[at-l] Preparation and the "Hike ended short after 13 miles"

[jestbill at yahoo.com (william fitzpatrick)]

Yeah.....life is complicated.  I did trade a physical handicap for a mental
one, but the trade was based on my own "mental" and my own "physical"
situation.  I know enough to stop when I'm tired, but not enough to go slow
when I'm not.  I actually caught myself racing some other old guy on the way
into NOC...embarrassing.

Purely personal and definitely wrong for someone who normally goes carefully
but tends to go too long.

I knew when I wrote it that I had provided my own counter example--the tendency
to say too much is age related.
The old guys who quit though, were neither injured nor tired nor underequipped:
they just weren't having much fun in the rain and cold.

I certainly can't recommend NOT preparing for a hike in every way one can think
of.  Neither can I condemn other people's ideas as to what is best for them:
we're all different and it's their hike.


> ['toe wroted:]
--->I think it said NOT-----<
> ("I'm going to get in shape on the trail; it's really the only
> *right* wayyyy...") is just the stupidest thing I hear.
> Criminal.
> 
> {jestBill replied wit':}
> Depends on what they "really" mean by that.
> 
> ### No, it really doesn't.
> What I was saying was "'Prepare' and your chances improve;
> don't, and you're handicapped." What you reply with is a trade
> of a mental handicap (an inability to handle long distance
> hiking decisions) for a physical one. But it is no trade: you
> still have whatever mental infirmity that might cause you to "be
> tempted to go too fast or take chances that [you] couldn't
> handle... break[ing] a leg or fall[ing] off a mountain ...", but
> now you've willfully added to it a lack of leg strength and
> overall endurance. Strong legs will keep a stumble from being a
> fall; and bad decisions are VERY positively correlated to being
> tired.
> 
> Lastly, you conclude with an example that disproves your point
> of age=perseverance,wisdom,discretion, ending with "they went
> home." They failed, despite age, wisdom, etc.
> 
> There is no good reason for any intelligent person to willfully
> start a journey with an 80%-90% failure rate __with__ an
> avoidable handicap, unless they __want__ to fail.
> 
> 'toe
> not trying to be mean;
> NOT risking clarity, either.
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> >  I did a lot of walking before I went to Springer to build
> endurance but (aside from laziness) I deliberately did not try
> to build super legs or improve my wind very much.
> 
> > My thought was that I was a novice and that if I were in too
> good a shape I'd be tempted to go too fast or to take chances
> that I couldn't handle.
> 
> > I was much more concerned that I might break a leg or fall off
> a mountain than that I would get too tired to continue.  It's
> hard enough for a novice to walk on rough terrain: no sense in
> trying to run.
> 
> > I think age has a lot to do with it.  Us old guys know we can
> do whatever we set out to do--or we'd just stay home.  We
> realize that we don't know what we don't know and try not to set
> ourselves up for failure.
> 
> > That said, I saw a couple of "old guys" with really great
> equipment who decided it just wasn't as much fun being cold and
> wet as it was when they were only 50.  As I understand it, they
> didn't persevere merely to prove anything, they went home.
>

There stands he, his Universe one huge Manger, filled with hay and thistles to be weighed against each other; and looks long-eared enough.
JestBill  Ga--->Me '03


		
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