View Full Version : What is a Section Hike?
WingedMonkey
09-29-2011, 14:36
There have many many "discussions" about what a thru-hike is on these forums. Not much on the often used term of "section hike".
According to the ATC web site:
"A section-hiker completes the A.T. in multiple trips over a period of years."
A Glossary of Trail Terms from an old Thru-Hikers Handbook reads:
"Section Hiker is a person who is attempting to become a 2,000-Miler by doing a series of section hikes over a period of time"
These definitions seem simple enough. If you are attempting to complete the entire Appalachian Trail over a series of hikes you are a Section Hiker.
So why do so many refer to every hike on the trail as a section hike?
Is going out for a weekend hike on the AT a section hike even when you have no intention to do the whole trail in your life time?
I've hiked the trail from Connecticut to the Vermont state line at least six times from two day hikes to one week hikes. Are they all section hikes? Are all the hikes on the AT I've done on parts I've already thru-hiked section hikes? Some people hike certain parts of the trail many times because of closeness or favoritism, is every trip a section hike? Every trip to SMNP or SNP?
Does it matter? Yes it does. For all those that are planning and making the effort, or have actually finished their 2,000 miler they deserve the distinction of a title of Section Hiker. They are working toward or have earned their title of 2,000 miler.
Going out and enjoying a hike on the AT when ever you can is a great experience, but not every trip is a section hike. I've been in and out of the Grand Canyon three times, I don't call them section hikes.
:p
hikerboy57
09-29-2011, 14:45
Ive hiked over 1500 miles , and have completed maybe 60-70% of the "sections" between DWG and Katahdin.A complete thru hike has been a dream since 1976.im doing half the trail next year and following up in 2013 to finish it(if of course the world doesnt end in 2013.I never documented many of my the sections Ive hiked as to where and when over the years, so for me to be a "2000 miler", I wouldnt count the hiking I never actually documented. but all in all its really not anywhere near as important to me as the richness of the experiences ive had,. and the many people Ive met over the years.
its a good question due to some of the current debates, but in the end it seems to me , it becomes a question of your effort being officially recognized, which for me, holds no importance.
Im in it for the money.
Odd Man Out
09-29-2011, 16:46
so if a person hikes 50 miles with the intent of sometime in the future hiking the whole trail someday they are a section hiker. But if they hike the same 50 miles but don't intend to hike the whole trail someday, they are something else (do we have a name for that?).
It's kind of like the difference between first and second degree murder - premeditated intent or not. But to the poor schmo who got murdered, it doesn't really matter, does it?
Slo-go'en
09-29-2011, 16:47
I guess if your not intending to hike the whole trail, then your just a "hiker" or "weekend warror".
hikerboy57
09-29-2011, 17:00
im having an identity crisis.so if ive covered most of the northern half, some sections being nothing more than day hikes, others weekends, and still others 1-2 weeks, and I complet the trail in my lifetime by filling in the gaps and finisjh the southern half,, what am i?(alright, i know i need spell check, but what am i?)
BobTheBuilder
09-29-2011, 17:54
I think Section Hiker implies an intent, at least, to complete the entire trail. Otherwise you are a plain hiker.
hikerboy57
09-29-2011, 18:02
so if you completed 220 day hikes of 10 miles/day, covering every inch of the AT, and it took 20 years to complete, are you a section hiker, hiker, or poser?
daddytwosticks
09-30-2011, 07:24
Introducing a new term...Section Walker. :)
I guess in the future I'll simply introduce myself at shelters as a person who is hiking the section from point A to point B on this particular hike with no idea how many miles I'll complete before the end of my days.
4eyedbuzzard
09-30-2011, 11:50
It all starts with titles and definitions, next comes credentials, and then licenses, and commissions, and inspectors, and fees, and . . .
Why can't everybody just walk without making such a big %$^#*@! deal about it.
Blissful
09-30-2011, 12:16
That's why you need to come over to Facebook and the Section Hikers Group to air your feelings. :) The Only Wanderer is doing his section today, the width of the trail in Damascus.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/179997858744135/
JaxHiker
09-30-2011, 12:22
It all starts with titles and definitions, next comes credentials, and then licenses, and commissions, and inspectors, and fees, and . . .
Why can't everybody just walk without making such a big %$^#*@! deal about it.
I couldn't disagree more. Please sign up for Jaxhiker's Hiker Accreditation Symposium. At the end you will have an appropriate trail name and certificate authorizing you to properly identify yourself and hiker level while on the trail. Act soon! Seating is limited. For the month of October WB members can attend for the special price of $199. The first 10 to sign up at showmedahikinmoney.com will also receive a limited edition Ginsu portable ultralight kitchen with butler!
Sent from my Thunderbolt.
Odd Man Out
09-30-2011, 14:04
I think I got it figured out!
So if I go for a hike without a backpack with the intent of walking a 20 mile section of the AT in one continuous hike in one day, but without the intent of hiking the whole AT at any time in the foreseeable future, but wind up drinking too much at a trail town bar and sleeping it off for a couple of days in the bushes behind the baptist church, that makes me a thru-section-day-walking-stealth-camping-slack packer.
FlyPaper
09-30-2011, 14:56
Perhaps we should define a section hiker as someone hiking that is also tracking lifetime progress such that he would know if he finished the trail, regardless of how the odds of finishing are assessed at the current point in time. I consider myself to be a section hiker even though the end of my walking ability may be approaching faster than the end of the AT. If you are not keeping track of where you've been, you're not a section hiker, just a hiker.
WingedMonkey
09-30-2011, 15:51
That's why you need to come over to Facebook and the Section Hikers Group to air your feelings. :) The Only Wanderer is doing his section today, the width of the trail in Damascus.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/179997858744135/
If you post that enough it starts to smell....like spam.
BobTheBuilder
09-30-2011, 16:00
that makes me a thru-section-day-walking-stealth-camping-slack packer.
Now THAT is funny
hikerboy57
09-30-2011, 16:05
Now THAT is funnyi think theres a badge for that.
Oh wow, I always thought a section hiker was a hiker hiking a section of the trail. Silly me.
JaxHiker
09-30-2011, 18:15
i think theres a badge for that.
It's a certificate. We don't need no stinkin badges.
Sent from my Thunderbolt.
4eyedbuzzard
09-30-2011, 18:44
If you intend to thru-hike or section hike, and you don't finish, are their valuable parting gifts?
So if i never hike the whole trail I didn't get to enjoy the trail the same as someone who hiked the whole trail only one year out of there life and then never returns. I have been hiking on the A T since 1975 and have hiked most of the southern end in both direction's and I don't feel we need a title for how we enjoy something and my experience has lasted well over 35 years and
Mr. BuffaloMan
09-30-2011, 19:58
so if you completed 220 day hikes of 10 miles/day, covering every inch of the AT, and it took 20 years to complete, are you a section hiker, hiker, or poser? Section hiker. Everything is in the intent. The intent is always fluid. A hiker may not start out as anything other than a person who likes to walk around outside. But one day that same person might walk on a recognized long-distance trail. That person would be a day (or longer) hiker. If that person decided to attempt to hike all of that trail, then the hiker would have to decide when and in what fashion he/she would be interested in completing the trail. If the decision was that hiking all in one trip was the way to go, then the hiker would be a thru hiker on that trail while the hiker is making the attempt reguardless of the outcome (success or failure is not a matter of intent). On the other hand, if a hiker decides that a complete traverse of a particular trail is the intent but not in one trip, then that hiker is a section hiker of that trail no matter the duration of or number of individual hikes required to accomplish the desired result of an Intended Complete Hike of any particular trail. IMHO.
Mr. BuffaloMan
09-30-2011, 20:02
I think I got it figured out!
So if I go for a hike without a backpack with the intent of walking a 20 mile section of the AT in one continuous hike in one day, but without the intent of hiking the whole AT at any time in the foreseeable future, but wind up drinking too much at a trail town bar and sleeping it off for a couple of days in the bushes behind the baptist church, that makes me a thru-section-day-walking-stealth-camping-slack packer. Exactly. I'm glad you were paying attention. Do you get a special patch for that?
Mr. BuffaloMan
09-30-2011, 20:06
Otherwise, none of this is worth it.:rolleyes:
atmilkman
09-30-2011, 20:35
What is the definition of a long trail? Does it have to be a certain minimum mileage? For example; if you hike a 100 mile trail with no zero days would you be considered a thru-hiker or a section hiker because its equivalent to a portion of a really long trail?
Yeah. The Gene Marshall Piedra Blanca National Recreation Trail is near me. I've been wanting to thru-hike it for a long time. So far I've section hiked a few bits here and there. The trail is 17 miles long. It's still a dream of mine though.
Sarcasm the elf
09-30-2011, 22:23
so if you completed 220 day hikes of 10 miles/day, covering every inch of the AT, and it took 20 years to complete, are you a section hiker, hiker, or poser?
The correct answer is if you do that: You're awesome.
I consider myself a section hiker and i look at it as an intention to finish the trail someday, or until i can thru at least :)
XCskiNYC
09-30-2011, 23:12
so if you completed 220 day hikes of 10 miles/day, covering every inch of the AT, and it took 20 years to complete, are you a section hiker, hiker, or poser?
The logistics of getting to those sections would be a giant PITA. The hiker should get an award for planning so many day hikes and doing so much travel for such short hikes.
Sarcasm the elf
09-30-2011, 23:21
WM, thanks for starting this thread, you're opening post actually had me reflecting for most of the day on the last few years as a backpacker and my 300 miles to date (more if you count repeat trips to the same place). As I mentioned in another thread, I'm a sectioner but I've never had a run in with the Entitled thru-hiker, so far I've hiked almost exclusively in New England and I think the attitudes bail much earlier than that point. When I run into thru hikers I almost always see them as equals, but the more I'm on the trail the more I realize how different my trips are from their thru hikes.
I'm insanely jealous of those who take off from Georgia every spring and Katahdin every Summer, I'd love to do it myself, but life gets in the way of the best laid plans and right now I wouldn't trade any of it for a ticket to Springer. The more I get to know to the thru's I meet the harder it is for me to relate to the determination, stamina and resolve it takes to do something like this, I've never had to worry about the budgeting, the risk of injury from the daily abuse of one's body, solid resolve or the many other logistics they have to worry about. To me it's easy: Blister? I'm out on the trail for a week, let it be. Doctor? No need to find one, I'll see mine when I get back. Budget? Who cares, I've only got 13 day out here, I can splurge a bit on gear or on a hotel after six days of rain. Homesick? Lonely? I'll be home soon enough...Nope, as a section hiker, I don't have to worry about the lot of the things that the long distance hikers have to face. I can't even imagine the strength these folks realize in themselves to make this journey a reality, heck I bailed on my first week long section two days early because I wasn't having fun (I did learn a lot from my mistakes that trip though.)
On the other hand, sectioning is also freaking hard. These thru hikers only have to figure out how to get from their house to the trail once, maybe twice in their hikes and after their bodies are conditioned, seeing them pass you on the trail is like watching a skinny little body connected to two monstrous pistons fitted with trail runners gracefully cruising by. For me every day, weekend, week, or multi-week trip requires planning to get me to where I need to be dropped off and picked up and the point I left off at is farther away ever time! Getting home from my last trip involved Amtrak and I still have 1,200 miles of trail south of that that I need to get to before I reach Georgia. Then every time I get to the trail, it's as if it's my body's first time on the trail, trail legs you say? What are those? I think I had them once this spring, but they wear off fast enough when I'm back behind my desk. I've met thru's who are disappointed when they only manage 15 miles in a day, when I have a 15 mile day it's an accomplishment! I also don't get to choose the time of year when I hit the trail. What's a good start date for my NoBo? March, April? Sobo in June? Not a chance, I get out there whenever I can. If it's as little as one weekend a month and two weeks a year then awesome! Hiker trash guard and reserve here I come!!! As a sectioner I can't seem to average more than 12 miles or so a day or get my pack under 40lbs without seriously cutting down on the items my soft pudgy body needs to make it through the woods, but I can tell you about hiking and camping in every season and every kind of weather (and heck, I'm still a beginner as far as I'm concerned.) If I ever do finish the trail, it's going to take me about one and a half times as long as a thru hiker, that means one and a half times the bad nights, a lot more beginners muscle pain that I dealt with and a heck of a lot more in logistics.
I'm always blown away when I speak to a NoBo about the milage their cranking when they hit NY, or how they beat the four state challenge. When I'm BSing with these folks about Virginia in the spring, it never fails to take a minute for it to sink in that they know how it is because they just walked from there. At the same time it's great to see their faces while we're sitting at the shelter having a conversation when I casually throw in "yep, last time I slept in this shelter it was -3F before the wind chill." or "Nope, I can't crash in Dalton for a few days to wait out this heat wave, I've only got six days to be out here so me and this 50lb pack are staying on the trail." (Okay, I'm lying I did end up staying in Dalton during the heatwave, but you get the idea.)
I think what I'm saying is that in my experience there's no comparison between Thru and Section hiking because they're totally different, but each is awesome. I've never liked the idea of competition or ego on the trail and fortunately I've almost never run into it. Often the best feeling I have when talking to Thru's about our shared experiences is that of mutual admiration for what each of us has accomplished.
Patrickjd9
10-01-2011, 13:44
I hiked the AT for over 25 years before deciding I wanted to complete it as a section hiker in 2006. When I sat down with a map and contacted people I'd hiked with, I counted up that I'd done about 340 miles. I guess I became a section hiker then.
Despite being slowed by illness in the family, raising a teenager, and my own weight issues, I've added about 300 miles since. Realizing that I need to pick up the pace a bit!
RoadTrippin
10-01-2011, 17:24
So if I hike a section of the AT and think, WOW, I really think it would be cool to hike EVERY section eventually, am I then considered a Section Hiker?? AND, if something happens down the road and I either cannot, or do not, wish to complete the task, can I be charged with fraud?? Now I'm REALLY confused!!
handlebar
10-01-2011, 22:30
Although I thru-hiked both the AT and PCT, I'm hiking the CDT as a "Chunk Hiker". Chunk 1 was 1230 miles in '10, Chunk 2 was 1030 miles in '11, and Chunk 3, Lord willing will be 480 miles next year. Those are Ley miles so the actual mileage is probably 10% greater. Jackie McDonald a/k/a Yogi of the PCT and CDT Town Guidebooks coined the "Chunk Hiker" term. It takes me about 3 weeks before my "trail legs" kick in, so for the CDT I will have gone through that adjustment to long trail hiking 3 times. Plus, I've had to deal with getting to various locales on the CDT twice now and have a plan for getting there again. I can say that I have great respect for section hikers who get out and do this over and over again to complete a long trail.
...Does it matter? Yes it does. For all those that are planning and making the effort, or have actually finished their 2,000 miler they deserve the distinction of a title of Section Hiker. They are working toward or have earned their title of 2,000 miler...No, it doesn't matter. Only a very select few might care about any distinctions / titles on the trail. To most, while on the trail hikers are just hikers regardless of their plans.
For those who think they "deserve distinction" they may want to read some of the other threads on this site regarding thru-hiker attitudes.
I love finding time, whenever I can, to spend a day hiking, and the local parts of the AT are always a good choice for that. Some, like Blood Mountain, I return to over and over. Sometimes I like less crowded hikes, though.I'm planning a 1-2 week section in the spring, because I want a gorgeous 1-2 week backpacking trip. I'm going to get a map of the whole trail and start higlighting where I've been, so I can keep up with it. I'd like to do a thru in 2014. But I'd like to complete the whole trail, in sections or all at once, because it BLOWS MY MIND that the footpath starts here and goes all the @&)?&*# the way up to Maine! I mean, it just keeps going! I want to see THAT for myself!I hike because I want to hike. I want to hit 2000 miles of it because it's so weird and awesome that it goes that far. I don't expect recognition for doing it, though, however I do it, if I do get to take it all in. I just want to see it for myself.
kayak karl
11-06-2011, 16:43
If you post that enough it starts to smell....like spam.
leave her alone :)
it sound like your first post Windmonkey was "i know what i am, but what are you?' what's the difference if you set out as a weekend hiker. get 500 miles under your belt and you think with some planning you could do the whole trail, but you didn't call yourself a section hiker?............do you need to start over.
Thru is easy... sectioning takes more planning , persistence and money. i have MUCH more respect for them.
Cookerhiker
11-06-2011, 17:05
First of all, thank you Winged Monkey for starting this thread because it's provided some good laughs (unintended consequences?). My first instinct was to agree with Diane's point that a section hike was simply hiking a section of the AT but that's much too simple and reeks of common sense.
Now, I tell eveyone I section hiked the AT - covered every foot - took me 28 years. Buttttt.....when I hiked my first 50 mile stretch (let's call it that, not "section") in 1977, was it part of a grand plan intended at that time to hike the entire AT? Can't honestly say yes. And I hiked more that year, the next year, etc. keeping track of where I hiked mostly through journals.
So when did I aspire/decide "Hey, I want to cover the whole trail?" I think it was about 1990 +/- a year. So is that when I became an official "section hiker?" But I still hiked the whole trail, finishing in 2005. So was it as a "section hiker" or some hybrid? Are my previous hikes rendered invalid because they were not part of a grand scheme to hike the whole trail?
It's analagous to when St. Paul wrote his letters in the New Testament. They became canonized in the 4th Century as "scripture" but was that his intent and expectation when he wrote them in the 1st Century? Now there's a can of worms leading to thread drift...:D
hikerboy57
11-06-2011, 17:07
If you intend to thru-hike or section hike, and you don't finish, are their valuable parting gifts? I think theres a man patch for that.
Northern Lights
11-06-2011, 17:52
I would like to think of myself as a section hiker. My first section was from Springer to Sweetwater Gap. Next year I intend to hike Sweetwater to Damascus. My plan is to finish the AT in ten years, then I will retire and hike it in 6 months. However my first day out I was told I was just a section hiker and even if I make it to Katahdin someday, it doesn't count. So I guess I am just an occasional hiker, with a goal?
coach lou
11-06-2011, 18:01
BINGO, Froggie!!!
Rain Man
11-06-2011, 18:15
Although I thru-hiked both the AT and PCT, I'm hiking the CDT as a "Chunk Hiker".
"Chunk Hiker" just doesn't roll off the tongue. I think you should call yourself a "Chunky Hiker." Easier to say! LOL
Rain:sunMan
.
rocketsocks
11-06-2011, 18:25
Winged monkey,great question and more importantly good point!Call it what it is,section, day ,thru-hike or whatever other conitation one wants to put on it.Me sometimes I'm a weekend hiker which always makes me a day hiker.And sometimes I'm just a hiker.:)
"Chunk Hiker" just doesn't roll off the tongue. I think you should call yourself a "Chunky Hiker." Easier to say! LOL
Rain:sunMan
.
You are right that chunk hiker doesn't roll of the tongue but Chunky hiker has some kinda tone of being chunky and bulky.
How about Chunker= chunk+ hiker ?
I like this thread. Op has a clear point. Yes I know the terms do not make the hikes diffrent but when we talk herein WB it makes a difference.
It seems to me that they orriginaly defined the word Section hiker with another intention but today we use it for both section hikers who have or dont have intention to finish the trail in the future.
so it is like that we practically have two separate group that use the same title. does it matter? for me it does. nowadays we leave in trails less than the time that we spend online so words and definitions should be as clear as possible.
For example you meet a hiker on AT and ask her about her trip and she says" I am a section hiker" is her answer enough for you to think hat " Ok she is going to finish AT someday in the future." while she just meant she is hiking a section. so you need to ask the second and third question about her while if we start to define words and make them as clear as possible it will make our future conversation easier. Like if she says " I am a sectionist for exmple and sectionist by definition is a hiker who hikes sections with intention to finish it while section hiker is hiking the trail just in sections .( that was just an example and dos not mean I am offering new term, so please....).
Don't you think here in WB is the plac to disscuss these new needs of terms?
Thank you OP.
leave her alone :)
it sound like your first post Windmonkey was "i know what i am, but what are you?' what's the difference if you set out as a weekend hiker. get 500 miles under your belt and you think with some planning you could do the whole trail, but you didn't call yourself a section hiker?............do you need to start over.
Thru is easy... sectioning takes more planning , persistence and money. i have MUCH more respect for them.
I have a world of respect for section hikers either. I take my hat off for them but you said Thru is easy.Really?
Have you done a thru ?
Have you done section hiking to compare these two?
I just think people who have done both are eligible for a comparison making but even then they are not going to say thru is easy, you know why? it simply is not easy.
Cookerhiker
11-06-2011, 19:49
... However my first day out I was told I was just a section hiker and even if I make it to Katahdin someday, it doesn't count. So I guess I am just an occasional hiker, with a goal?
Who in the h*** told you that?:(
Cookerhiker
11-06-2011, 19:55
"Chunk Hiker" just doesn't roll off the tongue. I think you should call yourself a "Chunky Hiker." Easier to say! LOL
Rain:sunMan
.
Sounds like a good portrayal pertaining to a lot of us.
But not Handlebar, having thru'd the AT & PCT plus his "chunks" of the CDT. And then there's his thruhike of the Allegheny Trail totally in wintery conditions replete with deep snow, freezing rain, hard-to-locate trail, numerous blowdowns - and no Trail Angels dispensing Trail Magic around.
Northern Lights
11-07-2011, 22:58
Who in the h*** told you that?:(
Another lady hiker I met in the parking lot at Springer, it's ok though because I probably should be in the Chunker hiker category anyway :D
Leanthree
11-07-2011, 23:27
The real question as to which is easier is what is the % of hikers who set out to complete it in section or set out to complete a thru end up finishing the whole thing.
I imagine it isn't purely black and white as there are hikers who intended a thru but had to come off the trail in their thru year and finished in sections and there are people who just start hiking a lot, get a few hundred miles in, and decide to finish in chunks.
Avalanche1
11-29-2011, 16:16
Who cares what you call it--go out and enjoy the trail!
Isn't everyone a section hiker until they actually take that last step...
58starter
11-29-2011, 17:29
Right now we are all sitting on our butts, thinking about hiking hikers.
The proposition that you're not a section hiker unless you have or intend to piece together all the "SECTIONS" of the AT is so ludicrous it makes me want to ralph in my mouth!
I've been hiking sections of the AT, PCT, Long Trail, Foothills Trail, and many other trails for 39 years and I'll call myself a section hiker because I go out and do sections of trails, a section being from one road access point to another. Try to take my badges! I don't have any. But you can take my toilet paper . . . cause that's about all the proposition is worth! :eek:
max patch
11-29-2011, 18:08
An AT section hike is any hike >0 and <2,181. Does not matter is the hiker intends to hike the entire trail or not.
im having an identity crisis.so if ive covered most of the northern half, some sections being nothing more than day hikes, others weekends, and still others 1-2 weeks, and I complet the trail in my lifetime by filling in the gaps and finisjh the southern half,, what am i?(alright, i know i need spell check, but what am i?)
You are a backpacker by god!
Yeah. The Gene Marshall Piedra Blanca National Recreation Trail is near me. I've been wanting to thru-hike it for a long time. So far I've section hiked a few bits here and there. The trail is 17 miles long. It's still a dream of mine though.
Whew! The name is longer than the trail!
I think theres a man patch for that.
Now *that's* funny!
What do we do with someone who's section hiked (complete) the triple crown?
Summit
Section Hiker, PhD (Piled High & Deep)
Anyone who expects to be acknowledged and distinguished by others for their accomplishments has a serious ego-pride problem. Having joy in your own accomplishments should be enough.
Yours truly,
One who loves to walk
max patch
11-29-2011, 19:29
What do we do with someone who's section hiked (complete) the triple crown?
Congratulate them.
Is going out for a weekend hike on the AT a section hike even when you have no intention to do the whole trail in your life time?Does reading the sports SECTION of the NY Times everyday disqualify you from saying I read the NY Times everyday (since no one reads every word of it everyday)? :rolleyes:
Congratulate them.That's what I was thinking, not bow down and bestow some title on them.
What do we do with someone who's section hiked (complete) the triple crown?
Backpackers by god!
earlyriser26
11-29-2011, 20:15
so if you completed 220 day hikes of 10 miles/day, covering every inch of the AT, and it took 20 years to complete, are you a section hiker, hiker, or poser?
I have hiked the trail every year since 1969 (42 years). I am still working on the trail, even though I have put in more than 2,000 miles. About two thirds done, put not quite a poser. I hiked the AT 5X this year, more than most posers on whiteblaze.:eek::eek:
Funny post, is there a cyber WB Tuesday discount from the $199??
I really thought that a section hiker was a hiker who hiked a section.................lets face it, once you do a section you might very well be inflicted with a common disease, lets name that one!
I have hiked the trail every year since 1969 (42 years). I am still working on the trail, even though I have put in more than 2,000 miles. About two thirds done, put not quite a poser. I hiked the AT 5X this year, more than most posers on whiteblaze.:eek::eek:I haven't hiked on the AT in 1 1/2 years. Been doing a lot in Shining Rock Wilderness (have done most of this beautiful place's trails) and the Foothills Trail. Only did about 175 miles this year. Guess that makes me lower than a poser . . . something like a crouton.