This weekend while driving back from Fontana I mused over another difference between section hikers and thru-hikers-the financial contribution each makes-or doesn't make....not that this matters in the long hike of life but it surely is a consideration of importance for the many businesses (shuttlers/motels/resturants/etc) that 'live' along the trail. This weekend I supported the gasoline industry, the hotel industry, and the shuttle industry and the resturant industry while doing yet another section. I do this over and over again as do many hundreds if not thousands of hikers. Surely some of us do it as economically as possible but next month in an enticement to get my girlfriend to do a section with me I have promised a stay in a nice resort as payment for the pains she will suffer while hiking-again contributing to many faces of our economy as a section hiker. The Thru also contributes but as I have alluded to in past posts it is usually a one time contribution over several months and often never again. I posit that the section hiker is a more engendered contributor to the hiking industry as a whole, one who will in the long run buy more equipment as he/she continually strains to get the 'lightest' pack or warmest sleeping bag per weight, this assumes again that many Thru's hang their hiking poles on the mantle post completion and this may be right or wrong-just an impression I have in that when a Thru hiker is through he is thru! An over generalization I am sure but something to consider.

well most thru hikers sectioned at one time probably right? and i figure they will again some day. so they probably suport the local economy well enough. but yes im sure there is a difference.

Every thru-hiker was a section hiker or a week-ender once. And every thru-hiker is fated to become a week-ender or sectioner AGAIN.
Whenever I run into an arrogant thru-hiker, especially one being snooty or uppity to section hikers (and this happens more than you think), I remind them of this.

Good point Jack,

As a section hiker (and future thru) I've had that snotty attitude from thru-hikers. Often it was about milage and gear, if I was tenting instead of using shelters and only doing 10 mile days I wan't a real hiker - but when I told them I was out for fun vacation not real work like thru-hiking (and do it in a joking manner) it usually changed their attitude, at least to my face :D

Heck I even had a shelter alone with a thru-hiker that had never hiked before he started his thru-hike. He had gotten all his gear in one trip to an outfitter and had been learning to use it on the trail. Grant that it was north of Peariburg, so he was doing well, but he was trying to tell me what I should use for gear. So I guess not all thru-hikers come from section hikers, but everyone is a gear expert by Pearisburg.

Anyway, good point: From section hikers we come, and to section hikers we shall return...

During our thru-hike, we met many section hikers, and came to the realization that there is definetly somthing to be said for a section hiker who takes his two weeks off every year, spending umpteen days to travel to the trail and back, just to be out there. We met a few section hikers who had been doing it that way for years and years, slowing moving north. I think it's almost more admirable than completing a thru-hike, the amount of dedication it must take to give up your only time off, every single year, for however many years... their perserverance is amazing.