[pct-l] full time trail angel

[susan]

Albert

I wanted to respond to your post on the pct-l about a full time trail angel
since I have first hand experience about it. My husband  followed me from
Mexico all the way to Canada pulling our live-in horse trailer. I rode my
horse and met Burton at most major roads.  This was great for me since I
didn't have to carry horse feed/etc and was able to cover many miles each
day. 

The problem was that Burton got tremendously bored after 30 days, even flew
home for a few weeks. This was extremely more demanding on the angel
(Burton) then on me. My job was to just ride all day long covering the miles
and enjoying the wonderful scenery and challenges of the trail. Burton was
left to worry, wait and try to fill the time day after day. He would do the
wash, shop and cook my dinner but the toll was great and his imagination
would run wild if I was off schedule. I did carry a satellite phone as well
as a Spot, but if I was late he stressed. The other down side of having him
follow was the fact that I was obligated to arrive (sometime) the expected
day thus denying me the opportunity of a layover in some remote location
which just begged for a relaxed night of camping. The pressures to meet him
many times over shadowed the wonder of the trail and while Burton was absent
I found it much easier to enjoy the trail although I had a difficult time
moving the trailer without him. I spoke to Burton about your inquiry and he
related an incident which happened around Moosehead Creek in Section O where
I was to meet him at Bartle Gap and we missed each other. I was fine,
spending a wonderful night at Moosehead Creek head waters but Burton drove
around until midnight trying to find me (I was in my tent and asleep by 8)
when we finally made connections the following day I had to pull off the
trail to settle him down. Remnants of this echoed on the rest of the trip
and along with the demands of the trail it weighed me down with guilt. It
constantly nagged at me making me feel guilty asking Burton to give up so
much for my endeavor, but we made it and we are still married! 

If your trail angel has something to fill her time such as photography or
writing you might fare better but 4 to 5 months just driving and waiting is
a pretty darn tough job and you both will find out things about each other
you might have preferred to not know! 

Burton said he would do it again and in fact we are still filling in the
parts of the trail we had to skip for one reason or another but I know to
try to keep the trip to 45 days or less. (It takes us 5 days just to get to
the PCT) so my one year adventure is taking 3 years!  

 

 

Susan Bates 

  

 <http://www.woodswitch.com> www.woodswitch.com home to my Pacific Crest
Trail journals  2009 & 2010

 

On 10/9/2010 10:38 AM, albert at survivalcrafters.com wrote:

> 

> 

> Hi All,

> 

> 

> 

> I'm starting preparations for the PCT this April. I have a roommate 

> that would like to make the trip in an RV and suggested that she could 

> prepare the food boxes ahead of me and leave them at the drop boxes as 

> I progress up the trail from Campo. On the one hand I kind of feel 

> like if I'm going to be that lazy and spoiled I might as well just 

> ride in the RV too. On the other hand since she's going to be driving 

> around in her RV anyway it would just be cheaper for me in the long 

> run and I'd have much fresher food boxes during the trip, and what 

> difference does it make if the post office or someone else puts the boxes
there?

> 

> 

> 

> I read here a while back that some people don't carry any form of 

> communications with them because that kind of builds an obligation and 

> expectations to people in the outside world during the hike and they 

> don't want those kinds of pressures during the hike, I guess I'm 

> worried about the same kind ties to an RV'er. I'm 53 and this will be 

> my first ever long hike and I'd like to hear any experiences/opinions 

> about this if you have some to share.

> 

> 

> 

> Thanks,

> 

> Albert