[pct-l] slowest hike?

David Hough on pct-l pcnst2001 at sbcglobal.net
Wed Sep 19 08:30:07 CDT 2012


Was the slowest through-hiker candidate mentioned the same Chuckie that
said "First one to Canada loses?"

Anyway I recently finished section hiking at an odd time and place -
the Pete Lake Trail junction in WA section J on September 6.     But that's
where the last step was.     It took 12 years from when I started hiking
the whole trail intentionally, or 40 years from when I started by doing
the North Lake - Muir Pass - South Lake loop.      
I'll probably never get to do the frog closure section in the Angeles NF.
Some of the other 
asterisks on my diploma can be inspected at
http://pcnst.oakapple.net/future/
Speaking of asterisks, you didn't forget the narrow strip of trail
on the north side of Hwy 12 at White Pass between the horse camp and
the campground road, and the narrow strip on the north side of Rainy Pass
between the parking area and the highway?

I'd like to thank all those who helped over the years.    Nobody does this
trail alone.     
For section hikers, it's the people who help with car shuttles
that make it all possible.     Eventually I hope to put a complete list on
my web site.    It's a long list though.

The other big group that makes it all feasible is the trail maintainers.
WA Section I was pretty much immaculate except for some overgrowing
huckleberry bushes - and there was just one drizzly day to make those
troublesome.         I saw the cars for a WTA work party at Stirrup Creek late in Auguest and benefitted from their labors a day later.
And just off the PCT in section J, somebody had been hard at work making
the best of a bad situation on the Waptus Pass trail which I remembered
uncharitably from when I had to bypass that part of the PCT around 2003.

Many through-hikers passed me in the Aug 28-Sep 6 time period.     They've
all finished now, or will very soon.    The flip side of "not much rain"
is "too many forest fires" and it seems practically impossible for anybody 
to hike the entire official route in one year.      Although most fires
are natural, I too have been surprised by the number of stories of fires
along set by hikers.    PCT hikers.    PCT through-hikers.     Like
everything else on the PCT, it's necessary to plan around the fact that
it never goes completely according to plan.


Thank you all!


David Hough



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