[at-l] Elitism, Wilderness & Through*Hikers

[spiriteagle99@hotmail.com (Jim and/or Ginny Owen)]

Bob Cummings wrote:

>Someone referred to me recently as a "thru hiker." That's not a claim I 
>make.

<snip>

>Somehow I felt like a thru hiker, despite my dilly dallying.

<snip>

>But unless I do the trail again, I'll never qualify for a 2000-miler patch 
>and probably not even then.

Weary -
How about we call you a "long distance hiker"?  Which is what we all are 
anyway regardless of how we do the trail  :-)


>I hike the trail like I hunt deer. White blazes don't strike me as a scenic 
>attraction and I quickly get bored looking  for deer. So I tend to just go 
>exploring the countryside. As a result, of course, I rarely have venison in 
>my freezer and will never wear that patch.

You might enjoy the CDT - at least until it gets all connected. The "white 
blazes" are still few and far between - in one section we walked over 150 
miles without a "blaze".

I still think of you as a "thruhiker".  To me that term has nothing to do 
with "how" someone did the Trail - it's an indicator of mental attitude/ 
mindset.

Walk softly,
Jim


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