[pct-l] Thru numbers

[Scott Williams]

Diane's right.  It is easy not to get caught up in groups if you don't want
to.  I met solo hikers who would spend an afternoon or a few hours
socializing on trail, and then just continue on when we stopped for the
night.  Free Bird was that way.  We hiked along for several days together
north of Tahoe, but he'd always go off at night to find his own private
spot and then we might see each other or might not.  The deep conversations
made a friendship that has lasted.  When we met again in Yellowstone, me
Nobo and he Sobo on the CDT this year, it was like old home week.  We sat
down in the trail and started right where we had left off.  We talked so
long and so deep I didn't make it to camp till nearly dark.  But he chose
who he hiked with and when he wanted solitude, and lived a beautiful
balance of the two.

And Yogi's comment about the quality of all the thrus she met recently
while doing trail magic at Walker Pass is really important.  You don't have
to meet anyone if you don't want to, but you may be missing out on getting
to know some of the finest people you'll ever meet.  If the folks I met on
trail, both the PCT and the CDT are representative, this activity attracts
an amazing array of intelligent, caring and brilliant folks.  People who
are worth knowing.  I hiked alone and with a number of groups and they
consisted of some of the finest, most interesting and spiritually deep
people I've ever met.  Finding a pool of kindred spirits, all about the
same activity, is just plain marvelous.  They range from doctors and
lawyers to writers, artists, poets and philosophers, professional trail
workers, clergy, retired armed forces and to so many young folks just out
of college or just deciding to go to college or not.  I've since had many
of these hikers to my home and done off trail, trail magic, just to be in
their company again.  It is a rare group overall.  There are undoubtedly a
few bad apples, but it is a very small percentage of the total.  When I'm
on trail and see a thru hike rig on someones shoulders and smell that
awful, "I'm a thru hiker aroma", my immediate reaction is "Ah, we've gotta
talk."  And it's usually worth a break on trail.

I wouldn't worry about not getting your solitude.  It is a very long trail
and many days you could hike without seeing anyone if you didn't want to.
 But when you meet a few, you may want to meet more.  The good ones are the
largest percentage of the whole.

Shroomer


On Tue, Jun 11, 2013 at 5:31 PM, Diane Soini <dianesoini at gmail.com> wrote:

> If you don't want to deal with the group-think, just don't get caught
> up in a group. Walk on through. Let people sleep in on town stops
> while you instead get up early and hit the trail again. You'll
> probably enjoy the people you meet, but there is no rule you have to
> fall into a group and stay there. Just walk on through.
>
> If you really want true solitude, find a way to get ahead of
> everyone. Either split your hike into sections that you do multiple
> years, or split it into sections you do in one year. For example,
> start at Lake Tahoe and go north, then return and go south. Or do
> some of So Cal (Section A, half of B, Section E and maybe F) early in
> the season (like February/March/early April) so you can skip those
> parts later and get ahead of everyone. Or do what the Wilderness
> Press guide book suggested which was to leave the JMT part for last
> and end your hike on Mt. Whitney.
>
> On Jun 11, 2013, at 10:00 AM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:
>
> > Subject: Re: [pct-l] Thru numbers
> >
> > On that note, aside from off season hiking, are there any good
> > suggestions
> > on avoiding getting caught up with this type of herd? Based on the
> > blogs
> > I've been following for the 2013 group, it seems to be a recurring
> > theme of
> > group-think, and folks 'dealing' with the trail to get to the next
> > town
> > stop. For 2014 I plan to start early (conditions permitting) with
> > the idea
> > of the hike taking precedence over the social experience.
>
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