[pct-l] Ray Day

[CHUCK CHELIN]

Good morning,

I don’t often come to the defense of Ray Jardine because his PCT books
contain a substantial amount of baloney however, considering the
state-of-the-art in the mid-90s when his first book was published he has
done the hiking world a favor by promoting light-weight, long-distance
hiking in general and PCT hiking in particular.

His book was published in an era that many of you do not remember: when The
Net was in its infancy -- unavailable to most prospective hikers – and
email was relatively new.  As a result most information-sharing about
hiking was by dead-tree media, word-of-mouth, and snail-mail, but they are
slow and expensive.  Print-media had to rely upon a large audience to be
commercially viable. Long-distance PCT hikers are an incredibly small
demographic which Jardine successful addressed; much to his credit.  His
information was basic and often superficial but that was OK because there
was little competition offering anything better.

Regarding “Ray Day”: Sierra entry date can be an important decision so it
deserves comment by a serious writer; but compared to the information
available today Jardine’s experience was very limited.  He gave it his best
shot, and absent any better information it’s OK to use in practice.

Nowadays with lists like PCT-L, numerous books, websites, blogs, trail
journal sites, shared hike preparation and management tools, snow tracking
reports, and a much larger and more solid core of hiker experience
Jardine’s book should be looked upon as an interesting history rather than
a prime-path way to plan and conduct a PCT hike.

Enjoy your planning,

Steel-Eye

-Hiking the Pct since before it was the PCT – 1965

http://www.trailjournals.com/steel-eye
http://www.trailjournals.com/SteelEye09/