[at-l] Cooler at Trailside, Was Bear stuff

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

"rick boudrie" wrote:
>>we've left soda and beer on the Trail at times-- but always with a   > 
>>note that it was for thruhikers
>
>That's kind of nice, I think.  Especially if it is a good beer that drinks 
>well warm.
>
>But this whole thing has me thinking.  If you are going to leave a 
>beer/soda on the Trail, why leave the instructions that it is just for a 
>thru-hiker?  Why not leave a note explaining the tradition of trail magic, 
>and offer it up to all?  If you wanted, you might "suggest" that a 
>thru-hiker would appreciate your present the most, but invite anyone who 
>want it to partake if they were "a thru-hiker or as thirsty as one" or some 
>such.
>
>Just a thought.  I am figuring that if a weekender is to be confronted with 
>your bottle, why not include him in the magic?  Otherwise, it is kind of 
>like litter.  To him.  You can bet he will have interupted his 
>hike/song/reverie to read your note!
>
>It also has me thinking that the real beauty of such a gesture is when it 
>is unexpected and uncommon.  And such an offer would really be unexpected 
>ouside of the thru-hiking community.  Just a thought.
>
>Lastly, its got me thinking that the details as to how and where one places 
>such an offering does make a difference.


Rick -
We spent several years doing that kind of thing -- one time was while we 
were mapping trails in St Anthony's Wilderness for the new colorized PA 
maps.  We came in a side trail and left the goodies about a mile south of 
Rausch Gap shelter.  We spent most of the day mapping trails (they're not 
all on the AT maps - the Game Commission wouldn't allow that), then came 
back to pick up the empties - and no one had been there.  So we picked 
everything up, turned to leave and a group of thruhikers came down the 
trail. We spent another 2 hours there - that was the best part of the day.

Weekenders - generally have their own entertainment.  Don't know many of 
them that don't carry alcohol in one form or another if they want it. For 
the thruhikers, though, this was a dry section.  Dick Tobias had died and 
the Bleu Blaze hostel wasn't operating, the store at Greenpoint was 
intermittent and didn't carry beer and the next town wasn't exactly close.  
So that note said "thruhikers".  Of course, there was no one to stop a 
weekender from taking what was there - and I wouldn't have objected if they 
had.

Other times we shared as much with weekenders as with thruhikers.  In fact, 
it was a group of girls from a camp near DWG who were out for a couple days 
who were absolutely the most appreciative recipients that we ever ran into.  
I think the realization that so many thruhikers had reached saturation and 
didn't even care about Trail Magic by the time they got to MD or PA was what 
led us to do other, possibly more useful, things with our lives.  Hiking, 
trail work, mapping and writing guidebooks for other trails are more 
rewarding to some of us than constantly dispensing largely unappreciated 
"Trail Magic".

Which is where we'll be this weekend - cleaning up "our" section of the 
MidState Trail in PA - blazing, clearing and maybe some rock work.  But 
we'll leave the chainsaw home this time.

Then two weeks from now, we'll be on the Donut Hole with the KTA crew - if 
anyone wants to join us, you can consider this a personal invite.  A couple 
years ago, this crew had 15 people - 5 of us were 2000 milers - and 3 others 
were within 300 miles of finishing.  And only 2 of them were under 50.  But 
I changed subjects here, didn't I?  S'OK - it's time to get some sleep - I'm 
running real short on that lately - and it shows - I'm rambling.

Walk softly - and carry a pulaski,
Jim

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