[pct-l] Postholer PCT-L -Forum/Ned's Forum on Postholer.com

[David Thibault]

Fred,  Please don't for a second think anything on this list is related to
life of the trail.

I too find that there is way too much pettiness on this form - actual all
hiking forms (don't know why)

The trail is nothing like this.  Earlier today I was at an exhibit of Ansel
Adams photos and ran across something he said that just took me back to the
trail.  It was so good I had to write it down,  here it is:



* *I was climbing the long ridge west of Mount Clark. It was one of those
mornings where the sunlight is burnished
with a keen wind and long feathers of cloud move in a lofty sky. The silver
light turned every blade of grass and
every particle of sand into a luminous metallic splendor; there was
nothing, however small, that did not clash in
the bright wind, that did not send arrows of light through the glassy air.
I was suddenly arrested in the
long crunching path up the ridge by an exceedingly pointed awareness of the
*light*. The moment I paused, the full
impact of the mood was upon me; I saw more clearly than I have ever seen
before or since the minute detail of the
grasses ...the small flotsam of the forest, the motion of the high clouds
streaming above the peaks... I dreamed that
for a moment time stood quietly, and the vision became but the shadow of an
infinitely greater world -- and I had
within the grasp of consciousness a transcendental experience.


That is the PCT at its best.  As you can see - it is nothing like this
list.

Ignore the parts of the list that need it.  Use the list as a way to
maintain excitement and aleivate fears.  Do not confuse it with the trail.

Day-Late



Fred Wrote:



> I'm keen to thru-hike PCT but wont make it 2012.  However getting to learn
> and appreciate the trail takes time and is difficult.  I used to read the
> PCT-L on Postholer for a number of reasons (decent search so no need to
> re-ask already answered questions, no need to keep receiving mails for
> topics of no interest to me - forum format much easier for me).
>
> After reading trail journals (from many sources) the trail appealed -
> excellent countryside/wildlife, like minded other hikers, etc. However, the
> bitching here has really put me off the idea.  Bitching about whose book is
> better, whose maps are better, that somebody is making info more widely
> available.  It is not like minded hikers helping each other and newcomers
> out - it is small minded hikers bitching 'cos their egos are getting in the
> way.