A survey of throughhikers on Re: [at-l] Cleanliness & the Gathering

[Sloetoe <sloetoe@yahoo.com>]

--- Sloetoe <sloetoe@yahoo.com> wrote:
> - Bluetrail@aol.com wrote: a few folks
> at the Gathering who are afraid you might not realize that they are 
> HIKERS. To alleviate that fear, they will get to the Gathering unbathed
> What's up with that tiny minority that loves to stink up a small,
> overheated classroom?  
 
> ### Not weird, Joan, just ignorant of where these people are "at". 
> These people have just experienced The Adventure Of A Lifetime, and are
> trying to package it, and themselves, into the rapidly changing day-to-
> day that their lives will become. This is not a time to shower; it *is* 
> a time of vast personal readjustment, and much of that imposed, not
voluntary.

### Actually, I'm not at all sure my thoughts reflect "all" or even "most"
throughhikers. So here's the question for you throughhiker-types: 
1) Where did "cleanliness" rank on your priorities list when in town?
2) What about on the trail? For myself, I *assiduously* worked to avoid
getting "dirty", though I did little to actually "clean up." Did you make
any special efforts to keep clean or, once dirty, to clean up, while on
trail?
3) Did your answer change between Damascus, DWG, and Gorham?
4) What *were* your in-town priorities?
5) After a 15 year (+/-) hiatus from backpacking, I feel like I'm finally
back into stride (so to speak) as a long distance hiker, and I found (this
summer on the LT) that my "hiking sensibilities" were pretty much unchanged
from my '79 throughhike, and that my priorities were again pretty much
"food, shelter, shower." Have you had opportunity to return to a
hike-with-resupply trip, and what was your reaction to hitting town during
"resupply"?

Have just an authority-questioning day,
Sloetoe

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