{"id":424,"date":"2006-04-21T07:08:04","date_gmt":"2006-04-21T12:08:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/?p=424"},"modified":"2007-12-03T13:06:24","modified_gmt":"2007-12-03T21:06:24","slug":"a-good-pct-read","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/2006\/04\/21\/a-good-pct-read\/","title":{"rendered":"A good PCT read"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most trail journalers<\/a> are far better
\nhikers than writers, which means a fair amount of tedium trolling for bits of
\nTrail Journal entries that seem postworthy. One correspondent whose prose stands
\nout from the rest is Funnybone<\/a>,
\nwho’s already been out on the Pacific Crest Trail for most of a month. Snippets
\nfrom some recent entries:<\/p>\n

At mile 291<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Side trips, you see, are much tougher mentally—and quite often physically—than
\ntrail miles. For one, they generally mean you’re out of supplies and headed
\ninto town for more. This is a good thing in that your pack weighs next to
\nnothing, but a bad thing because you NEED more, specifically food, and when
\nyou’re low on food, you’re low on energy. Side trips are also on unknown,
\nuntested trails and while Highway 18 was hardly unknown, judging by the number
\nof cars passing by, it was still far too far to walk along a road without
\nshoulders. So, anyhow, my attempt at catching a ride was about as successful
\nas the war in Iraq to those that have died during it. In other words, not
\nat all. One by one, cars flew by at an alarming rate. Most these weren’t cars
\nat all but SUV’s, which from my understanding stands for ‘Super-sized Ultra-wasteful
\nVehicle’. Each one seemed bigger and uglier than the last; most were larger
\nthan many third world villages.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At mile 267<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The remainder of the day took me past two young section hikers, TJ and Uriah,
\nfrom Ann Arbor, Michigan. They started from I-10 three days back and are headed
\nto Big Bear City. TJ was an outspoken gal and worth a good laugh. Uriah looked
\nthe quintessential long-distance hiker: goatee, tan, dirty. We didn’t talk
\nlong as they were moving slower than even me. Shortly after out interlude
\nI reached 8,750 feet, my highest point yet. Snow was on every north facing
\nslope and made for slow(er) going. But for once, there were tracks ahead of
\nme. They belonged to a fellow by the name of ‘Witch Doctor’, who I’d met briefly
\nin Idyllwild. He was wearing a sarong at the time but I held back a snicker,
\nwhich was a good thing especially considering he had just gotten out of the
\narmed forces and a stint in Iraq. The guy could’ve killed me with his pinkie.
\n(Note to self: if you’re going to laugh at others, make sure you can take
\n’em).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At mile 252<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Let me first mention these pine cones before moving along. Though I only
\nsaw one or two today, these suckers are impressive in every sense of the word:
\ntheir size is gargantuan; they weigh as much as a bowling ball (up to 8 pounds);
\nplus, they are sharp like nobody’s business (pointy, not witty) and consequently…deadly.
\nIn 2002, I added up up all the risks I might face on my thru-hike: bears,
\nmountain lions, rattlesnakes, hypothermia, parasitic infection, chronic dehydration,
\nchronic boredom, acute mountain sickness, high-altitude pulmonary edema, Lyme
\ndisease, sprains, strains and other pains, ticks bites, Hanta virus, West
\nNile virus, gingivitis and explosive diarrhea (which is pretty much the norm
\nfor me) and the like…and not once did pine cones ever enter my mind.<\/p>\n

And so it was when a coulter pine tree set one free from its branches a hundred
\nfeet above (and not far from here) I didn’t think twice about it. That is
\nuntil it brushed off my left shoulder nanoseconds prior to impact with good
\nol’ Terra Firma. It was too late to faint but I signed myself up nonetheless.
\nThe thing would surely have killed me had it been a few inches over to the
\nright, but I suppose I’d never have known about it, even as it entered my
\nmind. Early settlers named them “coffin cones” and for obvious reasons. Anyway,
\nnowadays, I go wide around these lethal trees and take my feet, and my chances,
\nelsewhere.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You really have to read his posts in their entirety to get the full vibe, but
\nfor my money he’s one of the most fun writers on the trail this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most trail journalers are far better hikers than writers, which means a fair amount of tedium trolling for bits of Trail Journal entries that seem postworthy. One correspondent whose prose stands out from the rest is Funnybone, who’s already been…<\/p>\n

Read the whole thing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[153,107],"tags":[150,512],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}