[at-l] Genuineness of Contemporary Thru-hikes

[rickboudrie@xxxxxxxxxxx (rick boudrie)]

There a number of ways to thru hike the AT.  Here are a few that I can think
of:

1.  A hiker walks the entire white-blazed trail as a "purist".  If there is
blue blaze loop to a shelter or a campsite, he will go so far as
backtracking on that blue blaze so as not to miss even a few feet of the
white blazed trail.  He will go so far as to make sure that he walks across
all roads, and doesn't miss even a few feet because of a hitch hike.  If he
gets lost, he will return to the point he left the trail so as not to miss
any of it by his wondering off-trail.  And so on.

2.  A hiker sticks to the white blazes for the most part, but sees no reason
to make up a few feet in the middle of a paved road, or between the
blue-blazed "on", and  a blueblazed "off" ramps to a shelter or a view
point.  If he gets lost on the AT, he'll be damned if he retraces he
footsteps when he finds the Trail.  He makes it from one end of the Trail to
the other in a virtually unbroken line.

3.  Pretty much like the second option, but the hiker also will take a blue
blaze that runs parallel to the AT, so long as he maintains his continuous
line from Maine or Georgia.  This alternative route might be a short detour
like up Eisenhower, or a longer one on the old route.

4.  Hikes pretty much the whole way from Maine to Georgia, but not in an
unbroken line.  This hiker might, for example, hike into a town on a blue
blaze, then hitch out to the AT at that begins some miles from where he left
it. Or vice versa.  His mileage may be more or less than had he stayed on
the AT and added another hitch to his journey.  He takes this approach
principally to avoid a hitch hike into a town that may have either an "on
ramp" or an "off ramp" but not both.

5. Makes a decision to skip sections by hitch hiking around them.  Perhaps
because of illness, or because the sections simply are not held in great
interest, or because he has hiked them before.

Without needing to make any value judgment, I am curious what percentage of
people we hear have "Through Hiked the AT" fall into each of these
categories.  I think Jack's comments addressed my #1, above.

I am especially curious about how many hikers fall into my 5th category, and
whether or not many of this group are listed as 2000 that did not hike the
missed section at another time.  Obviously, there is no precise answer, but
just wanted to get people's sense of the numbers.

FWIW, While each of my scenarios can be a fine approach, I would highly
recommend that future thru hikers read the 2000 Miler application form they
will be asked to sign BEFORE getting to Springer.  It can be found as a PDF
at www.atconf.org.  If you are like me, the entire topic may seem ridiculous
now, but statistics suggest that if you make it to Katahdin, you WILL fill
out that form (even if you don't think so now) when you get there.  IMO, its
worth giving 10 minutes of thought to the day day you will be handed the
actual form in Baxter State Park, and to how you want YOUR hike to unfold,
before getting caught up in the currents of the Trail.

Rick B

_________________________________________________________________
Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*.
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail