"Pure" Hiking

Post date: Aug 14, 2016 3:14:2 PM

When Ann left the last time and I prepared myself to get back into life on the trail and being a trail bum without the aide of a car picking me up at the end of my hike, I realized how heavy a full pack can feel on the back. I had been spoiled by two weeks of slack packing and was not used to the weight. I'd passed many hikers over those two weeks, some who I knew, who were carrying full packs, and most said they had slack packed a time or two themselves. One hiker said she would never slack pack because that wouldn't be "pure". She was doing long section hikes over several years to complete the AT and become a thru hiker. I thought about saying that I was too pure to do sections over more than a year and call myself a thru hiker because there are some who claim a true thru hike must be done in one calendar year. I didn't say it, and wished her luck. Everyone has there own rules for their hike, thus the saying I've mentioned before, hike your own hike. Some cut off sections of the trail- one guy camped at Loft Mountain and woke up the next day and headed to the trail on the opposite side of the campground which cut off 1-2 miles of trail that went around the site. Others "yellow blaze", that is, they get rides up the trail skipping parts. Some will shuttle up the trail and then slack pack back south to stay the night, which can make a big uphill turn into a downhill. All of these are outside my rules. Some, however, are way more strict than me- no slack packing, no accepting help from anyone for rides, trail magic, food from restaurants along the trail, no hotels or hostels. Some even say getting food from stores along the way is against their rules- they stop at Post Offices along the way where they have mailed packages. One guy supposedly did the whole trail and got all his food by foraging and even eating road kill if it wasn't too old (see The Last American Man). Using the mail Post Office was out of bounds for him. So, everyone has their own rules. Mine include slack packing. And I don't feel "impure". But many of you reading this probably think this is "pure" baloney!