[at-l] lard bottoms or city-soft? who's ready?

[tmcginnis@ucclan.state.in.us (Thomas McGinnis)]

     There's a difference, remember, of how you can BE "in trail-ready 
     shape." That difference goes toward the physical (lard-bottoms, 
     et.al.) and the mental (city-soft wimpy types). For Alison and I, 
     having carried out this competitive running thang for 18 months now, 
     few would call us lard bottoms. ON THE OTHER HAND..........
     
     CITY-SOFT? Ugh. You Betcha. "Trail-ready shape" strikes me as those 
     magical types who wake at the same time as you, but are packing their 
     cooking gear about the time your stove is sputtering to life, and are 
     hoisting their packs and hitting the road about the time you're water 
     is boiling. You never actually saw them move any faster than you, 
     never rushed, never hurried; they just finesse the _living_ part of 
     hiking so much better. The "trail-ready" types look at the city 
     softies and wonder "What takes these people so loooong, anyway?" Our 
     Labor Day hike had us decamping in 2+ hours, if we were lucky, in a 
     mad rush at that.
     
     I know that ONCE UPON A TIME, I actually STUDIED a gal named Karen 
     Niven (a '76 and 79 throughhiker who never registered. She hiked in 3 
     pair of regular ol' work boots, by the way). Karen was magic. We 
     camped together for maybe three weeks in Virginny, and I evaluated my 
     mornings by how far behind Karen I left camp. I studied, watched, 
     noted, espied, evaluated, experimented, and got better, faster, and 
     easier with my morning routine. By the time we parted company (never, 
     actually, to meet again), I was as economical in motion and efficient 
     in method as she, and finally knew that I was in the dawn of a New 
     Hiking Day! I've always wanted to thank her for being my teacher...
     
     So I/we ARE NOT "trail-ready" by any stretch. Hiking is made by time 
     on the trail, not time in camp, and we're not there, plain and simple. 
     I think any camp-efficient lard-bottom would have no problem hiking 
     city-softies into the ground, just as the tortoise did in the hare. I 
     have had to relax alot on this score, and as we get our boys involved 
     in camp chores, I am sure we'll have to relax even more.......before 
     things start to get better. Expectations and all that. Too bad. We'll 
     live. (But if we could get outta Dodge, relaxed, well under an hour? 
     Hooo-Boy!)
     
     So I think there's two kinds of "trail-ready shape."
     Call me Softtoe.


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: [at-l] who's ready?
Author:  Pat Villeneuve <patv@falcon.cc.ukans.edu> at ima
Date:    11/5/98 8:30 AM


First someone called us all a bunch of lard bottoms or something like 
that (gee, thanks), and now it's true confession time about NOT hiking. 
Okay, I'll bite:  Who's fit--in trail-ready shape--TODAY?
     
I am. Sometimes it helps being a section hiker. 
Give Me Chocolate
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