[pct-l] Smoking on the trail

[Diane Soini of Santa Barbara Hikes]

Was his name Dakota John or Dakota Mike? I met a guy with that name  
(can't remember which now) in Oregon. He was hiking Southbound. He  
stopped and asked me if I had seen a lake and I said no. He got a  
really confused look on his face. We talked for a while and he  
finally realized he had hiked 5 miles in the wrong direction. So he  
turned around and hiked away. I continued on. He came back a few  
minutes later to tell me there was a really nice lake ahead off the  
PCT I should go check out. Okay, thank you. I found a spot to make  
dinner. Suddenly he appeared and we ate dinner together. He would  
talk and tell me stories and nothing he said made any sense.  
Everything was told out of order. One year would suddenly blur into  
another, one trip in one place would suddenly become someplace else.  
He was really weird. He continued hiking, then once again he turned  
back to tell me one more thing. Then I never saw him again. Funny guy  
but I guess he is somewhat well-known in the hiking community and I  
think he's from Alaska.

Back on the subject of smoking dope. I guess if it is medicinal it's  
being smoked for a different reason, but possibly not. I don't really  
care either way. I'm not a dope smoker. I met a few on the trail. I  
wasn't interested in that sort of experience so all I had to do was  
hike on.

That's the great thing about the trail. People you don't want to hang  
out with? No problem, just hike on. You can hike on by leaving early  
from town. You can hike on by passing someone when they've stopped  
for a break. You can hike on by hiking a couple extra hours in the  
evening. It takes only about 15 minutes of separation to get yourself  
back into a completely solo experience.

Last year on a section hike I met a lot of cigarette smokers. I ended  
up completing the last and final little unhiked piece of the trail  
and I celebrated by sitting in an outhouse with all these smokers.  
I'm not a smoker myself, so it was pretty hard to breath, but better  
than the smell of the toilet I guess and anyway at least these guys  
were hilariously funny. What a way to celebrate! So many weird things  
happen on the trail. Makes you appreciate all the differences of  
everybody.

On Mar 13, 2013, at 6:22 AM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:

> Subject: Re: [pct-l] Smoking on the trail
>
> This chain of emails makes me chuckle.  My wife and I were doing a  
> section
> hike in the central Oregon area and on the trip we ran into several  
> other
> hikers.  Most of them very pleasant and informed.  We did run into one
> individual who must have been on something.  He was walking along  
> the trail
> talking to himself about wondering where is was.  He had this kind  
> of dazed
> look on his face.  We stopped and talked with him for a while to  
> make sure
> he was OK.  We got out our maps and showed him where he was; he  
> thanked us
> and proceeded down the trail.  We had all these flash backs of the  
> 60's and
> 70's. and you have to remember that central Oregon PCT isn't too  
> far away
> from Eugene (University of Oregon) which is the weed capital of  
> Oregon.  We
> thought it was pretty funny.
>
> Dennis