[pct-l] To make your thru-hike seem easy by comparison...

[CHUCK CHELIN]

Good evening, all,


In an old OUTSIDE Magazine article, author Geoffrey Norman writes the
following:



“And, sometimes, it is possible to overcome an appalling ignorance of
technique, to survive almost in spite of yourself.  There is a story told to
students of a survival school, a story used to illustrate the lesson that
the school tries to teach above all others:”



“A man takes off in a small plane to fly from Arizona to California.  He
files an inaccurate flight plan, and to make matters worse, wanders off
course.  He has engine problems, and crashes in the desert.  When he is
reported overdue, the search-and-rescue effort concentrates on an area 200
miles from where he went down.”



“The man has no way of signaling.  He carries no survival equipment.  He
decides he has to walk out.  He cuts the sleeves off his shirt and the legs
off his trousers so he won’t be so hot, and he walks during the day.  He
goes past barrel cactus and other water-saturated plant life.  He crosses
dry streambeds where, if he were simply to dig a couple of feet, he would
strike water.  He ignores all sorts of edible plants and animals.  Finally,
badly sunburned, dangerously dehydrated, and very hungry, he reaches safety.
Doctors say it’s a wonder he is alive. What kept him going they ask?”



“The man says that after his plane crashed and he was alone and lost in the
desert, it occurred to him that he had never changed his power-of-attorney
and that, as he was involved in a divorce, his wife would get everything if
he died.  He couldn’t bear the thought.  Every time he felt like quitting,
he saw his wife armed what unchecked power-of-attorney and the thought of it
drove him on.”



Steel-Eye

Hiking the Pct since before it was the PCT – 1965

http://www.trailjournals.com/steel-eye

http://www.trailjournals.com/SteelEye09


On Tue, Jan 25, 2011 at 10:50 AM, Scott "Squatch" Herriott <
yetifan7 at gmail.com> wrote:

> ...I recommend seeing the film "The Way Back" which was just recently
> released.  It tells the story (possibly true, never verified) of some
> prisoners who escaped from a Soviet gulag in Siberia in the early '40s and
> trekked over 4,000 miles south toIndia.  No trails, all scrounging for
> food,
> no trail angels.  See it the night before you start.
>
>
>
> Squatch
>
> www.walkpct.com
> _______________________________________________
> Pct-L mailing list
> Pct-L at backcountry.net
> To unsubcribe, or change options visit:
> http://mailman.backcountry.net/mailman/listinfo/pct-l
>
> List Archives:
> http://mailman.backcountry.net/pipermail/pct-l/
>