[pct-l] Impact of WILD on PCT numbers

[Diane Soini of Santa Barbara Hikes]

I went to hear her read excerpts from her book and do a book signing.  
It seemed to me from the things she said that basically out west, she  
talks a lot more about the trail because more people know about  
hiking-related things but almost anywhere else she goes, nobody is  
interested in the trail. And overall, MOST people are interested in  
the relationship part of the book and consider the trail part to be  
more like a vehicle to tell the story of getting over her mom's  
death, which indeed it is. Several people who got up to ask questions  
after her talk were very interested in one day hiking the trail or  
they were currently working on sections. I didn't get a sense that  
overwhelmingly everybody wanted to rush out and hike the PCT. Just as  
many or more people got up to ask questions about details in the book  
regarding her relationship with her mother or to ask about how to be  
a writer.

On Jan 30, 2013, at 8:59 PM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:

> From: Lindsey Sommer <lgsommer at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [pct-l] Impact of WILD on PCT numbers
>
> I remember there was several threads discussing this last year  
> (maybe?) and
> I think that we concluded that it COULD increase the number of people
> starting in socal. But then we also concluded that reading a book  
> doesn't
> mean you can hike the entire trail (because it's really hard), so  
> there
> could also be more people dropping out.
>
> Should be interesting this year to compare the numbers though.
>
>
> On Wed, Jan 30, 2013 at 3:32 AM, Paul Mitchell <paul at bluebrain.ca>  
> wrote:
>
>> I'm wondering if the popularity of "WILD" has translated into  
>> increased
>> numbers of hikers on the PCT.  Anyone have any thoughts on this?