Date: 2004-04-23
From: Fontana Hilton

To: Russell Field Shelter
Miles today: 13.8
Weather: overcast clouds

Ryan's Trail notes: I think I'm going to have to re-think my journal keeping practice. Journals are heavy items physically in that they add several ounces to the weight on your back. Journals are also heavy time investments. They take up valuable minutes at the end of my long day, minutes also that might count against the battery-life of my headlamp. Journals require pens if you intend to use them for anything other than kindling in your campfires. Journal writing requires the availability of journal, pen, headlamp, and writer in a controlled environment. Plus journal writing means you can't spend the same time reading.   Despite all these drawbacks, however, there is no way that I could in good conscience dispense with the occupation. Even in the forest, I can't see how anyone who gets pleasure from reading and writing could spend six months without such an outlet, especially someone who values his ability to write. Besides, my journal has the added bonus of letting my mother and grandmother and the rest of the family in on my experience and I would not take that away from them. A thru-hiker's journal is basically a gift he is giving himself at the end of the trail. Not only does the author get a gift in the recorded experiences of his journal, but it also provides a medium which the author can use to hone his writing skills and reference his own works for evidence of his progress.    For instance, this particular journal entry is the 1st in a new style. Having run into the problem of the trail journal, I've gone through the entire decision process, doubt, treatment, and solution, and come to the conclusion. Up to this point, I've tried to record every day from start to finish including as many details as possible. It turns out that sort of dedication is impossible with the limitations inherent in the trail journal. So, Instead, I'll make (I am making) journal entries in a different format. Perhaps the treatment of a problem, an essay, or even the occasional short story and at the same time, an insight into mine and any thru-hikers life.4-24-2004   PACKWEIGHT AND THE PARADOX OF VAGUENESS   There are at least as many styles of hiking as there are hikers on the trail. In fact, the number of hiking styles is likely much higher than the physical number of hikers as each individual is constantly inventing and evolving new styles as they find new and better ways of doing things. Be that as it may, it is in the interest of conversation and classification that hikers cateorgize similar hiking styles. As a result of this, it is very difficult, as a hiker, not to fall into one of these categories. If you are a 'day-hiker', you might carry 40+ lb. packs with everything you need for a long weekend plus some things you may or may not need for a month. Add to that twice as much food as you need for your stay as well as a twice as expensive of a price tag when stuff is bought from the conveniently located outfitters on the way into the park. Despite their spacious and heavy packs, these hikers may or may not be prepared for cold and/or wet weather or the most basic outdoor first aid. What they do have plenty of are neat shiny gadgets supposed to bring the comfortably sedentary and leisurely lifestyle to the outdoors. These things usually only complicate and pollute the outdoor experience.   Another type of hiker one is likely to see on a daily basis is the 'section-hiker'. These are the people who are going to be on the trail for at least several days or several months, but did not start at one terminus with intentions of walking to the other. While these hikers are usually more experienced and better prepared, it is still not unusual to see them make some common mistakes. A section hiker might be carrying a great weight in food if they thought they would bring everything they would eat for their whole trip from the very beginning. It's also possible to leave out some of the rarer-used clothing and tools and they might be left wanting if their trip takes longer than planned or a weather front moves faster than anticipated.    The category that I best fit into is that of the 'thru-hiker'. The thru-hiker is a tough creature to get a descriptive hold on. This is due to the fact that thru-hikers have all different kinds of experience levels, resources,and itineraries. There are some things in common though that makes the thru-hiker such. The most basic is the fact that they have started their hike at one end of the trail headed for the other one. The thru-hiker's pack is especially difficult to name as it is as different as every thru-hiker's fingerprint. It is a good rule though, that the thru-hiker has nearly everything he will need for an extended stay in the woods and very little else. The average thru-hiker's pack weighs about 35 lbs. and almost never more than 40 lbs.    If any of these former categories carry a pack that weighs less than 30 lbs. with food and water, that person has probably embraced the 'go-lighter'philosophy. The go-lighter might appear to the untrained eye unprepared and under-stocked, but this is because the hiker has exactly enough food and tools to get the job done and not a gram more. What the go-lighter gives up in food and comfort, he makes up for in saved energy and time. The more gullible thru-hiker is likely to have spent far too much for equipment whose only redeeming quality is its light weight.    The Paradox of Vagueness is an argument in the philosophical study of language. It deals with the way people in general, and English speakers in particular, often communicate through hyperbole. Let's use the classic example of baldness to illustrate. Someone is said to be bald if they have no hair on their head, but someone can also be bald and have some hair on his head at the same time. In fact, someone who has a great deal of hair on the sides and back of his head can be called bald, while someone with hair only on the very top of his head (the marines' high and tight) is not called bald. This might suggest that having hair covering the top of one's head is proof against baldness but the man who combs over the hair on the sides of his head to the top is still called bald. Perhaps then, you must grow hair from the top to cover the top, but the man with 3 hairs sprouting from the top of his head is still bald.    The paradox deals with the exact moment of baldness; when that last hair falls out and leaves behind too few others for the head to avoid being called bald, basically saying that no such moment exists. I said earlier that, of the four catefories of hiker, I most closely fall into the thru-hiker category since I started in Georgia with intentions towards Maine. I say 'most closely' though, as I do share many of the go-lighters attributes. For instance, I'd like to think that I'm carrying everything I need and little else, but there are two problems with this statement. First what may be necessary for some hikers, like what might be baldness to some people, might be optional or even luxurious to others. And second, I have a little more than I need even by my own definition of necessity.    So I guess what I'm trying to say, is that due to differences in ideas and my few indulgences, (this journal for instance); although I'd like to think of myself as a practicer of the go-light philosophy, (which I will treat at a great length in the future). I can not yet consider myself a true go-lighter. But, and this is what makes me feel better about myself, neither can anyone else because the go-lighter is a paradox. No one is a true go-lighter, because everyone can truly go lighter if they wanted to badly enough. Someone could get their pack weight down under 30 lbs. by switching to a lighter tent but someone else could drop their weight even futher by dropping their tent in a hiker box and "cowboying it." And if you really want to stomp a defensive self-proclaimed go-lighter who thinks they could not possibly ditch anything else ask them how much one of their arms weighs and reference the fact that there is a one-armed man hiking the trail so two arms aren't really necessary.    So, in conclusion, the next time some hiker begins telling you how much easier it would be by ditching this or dropping that, you can make them dizzy by expounding on the Paradox of Vagueness as it applies to Pack Weight. And, if they still don't leave you alone, tell them I said to,"Go cut off your arm!"