Re[2]: [at-l] Re: Pennsylvania Pointed Rocks

[spiriteagle99@hotmail.com (Jim and/or Ginny Owen)]

Shane wrote:

>>"Thru hiker" is a somewhat nebulous term that each
>>person has to define for themselves.
>
>I've been reading the definitions of this since I joined the lists.
>Despite having many thousands of miles of long distance (both on and off
>trail), I don't consider myself a "thruhiker" of anything.
>
>The arguments that accompany these discussions seem terribly silly to me.
>If I walk down Bourbon Street in New Orleans, then I've walked down Bourbon
>Street.  Arguing that one side of the street is 'official' and some other
>isn't, doesn't interest me in the slightest.  My only question would be:
>DID YOU WALK THE WHOLE WAY?


Shane -
To add another answer somewhat along the same line - one of my friends (yeah
- I do have one or two) who also happens to be a "Triple Crown" defines
thruhiking as "connecting the steps from one end to the other".  That's also
my philosophy.

The end points don't matter except as boundary points - so you know when
you've started and when you've finished.  Hmmm - well, gotta admit -
Katahdin is a little more than that.  Warren Doyle has stood on both
Springer and Katahdin at least once and usually twice or more every year
since 1973. That's 29 years - but he doesn't claim 29 thruhikes cause he
hasn't "connected the steps" 29 times - yet. But he does claim the 12 times
he HAS connected everything.

You're right - there's little or no intelligence in the arguments about
who's a thruhiker and who's not.  In the first place, as always, for  those
who have a position to defend, it's an emotional argument that entirely
transcends logic or intelligence.  Secondly, if someone has done the time
and walked the distance, they are - if they haven't, they're not.   Doesn't
take a rocket scientist to figure that out - only a sea lawyer to screw it
up. Like you, I don't find it nebulous at all.

Walk softly - and connect your steps,
Jim






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