, 
> yes,
> it appears that text messages will work when voice won't.
>
> Off-topic aside:  When I was in law school professors would assign the 
> class
>
> cases to read and then call upon students to summarize the facts and
> holding.  The professors would then select and quiz a hapless student 
> about
> various implications of the holding in the case du jour.  This is known as
> the Socratic Method.  Unfortunately, Socrates didn't teach at the law 
> school
>
> I attended and the "method" resulted mainly in madness.  I took an evening
> class in Municipal Law from a practicing attorney.  On the first day of
> class he said, "I am going to deliver lectures in this class and if you 
> have
>
> a question, raise your hand, pose your question and I'll answer it.  I 
> won't
>
> be asking you any questions.  I am not interested in hearing your
> misperceptions about municipal law."  Best class I had in law school.
> Likewise, I posted this for whatever informational value it might be to 
> the
> list, not to regenerate another mind-numbing debate about whether or not 
> to
> take a cell phone into the "wilderness."  My cell phone has a qwerty
> keyboard, takes, stores, transmits and downloads digital images and short
> videos, sends and receives voice and text messages, accesses the internet
> for instant news and weather reports, has a clock, calendar, address and
> appointment book and weighs a couple of ounces.  It is coming with.  If 
> you
> don't want to hear my phone ring, just stay the heck away.
>
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