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[at-l] shelter registers

This is an incident that I wrote about in the slackpack journal last
year, but did not go into as much detail.  It fits this discussion:

There was a fellow hiker last year that was writing some damning words in
the trail registers.  He was very unhappy with all of the "other" folks
on the trail, and how it was "affecting" his hike.  He didn't care for
day-hikers, weekend-hikers, section-hikers, slackpackers, blue-blazers,
or yellow-blazers, and felt that the only people that should be on the
trail, in the shelters, and writing in the registers, were pure
thru-hikers.  When I finally caught up to this character, i spoke with
him at length, indicating my displeasure with his displeasure.  He was
very attentive, and finally come to understand that we all have a place
on the trail.  What ultimately did get to him, though, was when I pointed
out that the many of  the registers are placed in the shelters by regular
folks, often young people, who will cherish them as life-long keepsakes,
and that his rantings and ravings have no place on the pages of such
treasured possessions.  He spent the next number of days writing
apologies and retractions in the shelter registers as he hiked north...

Now, wouldn't it be nice if WF and I could find some such common
ground...

pittsburgh

>While we hash this about, I'd also like to hear any rationalization for
all of
>the profanity and vulgarity that finds its way into the registers only
to be
>read by minor children who hike the Trail as well.  Please don't cite
the
>First Amendment of the Bill of Rights for that relates only to the
>government's inability to prevent free expression.  I'm talking about
just us
>hikers on a private interpersonal level.  Why must we expose our
children to
>such inappropriate register comments?

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