I’ve been thinking about picking a hiker at random at TrailJournals and just following him/her along as the trip progresses, with posts here grabbing snippets of journal entries.

This morning I found an intriguing prospect: A guy named Eric Yakel, a retired sheriff’s deputy who lives four miles from the Pacific Crest Trail. Eric had his 2005 PCT hike all planned out — a huge undertaking, setting up food and mail drops for over 2,000 miles of hiking — but he didn’t anticipate one thing: a bad reaction to Lipitor, that cholesterol-control medication. Five days into his hike he became so disoriented (he has no memory of this) that the guys he was hiking with had to call 911 and escort him to a waiting ambulance. Eric found out later that 10 percent of the people who take Lipitor have this negative reaction to extreme exertion. Just his luck.

So I’m thinking Eric is highly motivated to finish the whole trail this year, if he’s physically able. The fact that he had to drop out last year adds a whole “can he do it?” component. You know, because we must have drama.

Eric’s working trail name is Shalako. Here’s where it comes from:

My good friend Dave Koepke and I had taken several trips to the High Sierra to Backpack and fish over the past years starting around 1977. In addition to hiking and fishing, we also shared a love for Louis L’Amour western novels. One novel’s name is Shalako. It is the name of the Zuni Indian Rain God.

For about 3-4 years straight, every time we went to the Sierras it rained to some degree. One time for seven straight days (unheard of in the Sierras). He of course blamed me for the rain and after this particularly wet trip he told me I was “shalako”. It seems that I have lived up to that name for the most part. My son won’t go anymore because every time we hit the Sierras to fish, it rains. I have also attracted rain on trips in various other locations and hikes.

So, if you were thinking of hiking with me, you might want to reconsider. That is the TRUE story. Shalako

Sounds like a good guy to take on a trip across the Sahara.

So anyway: Good luck Eric, we’ll be stopping by now and again to see how your plans are progressing.