[pct-l] Music on the Trail and Rain Gear

Tue Feb 19 07:59:44 CST 2013

Nathan,

Please accept my apologies for my comment re: cell phones on the trail. It
was needlessly snarky and judgmental, and I should never have posted it.

After posting it, I realized that it was just a shallow and narrow-minded
expression of my idealized vision of what the trail "should" or "could" be
(or at one time, perhaps, "was"), a vision in which cell phones and MP3
players and the like don't figure. But that's MY vision, and it certainly
doesn't have to be yours or anyone else's. I do like the idea of a truly
wild place, like to believe that such places may still exist, but I'm
dubious about my ability to survive them if they do. And clearly the PCT is
no longer that ... if it ever was. I don't know if such places exist
anymore. After all, as someone wisely pointed out on this forum some months
ago, as much as we may believe in the Leave No Trace philosophy, the trail
itself is, of course, a trace. I wouldn't be hiking it if it weren't. After
all, I'm not going off into uncharted territory in the backcountry in
Alaska, or the Congo. And I AM bringing my ULA Circuit and Platypus
Gravityworks filtration system, and doing most of my planning via Google
and the Interwebs....

So again, please accept my sincere apology for my comment. As they say, you
hike your hike, I'll hike mine....

-dz

--
Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.
    --Buddhist proverb
-----------------------------------
Daniel Zellman, LMT, CMLDT
TX lic. #: MT115984

Tel.: 512.293.9315
danielzellman at gmail.com
www.sunnatamassage.com

On Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 11:00 PM, Nathan A <nathan4517 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Shroomer, good point on the durability I did not assume there would be all
> that much bushwhacking based on the pictures I have seen of the trail and
> my experience hiking around in Arizona. I do have a proper rain jacket just
> trying to safely shave some weight while I get my trail legs and for the
> extra water. I am also considering a poncho and I guess regardless pack
> just a little extra duct tape..
>
> Daniel,
> I do not have interest in cell phone service (3G) on the trail, unless it
> is an emergency, I would do all of my downloading in towns on WiFi.
>
> Thanks,
> Nathan
>
>
> On Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 9:16 PM, Daniel Zellman <danielzellman at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Well, that's a bit of a relief, I must say!
>>
>> Call me a Luddite, but I find it disturbing to think there WOULD be cell
>> service for all but a few hundred miles of trail.
>>
>> But I guess it's probably little more than a vain hope to think it might
>> be possible to escape the tyranny of cell phones even on the PCT in this
>> day and age [he writes from his cell phone ... ah, the irony, the irony....]
>>
>> -dz
>>
>> On Monday, February 18, 2013, Scott Williams wrote:
>>
>>> We didn't have cel service for days at a time all the way to Canada.  You
>>> will pick it up in most towns and hit and miss on trail but the dead zone
>>> wasn't just the first 300 miles, at least not for my Verizon cel.
>>>
>>> As for rain gear, I used mine more in the lower deserts than in the San
>>> Jacintos and that was just due to the vagaries of the weather in 2010.
>>>  We
>>> got snowed on 3 times in the desert but never in the desert mountains.
>>> What that meant was that we were wearing our rain jackets on overgrown
>>> chaparral trails.  I started out with a Dry Ducks jacket which is heavier
>>> than your one dollar plastic, but still pretty weak stuff, and the brush
>>> tore it to shreads in a day or two of use.  After 2 weeks on trail I went
>>> to KO and bought a real rain jacket that lasted me to Canada.  I used a
>>> light weight rain jacket that also doubles for the wind jacket plus a
>>> mylar
>>> umbrella on the rest of the PCT in 2010 and on the CDT in 2012.
>>>
>>> Some of the coldest and most inclement weather of the whole PCT hike was
>>> in
>>> the deserts, and I don't mean the desert mountains.   If you plan on
>>> heavier rain gear for the Sierra, I'd start with it right off as the
>>> trail
>>> in the Sierra is much more open and brush free than some of the desert
>>> trails.  Try and push your way through chamise or manzanita overgrown
>>> trail
>>> while it's snowing or raining and you may not be wearing plastic for too
>>> long.
>>>
>>> Shroomer
>>>  On Feb 18, 2013 8:16 AM, "Nathan A" <nathan4517 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> > Hello Everyone,
>>> > My wife and I are going to bring our 16GB Iphones to use for camera,
>>> music
>>> > player, Audiobook player ect.
>>> >
>>> > Obviously having enough space for everything is going to become an
>>> issue
>>> > quickly  and I just wanted to share some ideas we have and any hear if
>>> > anyone has been successful with this approach.
>>> >
>>> > I went a little crazy with signing up for cloud storage through
>>> Dropbox(2GB
>>> > Free), Google Drive (5GB Free), and Box(Got a promo with 50GB Free).
>>> >
>>> > We will be using Dropbox to upload all of our photos then family back
>>> home
>>> > will pull them off the drive weekly for us and burn them to a CD.  We
>>> can
>>> > then delete all of the photos from our phone for the next section of
>>> trail.
>>> >
>>> > I will upload extra copies of Halfmiles Maps, Cell Reception Reports,
>>> > Resupply Spreadsheet, ect as backups to Google Docks as needed.
>>> >
>>> > Finally, I will upload all of my music and audio books to Box and as I
>>> find
>>> > WiFi in towns I will just download whatever audio books or music I am
>>> > interested in.  I have not bought the app yet but they do sell a $2
>>> audio
>>> > player that I still need to play with.
>>> >
>>> > Looking over the WiFi report it seems like there is easily accessible
>>> WiFi
>>> > all over the trail other than perhaps the 1st 300 miles.
>>> >
>>> > Has anyone else had experience with this?
>>> >
>>> > Completely different question: I am thinking of bringing a wind jacket,
>>> > Mylar umbrella, and just a cheep $1 plastic emergency poncho as my rain
>>> > gear until Kennedy Meadows. Obviously my biggest concern is the San
>>> > Jacinto's. Does this seem sufficient rain coverage for the amount of
>>> rain
>>> > typically seen on this section of trail?
>>> >
>>> > Thanks Everyone and see you in a few months!
>>> > Nathan
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>>
>>
>> --
>> -dz (mobile)
>>
>
>