[at-l] Who cares?

[rsharp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Ryan Sharp)]

I may be misled but, the reason I am contemplating a thru-hike are many but
mostly that is an accomplishment unmatched by most people.  it is an
opportunity to meet the people of this great country to see the sunrise and
sunset from somewhere else than your backyard of suburbia.  I want to become
more akin with my environment, my planet.  I want to be cold and fight
through it; I want to get hurt and endure the pain, in a nutshell prove my
worth in a natural sense which is all to hard to do in today's society.  am
I being to utopian?

Rhino

> From: "Phil Heffington" <Phil.Heffington@oc.edu>
> Date: Wed, 8 Jan 2003 11:14:05 -0600
> To: "AT- L Mailing List" <at-l@backcountry.net>
> Subject: [at-l] Who cares?
>
> T. Fort wrote:
>
> "I just find it hard to believe that anyone out there attempting any "long"
> distance hike, really gives a flip about the *other* persons' hike."
>
> It is a strange phenomenon, for sure.  It somehow develops, however, during
> the course of being on the trail for a relatively long period of time and
> being pushed into a definition of your own hike by others.  This occurs when
> other hikers you meet ask you, almost as the first topic of greeting or
> conversation, "Are you thru-hiking?"  There is a sort of unspoken bond among
> those who are, and they are unconsciously, perhaps, asking if you want to be,
> or should be, included in the ingroup.  My experience is that their definition
> of thru-hiking, though, is not one of "purity" but, rather, one of group
> identification.  Since a definition for a thru-hike is only traditional, and
> not officially regognized by any authoritative organization, it can be the
> topic of many conversations, some of which may become somewhat heated.  I
> can't say that the discussion is all bad, though, because it gives hikers a
> rather natural topic of casual social interaction on the trail when,
> otherwise, they may have little else in common with those on the trail.  I've
> often commented that most people on the trail would probably not like to
> associate with each other in normal life, but find their temporary bond on the
> trail as at least satisfying.
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>