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<TITLE>This odd PCT-L experience continues...</TITLE>
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<FONT FACE="Helvetica">Hereıs some e-mail I received privately last night, in its totality, from list-member g l, in response to my attempt above (³replies to g l, and Jeffreyn²) to explain my position. She then wrote me off the list:<BR>
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</FONT>³I wear my "emotionally held" response proudly and consider it just as valid as your "pseudo-intellectual" BS. I won't be drawn into an endless debate with you (who is the one with the closed mind, incidentally). Get over yourself and give credit where credit is due. We are all aware that, as in all areas of life, there is always someone who has done more, had more and known more. (I do not consider you to be in the latter group). That in NO WAY diminishes those that have hiked thru blisters, dehydration, poison ivy and oak, lightening strikes, hurricanes, sun burn, hypothermia, tendonitis, hunger, heat rash, life-defying fords, lost trails, dangerous human encounters, stolen gear, etc, etc.......even with a map and guidebook. I suggest you stop "living in your head" and try operating from your heart and gut on occasion. If you dared to succeed at that "journey" (I doubt you have the courage), you may wind up being interested in hearing about others life adventures, as I was in your experience on the costal trail, originally.......instead of judging us as "wanting" and not measuring up to your pitiful and transparent standards. I will leave the rest of the hiking community to feed on you from this point on........²<BR>
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Whew.... Apparently, this is how someone behaves when theyıre operating with their heart, as she prescribes. Once again, I know there are good, solid folks here, but there sure are some screwballs - people with whom thereıs no sense talking. Unfortunately, the distance hiking community (in its totality, good and bad both) is something which, over the last 10 years, Iıve become increasingly embarrassed to be part of. It can't be counted on to behave itself well. It used to be, when a person went on a long hike, they stepped away from the madness of society to do something apart from it. Now, the various elements of social madness are in full flame among my fellow trail hikers - moreso than in the non-hiking world, apparently. Iıve never had an episode like this result from sharing my story and thoughts with non-hiking people Iıve met along the way. <BR>
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Below is my response to Paul Magnantiıs post, above (titled - ³(no subject)²):<BR>
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</FONT>Hey Paul - <BR>
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My point was that it's bad form to use PCT-L to laugh at, or make fun of, or cuss at other hikers behind their back. Particularly when your information source is as bad as Reinhold is at that task, so that you're not even working from good factual awareness of things. I'm not angry at you, or anybody about this, but I am disappointed and saddened. I just hope a result of this is that some list members get a glimmer of an idea not to use PCT-L to do it to someone else down the line. <BR>
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Is it too much to ask list-members to keep their gossip and insults among themselves, without picking on innocent people who were simply walking by? Judging from the responses I've received, both at the list and privately, that's more than many distance hikers are willing to do. Whatever. <BR>
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My future long walks will be done by "stealth hiking" (something I decided to do before I joined this list, and for reasons beyond this experience) - telling other distance hikers I meet that I'm only out for a week, not signing in registers as one, and maybe going by various names, so they'll ignore me. None of that is difficult, and I like the payoff, but it is weird. It's one more level of amusement to play in, with the added benefit of a greater chance for being left alone by the "tar-baby" distance hiking community. I never thought I'd see the day when civilians (non-trail/hiking people) could be counted on to act more straightforwardly and less obnoxiously than fellow distance hikers. But my experience with this and elsewhere tells that it has clearly arrived.<BR>
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Things run full circle. When I started distance hiking, there was no such thing as a "distance hiking community" - just loose friendships between folks who met on the Trail. I never bargained for such a thing, and it's never played a role in my enjoyment of the activity. I've tried to co-exist, but it's like a kudzu vine that's grown over the tree of distance hiking itself so the entire tree is covered. Now, itıs become too much of a drag on enjoyment of the activity. I'll apparently need to take special camouflage measures, while outwardly acting like the community doesn't exist, to best ensure I can go about my hiking business unmolested by it. Being a member of the distance hiking community has become an exceedingly poor thing to take pride in. So very, very strange. <BR>
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After living out of my pack for so long, I've got a serious backlog of things to do now that I'm home again, and this has been one of them. I found the thread Reinhold started last Thanksgiving, in early January at the Santa Monica library, on a layover day, and tucked it away as something to deal with when I got home. I donıt do correspondence, except with home base, when Iım on a long walk. I'll probably stay on this list a week or two, then unsubscribe. Internet chatterboxes are too much of time-wasters for me to participate. Once every couple of months, I scan through a few like this one to see what the topics are about; but Iıve got too many other things to do than invest much time in them. I subscribed here last Saturday to address this issue, and will shortly get on to other things.<BR>
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If you could find your way not to join in this sort of activity the next time an opportunity arrives, Paul, that would be good.<BR>
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- O.d.<BR>
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Folks, the matter Iım raising here isnıt about me. I am simply an example. Itıs about how the distance hiking community behaves. I hope other list-members get a handle on the obnoxiousness of using PCT-L to tee up innocent passersby to bat around among yourselves. Please donıt do it. Thatıs my message.<BR>
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There are those fires in SoCal, understandably a topic of more pressing and wider concern right now than anything Iım saying. But it does strike me that the topics Iıve raised were something people here were far happier to talk about behind my back last November, without knowing any solid facts what I believe, than anyone is now when Iım here to talk about them, in front of me. They are no less relevant now, than they were then; they arenıt time-dependent issues. Why do people prefer gossiping about shadows of things instead of interacting directly with the maker of that shadow? Makes me wonder what anyone means when they tell me (as several have, thru private e-mail) to ³get a life.² A hard-to-deny conclusion is that this is a place where various people are happier to do the opposite.
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