[pct-l] radical ideas?

[CMountainDave at aol.com (CMountainDave@xxxxxxx)]

I really don't believe that Jardines principles are that radical. It just 
gave newbies a head start in lightening their loads. Anyone who has backpacked 
for a number of years is going to realize what to throw away and what to keep. 
It's a natural process. Those that don't catch on just are either insecure or 
not very mentally adept at problem solving. If your footwear gives you 
blisters, for example, it would seem intuitively obvious that you need to change your 
footwear, instead of reasoning that blisters are just part of backpacking. If 
you carry an item on 20 trips and never use it, it seems that it would 
eventually sink in that you don't really need to carry that item. Why should it take 
someone to state the obvious before one is enlightened?
 Those that are not problem solvers are doomed to repeat their problems until 
they finally throw in the towel and say" why bother."
  I lightened my base pack load over the years not so much so I could hike 20 
mile days, but because it allowed me to carry more goodies if I so chose to, 
such as canned food instead of expensive freeze dried crud, and 8 fresh 
nectarines. That is the main reason I don't switch to a pack with limited capacity 
or lacking the ability to carry heavy loads: If I want to carry 40 pounds of 
bulky stuff, I can. I like to weigh the pros and cons of a piece of gear, not 
just its weight. If one only wants to race through a wilderness at 30 miles a 
day as their main goal, so be it: carry next to nothing. If one wants to hike in 
5 miles to a base camp with every piece of comfort and take day hikes and 
just fish, so be it: suffer under a heavy load for 3 hours. For someone to say 
you should carry this or you should not carry that just reveals uncertainty. 
Those secure in their own methods have no reason to justify them, in my opinion