[pct-l] 2010 thru hiker updates - PCT Blues

[Scott Williams]

Man am I with you Slow and Steady!  I've always backpacked, and looked
forward to the next season, but thru hiking is really different, and leaves
a much bigger hole in your life when you're done.  And everyone I'm in
contact with from 2010 is feelin' the same way.  Neon is thinking of the CDT
in 2011, and Smiles is going to attempt it in 2012, and do the Pyrenees High
trail this year.  Golden Child is thinking of more hiking, as are all the
other folks I hiked with.  Especially in the winter, I keep climbing our
local mountain, but what I want to do is just start again in April with the
rest of you, and do it all again.  So any of you out there planning, just do
it.

I hadn't planned on thru hiking, so I actually did very little planning,
except for the first 5 weeks in the desert.  When I realized I just couldn't
stop, I got Eric's maps for the rest of the trail, and more of Yogi's pages,
set up a few food boxes at the last minute, and just went.  And it worked
out fine.  Hell it worked out really fine.  So all the logistics that seem
so daunting, really aren't. there's always somewhere to get off to to buy
food if you run out.  And Paul, I studied the maps a lot, but that's from
years of relying on maps, and read Yogi's pages every evening in my sack, so
as to have an idea of what was coming up the next day.  The two were really
useful for me.

Shroomer