PCT movie with Reese Witherspoon coming out

[Jonathon Self]

Alexander S: I agree! As It Happens is pretty fantastic. I look forward to anything else they produce.

Rex Sanders: Good to know for future reference. Thanks!

[Marko Botsaris]

Jonathon, your avatar look like Triumph the Insult Comic Dog's disapproving father.

Whaaat? You vant to go into de showbeeznez? A perfect career…for me to poop on!

FWIW, I thought Walk in the Woods was hilarious, but more as a spoof on the extremes out there rather than as any serious homage to backpacking. It definitely made me laugh out loud. Because he was new to it Bryson was able efficiently to suss out and skewer some of the ridiculousness a lot of us take for granted as "normal".

[Ken Thompson]

"I am 100% in agreement with Jen."

First time you've written that I bet.

[Cesar Valdez]

I haven't read the book, nor had I even heard about it until I read this thread. But it being turned into a movie puts me in an interesting position. I happen to have degrees in both film and in literature, and of course have been backpacking for nearly two decades now. So I feel kinda obligated to read the book now, and I will mos def see the movie. I will give a full review of the movie on my blog after I see it. I tend to be a rather harsh critic when it comes to film, and this film will be no different. For instance, I grade films on a 1-10 scale, and in the past 5 years or so I can recall only giving one film my top score of 9.5 (as 10/perfection does not exist). That movie being "The American" starring George Clooney and directed by Anton Corbijn.

I haven't hiked any of the PCT, but I was born in CA (Los Angeles) and spent some time as a child (lived there until I was only 8 years old) in some of the state parks there, which contributed a lot towards my passion for the outdoors.

I'm glad that I don't have to deal with the influx of people hiking the PCT. That would really annoy me. Not that I have problems with people new to hiking/backpacking, but it is inevitable that certain less favorable people are going to end up on the trail. Just a numbers game, really. For every 100 people, there are going to be a certain number of douches and douchettes. Which is why I consider myself lucky to have a variety of isloated and less traveled trails to explore here in Sweden/Norway. And I sure hope no one writes a international best selling book that somehow makes it onto Oprah's book club that has anything to do with Sweden's hiking trails.

Thanks for the head's up on this movie. Love, hate, or "meh," I think it will still be an interesting experience to watch it in the theater. I think if I like the movie to any extent, that will get me to read the book. My reading list is pretty full at the moment, and my current book, Woolf's "To the Lighthouse," is really driving me crazy in both good and bad ways.

[Ken Thompson]

Saw "The American" , you are a kinder critic. I hope the movie tanks at the box office and we can stop hearing about it. I do hope Reese can work out her own drug problem.

[Michael L]

""I am 100% in agreement with Jen."

First time you've written that I bet."

;). You know it.

[D M]

I've been on the trail since April. The book is terrible but Reese might just turn a sow's ear into a silk purse. And not that It matters concerning the trail, the PCT will ferret out the wanna be's by the first hundred miles as it always does and if not early it will by the first five hundred miles.
People are concerned that the movie will ruin the trail but I don't think it will ultimately. The PCT only gets a million a year for maintenance, so any publicity that makes more $$ for the trail is good. The "hordes" of hikers in the beginning might wear the patience of the trail angels thin though but they have ways of managing high traffic times.

[Ito Jakuchu]

Ian B wrote:
"On a somewhat related note, Anish announced the other day that she's not doing any more speaking engagements. …
… I don't know what her reasoning is but you really have to admire the fact that apparently she does the things she does for reasons other than self promotion."

She wrote a quite beautiful explanation just now:
http://runhikelivelove.blogspot.jp/2014/07/saying-goodbye.html

[Ito Jakuchu]

And I agree with the people about Carrot. Girl can write! I was following her previous PCT diary and was stoked when I read she was doing another run.

Gotta support that.

[Daniel D]

I'm in favour of Carrot's writing, plus Twinkle as well, they often walk together in a group, it's great introduction to the PCT.

[Jennifer Mitol]

I personally would LOVE to see a movie about Carrot on the PCT!

even with all the poop. Because let's be honest, that's pretty much what life devolves to on trips like that. Eat, walk, sleep, poop.

The title of my unpublished essay about my walk to the base camp of Mount Everest back in 1999 was "You want me to poop where?"

[Kattt]

Just read her goodbye post on her blog, thanks Ian.
Anish may not know, but her letting go ( of her dreads, of the spotlight, of past achievements) just makes her inspiring once again.

[Ken Thompson]

+1 Kat

[Marko Botsaris]

" Because let's be honest, that's pretty much what life devolves to on trips like that. Eat, walk, sleep, poop."

When you say it like that "Eat, walk, sleep, poop, use e-book reader" sounds a little off somehow. ;-)

[BlackHatGuy]

"When you say it like that "Eat, walk, sleep, poop, use e-book reader" sounds a little off somehow."

Depends on how long you have to poop for…..

[jscott]

I'm a bookseller and so read Wild when it came out in an advance reader's edition. It wasn't what I expected. In the end I thought, not bad but it'll never sell. Shows what I know.

Actually I give Strayed props for copping to her own terrible behavior towards other people.

[Matthew H]

This is a bummer. I was planning on hiking the PCT in 2016. I had heard about the book but didn't realize how big it was, and I'm sure a mainstream movie will send hoards of people to the PCT in the coming years.. so much for escaping the hustle and bustle!

[Ian]

I have another seven years until I can through hike the pct so hopefully the surge from Wild will be done by then. I suspect the realities of the trail will thin the flakes from the heard.

[Greg Mihalik]

If you are NOBO you'll pass, be passed, and leapfrog with only a few.

If you are SOBO you'll see them all.

Where you camp is up to you.

I hike the JMT NOBO and say Hi&Bye to the SOBOs in less than 5 seconds ;-)
Solitude is not an issue.

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

How about Hillary Swank to play Carrot? You need a woman who can look like a 15-year-old boy. I think she could do it.

[Bob Shaver]

I hiked the JMT, which Strayed did not. I read her book, I read my hiking journal of my JMT trip. I did way less drugs than her, actually hiked the JMT, and climbed a lot more peaks than her, but her story and writing are a lot better than my boring trip report. The book is 70% personal history, 30% hiking, and the hiking part involves sleeping around and doing drugs. But its interesting, I enjoyed it, and the general public can read an interesting story and see a peek into a world they never would know existed otherwise. I doubt that many non-hikers get inspired to do the PCT, but some hikers who have thought about it might be inspired to finally do it. I'm good with that. They are all voters and advocates. I'll definitely go see the movie.

Bob

[Ken Thompson]

Swank was born in '74, too old. Carrot could play herself.

[Marko Botsaris]

Seriously, like I said, Zoe Kazan – same age, plus with short hair could look like a boy. :-) Yes, I am a ZK fanboy.

[David Thomas]

> "I doubt that many non-hikers get inspired to do the PCT"

Circa 1979, I was going up Whitney out of Whitney Portal and there was a family strewn all over the trail. We passed Mom and a teenager around 11,000, another teenagers in another mile and found Dad draped over a rock at 12,000 gasping for breath (and wondering, "why is it so hard to breath up here?" between drags on his cigarette). Apparently, Dad had been watching "America's Most Amazing. . .something" from his couch in LA, saw a story about a 91-year-old grandmother who hiked Whitney each (with a support party) and declared, "We're going to do that next year." They had all the regulation K-mart gear: the bright orange pack with the glued-together pack frame, the Fiberfill bags with the duck-printed flannel lining, the Boy Scout mess kits, and the blanket-covered canteens.

Maybe the permit-issuers will start screening for experience? GCNP asks lot of info for off-corridor overnights (arguably with good reason). The Iditarod requires you to have finished a 1,049-mile Iditarod previously or to have raced 500 miles already that year. More alarming would be "minimum gear requirements" like the 1890's Chilkoot Trail, the Iditarod, or climbing Denali.

>"They are all voters and advocates."

+1. Even if they don't hike, they can be voters and advocates. Next week, I'll go into Gates of the Arctic NP with BPL's much more studly Manfred & Sons party. I'm among maybe 1% of Alaskans who have been and perhaps 1 in 10,000 Americans. Yet, the CONCEPT of remote wilderness has enough support to have created and maintained a NP there, despite the dig-it/log-it/drill-it crowd.

[Ken Thompson]

"Next week, I'll go into Gates of the Arctic NP with BPL's much more studly Manfred & Sons party."

Screwed Wild, that's a trip report I'll be waiting for.

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