[pct-l] Tom

[SnoLepard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Lee Rossman)]

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As I was planning for my 2002 PCT thruhike I found this list to be absolute=
ly the number one best source of up to date info. I loved that I could post=
 a question and start getting answers sometimes almost immediately. And wha=
t a wide variety of answers! I figure it's up to meet to make my own decisi=
ons by distilling those responses into a reasonable consensus.

I missed last years Kickoff since I began a week later, but I really want t=
o go to this year's. I think it's a wonderful thing, not just because it of=
fers so much need info to the hikers but because it promotes the hiking com=
munity in general. This is a community that I love being part of.

My time on the PCT and the time at last fall's ALDH-West meeting gave me th=
e best sense of belonging I've ever had.

Anyway, if Tom stops participating in this list, and no longer comes to Kic=
koffs, the hiking community will worse off. He has done so much for this co=
mmunity. I can't believe that people would want him to avoid either the lis=
t or the kickoff because of a difference of opinion about something hardly =
anyone agrees about.

I have been robbed by bears in the past in the Sierras, but not on my thruh=
ike last year. I carried the Wild Things Can. It was heavy, but it worked f=
ine with a Golite breeze and I slept well.

Yes most of the hikers I met in the Sierras with slept with their food. Sle=
eping with your food is like driving without insurance. It's perfectly fine=
 until that one time that it isn't. And the point is well taken that it wil=
l eventually get bears poking their noses into tents, which I'm told is alr=
eady happening.

Tom, please come back! You are missed!

Lee Rossman
Portland, OR
"Thru in '02"