[pct-l] For newcomers...

Fri Nov 21 21:43:16 CST 2008

Jeff,
I'd meet you soul-to-soul any day. I'd probably run away from you in  
the morning, like I did from everybody I met, but I'd miss you  
terribly once I did. You're cool.

Dang I want to go hiking! Why does it have to forecast rain next  
week?! :cry:

~Piper.
On Nov 21, 2008, at 6:51 PM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:
>
> One of the great attributes of this listserv is that everyone is on  
> the
> virtual trail, on our best behavior when we meet someone, and as the
> relationship develops and deepens, we show our warts.
>
>
> I remember meeting Gizmo, Donkey and Godman on the second day of their
> section hike (stevens pass to Whitney) and crossing paths for 500  
> miles
> or so til I left the trail.  My friend Deniece and I passed their  
> tents
> a couple mornings in a row, chortling about sleeping in.  We actually
> met them face-to-face hiking up past Spectacle Lake.  It was a 17 mile
> day for us, and we were absolutely wasted.  Gizmo got the falls  
> section
> and stood on the bridge and howled.  Deniece and I, she at 39, me  
> at 54,
> laughed in appreciative, tired humor - the enthusiasms of youth.   The
> three had just graduated from college and were "doing their tour."  We
> veered off to the lake while they took our recommendation and spent  
> the
> night on the ridge above.
>
>
> I drank many beers with them at the brewpub in Cascade Locks.   
> Gizmo was
> a philosophy major, musician and angst driven.  Donkey was an engineer
> and big thinker, from working class roots, and as down to earth as any
> 22 year old man can be.  Godman was a wanna-be-lawyer on his way to
> Boalt or some such prestigious law school.
>
>
> I'm in contact with all three, albeit once a year emails.  Donkey
> stopped by a year ago on his way to Oregon to start a new job that  
> would
> send him to India to work with different villages, teaching them  
> how to
> build environmentally friendly stoves.  We smoked some very, very  
> strong
> pot - I'm an intermittant smoker now - we have a random drug testing
> policy at work - and I wasn't used to be really, really high with  
> other
> people in the room.  We ended up playing scrabble for hours after
> reminsicing about our 05 trip.
>
>
> The point I'm making is that intense relationships develop rapidly on
> the trail.  When Jane and I were hiking from Lassen to Whitney in 1991
> we met the northbound pack, and spent time in Sierra City with a  
> couple
> guys with whom we bonded intensely.  And we weren't even hiking with
> them.  When the busyness of day to day civilized life is sloughing off
> like old skin, I found I revel in being with someone who can manage my
> intensity.  For the most part, that's other thru- and section hikers.
> The people who leave drinks and offer rides - trail angels - were  
> really
> nice, but to me, they always seemed a little outside.  I appreciated
> their efforts and concern, but the bonding wasn't there.  Appreciation
> is huge...
>
>
> Hiking as a couple insulates.  The long conversations within lack of
> surfacing civilized bus-y-ness simply don't happen.  I'd be interested
> to hear if this is so for others who have hiked as couples.  When I've
> hiked as a single person, I can meet someone really quickly, and  
> really
> deeply, and the bond generated could be lifelong - if my bus-y-ness  
> when
> I re-enter the regular would let me take time to visit, or even  
> call.  I
> remember meeting a thruhiker in 1994 next to Dorothy Lake who'd  
> started
> a month after the pack, and was about to catch them.  The hour we  
> spend
> together was magical.  We exchanged info, but neither of us did  
> anything
> after our trips.  That's probably normal.  Is it???
>
>
> I also have found that the younger you are, the more likely you are to
> be uncomfortable being alone.  Have others seen this too???
>
>
> Let me say I'd much rather hike with a lover than alone.  The  
> memories I
> have of the 30 days I spent on the trail with Jane in 1991 are some of
> the most powerful in my life.  Some of them do involve sex - I will  
> just
> say that making love in a sun-filled meadow at mid-day 100' off the
> trail on a blue foam pad is simply wonderful. No weirdness here.   
> Just a
> really, really fond and vibrant memory...  The conversations that  
> go on
> 24/7 with a lover do nothing but add to the intensity of being on the
> trail and losing bus-y-ness.  My next trip - hopefully in 2010 -  
> will be
> with a someone who can become a lover, at least an intense friend.
>
>
> A little less, I'd rather hike with a friend than alone.  I've been
> hiking with Deniece for five years or so, a week each summer, and her
> husband "loans" her to me.  I joke, but it's almost true.  His idea  
> of a
> vacation is a B&B in London and a play every night.  She's a  
> friend, and
> because she's younger, can outwalk me when I come from work to the  
> trail.
>
>
> When I start a section hike, I'm usually out of shape. My folks put a
> pack on my back when I was eight years old, and my body remembers what
> hiking is.  If I am able to hike for four or five weeks, I move beyond
> the "potential injury due to pot belly" stage into feeling vibrant and
> powerful.  I read a book a couple years ago named, "Why Michael can't
> Hit."  It was written by a sports physiologist and he argued that  
> bodily
> memory is pretty much cemented by the age of 15.  The earlier you  
> start
> a sport, or anything for that matter, the greater the possibility is
> that you'll be good at it.  When I hit the trail, I'm home...  As long
> as I don't sprain an ankle, I'll drop a pound a day until  
> homeostasis...
>
>
> I find it amazing how quickly the bus-y-ness drops away now.  A week
> alone and I'm walking down the trail ready to meet someone
> soul-to-soul.  The sloughing is quicker as I grow older and spend more
> time on the trail.  To be sure many times the early 20s hikers and I
> meet, but it's awkward.  A couple summers ago on a section hike I met
> two men and a woman at Richardson Lake in the central Sierra.  I'd
> camped at one end of the dirt 4 wheel drive tracks, and they came in
> late and camped at the other end.  There were lots of mosquitos, which
> don't bother me much.  That was the topic of our conversation as I
> headed out at 6AM.  They were waking up and coping while I was on the
> trail and reveling.  I wanted to bond, but it wasn't there...
>
>
> In 1994 I was camped at Lemiti Creek in central Oregon, in my tent an
> hour before sunset, reading, dozing, ready to sleep.  Five guys  
> came in,
> set up camp 20' from me, built a fire, and proceeded to smoke pot and
> get wild.  20' away...
>
>
> Finally, I got up and pretended I was a loony, excoriating them for
> being noisy in the gentle quietness of Oregon's forest, but finally
> accepting a couple hits from mediocre pot.  I still got up the next
> morning and left before they were stirring...
>
>
> I'd rather hike with a friend than alone.  But you know, I'm  
> planning to
> hike for a month this summer from Castella to Bend or Mt. Hood -
> depending on mileage - alone.  I get really quirky when I hike  
> alone.  I
> become hyper-aware and time slows to a crawl.  I like it when I'm  
> out of
> shape.  I walk and lie down, nap, read and then sleep, and that's it.
> When I get in shape, and have done my 20 miles by 3PM, I'm antsy.  I
> don't have experience pushing the mileage beyond the low 20s - I guess
> it's my frontier.  I don't read when I'm in shape.  I need something
> else.  Hmmm...
>
>
> I think that's why I've accepted I like hiking with a friend.  It's  
> like
> developing an idea with a someone and writing a manuscript  
> together.  I
> have my life and they theirs, but we have a common project - hiking -
> and that's enough...
>
>
> Jeffrey Olson
> Martin, SD
> "Jeff, just Jeff," said to the cadence of "Bond, James Bond."