[at-l] Loss of the AT thru-hiking "mystique"

[Slyatpct@aol.com (Slyatpct@aol.com)]

Is this Earl's quote or yours?  

I'd say it's pretty ironic considering they've taken the much of trail off 
the highways and rural roads and put them in the woods.  Of course, this 
changed the nature of an early hike, but even Earl had his share of trail 
magic and Grandma Gatewood was notorious for yogi'ing.  It's still a great 
adventure in my eyes and it's easy enough to get away from the social 
pressures.  

IMO, there is no easy way out, if you walk the whole trail.  

How's this, 1948 had to be the easiest year, 100% of the attempties completed!

Sly


> At one time a thru-hike was looked upon as some sort of grand adventure
> in which the individual needed tough-mindedness to overcome loneliness
> and the rugged wilderness. Now, with the social atmosphere of the trail,
> oodles of places(hostels especially) to get breaks from the trail grind,
> switchbacks replacing tough climbs( coming out of Stecoah Gap for
> example), trail magic, slackpacking, etc, the difficulty of completing a
> thru-hike has been reduced considerably. Individual hikers are the ones
> that contribute to the urbanization of the hiking scene by succumbing to
> the temptation of taking the easy way out. Only by reducing the
> utilization of creature comforts in your hike, will the number of
> hostels and other urban presence be reduced from the trail corridor. The
> "mystique" of the AT and the sense of accomplishment of completing a
> thru-hike are in direct proportion to the remoteness and ruggedness of
> 




--- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts ---
multipart/alternative
  text/plain (text body -- kept)
  text/html
---