Re: [pct-l] campo bus, guide-map vs text

[bjensen4@juno.com (Birgitte Jensen)]

>. Although I don't know
>how many maps I could carry without raiseing weight considerations.  I 
>am fine once I get to the Sierras, its the stretch from Campo to Kennedy
>meadows that I can't seem to relate to.

   Oh Joann, please don't be concerned with that part of the trail. I
certainly can relate to feeling disoriented at the thought of visiting a
strange place for the first time, but there's absolutely no cause for
anxiety, none at all. Literally all of the pct in that part is just
countryside walking, or cl1 hiking through parkland - there's no really
difficult terrain and there should be no problem "navigating" at all: you
just follow the trail, which is well-marked and clear for the most part
(the guide and folks on this list can help you out with the few tricky
bits, if any)..  All your cross-country experience will have given you
much more of a "sense of direction" than anybody needs, and there are
lots of people (not only thruhikers, but dayhikers, joggers, and families
out for a stroll) to be encountered for assistance if you zone out and
wander off-trail somehow <g>. Detailed maps and such are completely
unnecessary for most of it IMHO; I too, love map-perusing for its own
sake, but you won't need them to avoid getting lost.
   Don't worry about illegal aliens, either. I'm sure, if there were to
be any in the neighborhood when you start your hike, they'd want to avoid
you even more than you'd want to avoid them! Most of them are probably
reasonably nice people, anyway, in spite of their technically
criminal-status <g> The usual urban "street-smarts" should keep you safe.
We could all be mugged by a screwball anywhere, but whaddya gonna do....?
You're alot safer on the PCT than in the neighborhood I'm sending this
from<g>!   
    Hope this reassures you.          bj

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