[pct-l] social interaction / dealing with disagreeable people...

[jason moores]

Contrary to the trail/list, in my other life I am not a social person. Most who know me probobly consider me quiet and hard to communicate with. On the trail I'm a bit of a social butterfly. There's something about being surrounded by like minded people that brings it out.  I'm quick to engage and find myself at ease around hikers. 

In SoCal you will have to go way out of your way to stay away from others. Hikers naturally congregate at water sources, trail towns and Angles houses. This doesn't mean that you need to join any particular clique. Being more social on the trail doesn't make me a joiner. I travel at my own pace and am happy to chat with whomever I meet, passing back and forth from hiker to hiker and group to group.

Lastly, I have found it easy to avoid the personalities that I clash with on the trail. I push a few extra miles and poof-they're gone.

Jackass


> Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2011 09:45:59 -0800
> From: baidarker at gmail.com
> To: gerry0625 at gmail.com
> CC: pct-l at backcountry.net
> Subject: Re: [pct-l] social interaction / dealing with disagreeable people...
> 
> Good points Tom. And Paul, over the entire trip last year, I only met one
> person I didn't care to spend time with, and it was the constant stonedness,
> and centrality of drugs that was the issue for me as well, but none of the
> flaming rhetoric that occurs on the list.  I didn't meet anyone on trail who
> was a flat out asshole.  And bonding with others on trail was a wonderful
> part of the hike for me.  The morning might be spent talking music,
> philosophy, art, beauty, health, food, sex, politics, love, or be just
> quiet.  But the people and groups I hiked with, I really liked.  And it was
> no problem bonding with new folks when extra zero's or a different pace
> broke up a certain hiking group.  It was just great to get to know the new
> bunch.  Some, however, I traveled 1,500 miles or more with, and felt just as
> good about them at the end as at the begining.
> 
> You and Echo are two people who will never have a problem picking up friends
> on trail.  That is clear to me from the begining sections we did together.
>  Tom's points about the relative anonymity of email posts is spot on.  It's
> kind of akin to road rage, where the anonymity of not really having to look
> another human in the face, can bring out the real jerk in many people.
> 
> Shroomer
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