[pct-l] [John Muir Trail] 17 year old solo female on the PCT!

[Gail Van Velzer]

I will vouch for Ned.  I also planned to do the non-existent trail back in 
1976, on horse.  My friend owned the horses and she chickened out and no one 
else wanted to go; they thought I was crazy!  I honestly didn't know the 
trail wasn't complete then.  Well, here it is, 40 years later, and I'm doing 
it!

As for the Ca. Riding & Hiking Trail, it still exists; at least most of it.

Hike on!

Maybe this is why I'm not too daunted by a heavier pack.

Golly


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ned Tibbits" <ned at mountaineducation.org>
To: <johnmuirtrail at yahoogroups.com>
Cc: <pct-l at backcountry.net>
Sent: Friday, July 25, 2014 7:25 AM
Subject: Re: [pct-l] [John Muir Trail] 17 year old solo female on the PCT!


I did!

I was 17 in 1974 when I thru-hiked the PCT and I’m still out there every 
year helping others learn the values of wilderness and how to Play Safe & 
Stay Found! There is incredible personal benefit to spending time in 
wilderness. It can bring tremendous healing to those who can spend more time 
in it.

Thus, the long-distance folks who are out there for more than a week begin 
to change on the inside without even knowing it (at least the first time) to 
the point where, after at least 3 weeks on-trail, they go through varied 
degrees of “Re-Entry” difficulty when they hit civilization and find 
themselves going home again. These difficulties for some people may be: 
having a hard time with the noise levels, the speed of life, the many 
multi-directional stimuli requiring attention and decision, sleeping on a 
bed, sitting in a chair and at a table, and maybe even talking on a phone.

Whether you experience any of these after your long trip (in excess of 3 
weeks) seems to be related to how often you go into town during that trip. 
PCT thru hikers, today, go into town often to resupply to maintain low pack 
weights. “Early” PCT hikers carried enough food for weeks at a time and 
learned (and loved) to live in the wilderness. Going to town was not really 
desired back then. If our packs were heavy, we got used to them and motored 
on. The idea was to go for a long hike away from civilization, to experience 
the mountain life for all it had to offer and teach us.

Today, it seems for many (not all) that it is about shared connectivity and 
hiking is far more social (probably due to all the people in the “herd”). 
So, unless you want to be “alone with nature,” I fear that time spent in the 
wilderness along the major thoroughfare-trails may not be as internally 
rewarding as it used to be. Of course, it all depends on where you go, when, 
with whom, and why you’re going at all.

Yes, I didn’t have a consistent “trail” to follow. They were still thinking 
about making it.

However, these were the trails I followed:

SoCal:    Dirt and asphalt roads and the California Riding & Hiking Trail 
(don’t know if it is still around),
Sierra:    John Muir Trail and Tahoe-Yosemite Trail,
NorCal:  Dirt and asphalt roads and whatever route took me in the right 
direction,
Oregon:  Oregon Skyline Trail
Wash:     Cascade Crest Trail


Ned Tibbits, Director
Mountain Education, Inc.
www.mountaineducation.org
ned at mountaineducation.org


Mission:
"To minimize wilderness accidents, injury, and illness in order to maximize 
wilderness enjoyment, safety, and personal growth, all through experiential 
education and risk awareness training."

From: mailto:johnmuirtrail at yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2014 7:54 PM
To: johnmuirtrail at yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [John Muir Trail] 17 year old solo female on the PCT!




Hey every PCTer is just a JMTer without a  of proportion.  I wish I had done 
this at 17.

On Jul 24, 2014, at 7:45 PM, jimrollins90 wrote:


Forgive me for posting about a PCTer on the JMT forum







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