[at-l] Helping a newbie update: Warren's School Report 1

[shane@theplacewithnoname.com (Shane Steinkamp)]

As he had a few minutes, Bob just called me from Warren's.
Here's what he reported:

(Sorry that it's so willy nilly, but that's how the
conversation was - jumping around.)

The school is difficult and challenging.  Bob is the only
student.  Bob says it's very hard, and if he hadn't prepared
before hand he'd never have made it.

Doyle is intellectual, very knowledgeable, and much of his
knowledge is esoteric.  Bob has already taken 60 pages of
notes.  The classes are very concentrated.  The first day
was 12 hours, with a 4 hour hike.  Today was a 10 hour day,
with a 2 hour hike.  The 'classes' involve teaching, videos,
and the hiking - and during the hike Warren is teaching the
whole way.  Warren is very safety conscious, and Bob said
that he hasn't been obnoxious even if he is a little
different.

The food is good.  (Bob is a Vegetarian.)

Bob's last emphatic statement: "I promise that if you do not
prepare for this school, you cannot make it.  Period."
(Make it through the school he means.)  Although, he claims
Warren hasn't pushed him past his limits.  (I've never known
Bob to have too many limits...)

The conversation also had elements of 'how's your mom and
dem?', which I won't bore you with.

The last thing we got into was this:

Warren has very slickly talked him into slackpacking.  He
did this by a combination appeal to 'people your age are
hiking the trail like this, and this is how people your age
are going to hike' (Bob is 60+).  The other ploy was, "Your
wife can be your support team, and she can pick you up at
the road every day."  (Bob hasn't liked the idea of leaving
his wife, which I can respect.)  All three of them (Warren,
Bob, and his wife) are now very keen on the idea.

I listened carefully and without interruption.  Then he
asked me what I thought.  Ah, but I'll leave that to the
next post - so if you want to respond to this, respond in
the next thread.

More as I hear it...

Shane