[pct-l] The Crazy Ones

[Reinhold Metzger]

Stephen,
Your offer of sharing a beer at a trail head bar sounds mighty good 
after being raked over the coals by a few humorless grouchy old men and 
women who think they are the self appointed critics of the list and 
can't seem to differentiate the difference between a joke and straight 
talk, take everything 100% serious and get all bend out of shape when 
somebody strays from their idea of morality and appropriate list topics 
( zip locks & weather reports ).
I usually ignore their crap.
I don't know if their delete  buttons don't work or if they don't know 
how to use them....what I don't understand, why do they even read our 
posts...JoAnn keeps telling me she does not open my posts...if that is 
the case how does she know what I say?
You are right, judging by some of the questions, some of those PCT 
hikers probably should not even be on the trail and the high drop out 
rate supports that.
The list used to be more exiting when hiking greats like Scott, Andy, 
Bryon, Tattoo Joe and Adam participated and PCT  & JMT record attempt 
progress reports were posted on the list.
If you wonder why Scott, Andy, Bryon, Joe, and Adam no longer seem to 
participate on the list.....it's because they got tired of the bull and 
getting slammed by the purists who could not understand why anybody 
would want to speed through pristine
wilderness instead of sundering and smelling the roses......this seems 
to aggravate a few people.
I like to smell the roses, but sometimes I also like to challenge myself.
There is something to be said about setting extremely high goals and 
then pushing your body to the extreme to achieve those goals.

I like the way Bryon Robinson put it when I was getting slammed 
merciless  by the purists after Deems posted the 2003 San Diego Union 
article  about my JMT  speed hike......Bryon said........"Reinhold, some 
folks don't understand us, they just don't understand the crazy things 
we do......but we crazy ones, we understand each other".

JMT Reinhold
One of the crazy ones
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Stephen wrote:
Learn what? I figured one thing out that I learned reading most of the 
posts here, that hiking the PCT has become somewhat of a joke. Is this 
list here to baby folks along who probably shouldn't be out there to 
begin with? If you can't let a little verbal comment slide off because 
you disagree with someone else's sense of humor I feel sorry for you. 
I'd rather buy Reinhold a beer near some Sierra trail head this summer 
than try and get along with a bunch of sissies that can not leave home 
without an electronic umbilical coil, like GPS, sat phones, email etc, 
etc... Makes me kinda wonder about some of you all. Just because the 
trail is there does not necessarily mean everyone should be out there. 
Next time a thru-hiker hits me up for a ride to town I'm gonna inquire 
if they have a phone and if so then suggest they call a cab. I've read 
some good stuff here, most of it humor actually, but as far as actually 
helpful information regarding the PCT it's pretty thin with an awful 
amount of needles and repetitive information that is starting to 
irritate me to the point I figure to just turn it off any day now. I 
think there are two people hiking currently I hope to meet, and that's 
about it. Not a very good percentage in my book, not enough to intice me 
to want to hike along the trail and be a part of the flow and what's 
going on. Nope, this list caused me to change my mind about the PCT, and 
the way people are approaching it. Hike your own hike for sure, but 
please do it somewhere I don't have to associate with you all.