[at-l] Weathercarrot post about "after finishing" the PCT

[Debbie_Smith@Millipore.com]

Hi guys (and gals),

I got this email from Weathercarrot... he had posted it to PCT-L and some
friends, and said he didn't know whether AT-L would be interested but I
could forward it if I thought you would.  Since I know we all love reading
about ANY trail, here it is.  Interesting numbers compared to the AT.

Twilight
GA>ME '98

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Hi -

Not having been on pct-l for quite some time, I have no idea what ya'll are
aware of, so I thought I'd post an account of our trip to Rainy Pass over
the last 2-3 days.

I finished my thru-hike at Manning Park with my friend Laura a week ago,
and
after several days of hanging out around Seattle, we suddenly had the
opportunity, thanks to Fannypack, to head up to Rainy Pass. Initially it
was
for the purpose of tracking down "H", "Pretzel", and "Stitch", whom Laura
and I hadn't seen since CA. It ended up turning into an awesome parade of
24
thru-hikers going by in less than 24 hours. So we stayed put in our
campsite
15 minutes from the road and fed them all (including me, with far too many
hotdogs eaten - I felt rather ill all night). The three previously
mentioned
thru-hikers showed up just as expected, and we were pleasantly surprised to
also see several more that we hadn't seen in months and had no idea what
had
become of them. This included Bluefoot, Drew, Tapeworm, Joe, E-dawg, Llama
and Second Wind, plus many that we hadn't met yet. Sitting around for hours
in those two evenings brought us right back into the whole thru-hiker
community mindset that we were already starting to feel distant from after
six days in the city. It was great to finally be on the other side of the
trail-magic scenario after receiving so much out there over the last five
months. But credit for all of it goes to Fannypack, who's enthusiasm and
generosity was very evident. Best of all was just watching the surprise on
their faces when they came across us in a most unexpected spot, and just
feeling connected with them in general as we hung out.  Definitely a great
experience to have in the week between a finished thru-hike and the
ALDHA-west Gathering.

For those interested, the last few days have been helpful in trying to
figure out what the possible finishing numbers are looking like this year.
By September 20th, about 40 had finished, with atleast another 30 between
then and the 24 who came through Rainy Pass by this morning. That would
make
at least 95 to the border by the end of this coming weekend.  It's also
likely for another 30 or more spread out over the next six days after that
(a reasonable assumption if just 24 went by in one day). Typically, the
vast
majority are done by about October 8-10th. So with all the factors above, I
would say that a conservative estimate on this year's finishing northbound
numbers would be around 120, but very possibly more than that. If anyone
knows  more,  I'd be interested in hearing about it.  Take care,

wc


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