Originally Posted by
Tipi Walter
You got that right.
Dorothy Laker has been my hero for many years now, all due to reading about her in the two volume set.
NOW BACK TO "JUST PASSIN' THRU
In April 2011, I took out this book on a 17 day backpacking trip and wrote this review while holed up in my tent during those nasty April tornado storms passing thru Alabama and East TN. (I was safely camped behind a large rock ledge in the Bald River wilderness and so avoided the worst of the wind). Sorry I don't agree about the "fineness" of the book, but it's just one man's opinion. Read on:
BOOK REVIEW OF "JUST PASSIN' THRU"
I know exactly what the boys at Mountain Crossings would suggest for me:
** Get rid of my 8lb pack.
** Dump the zero down bag for something lighter.
** Don't need 40lbs of food.
** Don't need a white gas stove or 32oz of fuel.
** Leave the books behind.
** Do you really need a 7lb tent when a one pound tarp will do?
** My Icebreaker tops are way too heavy.
** The Arcteryx rain jacket is overkill, get something lighter.
And here's the twist, they sell the very same items in the store that they probably recommend as replacements!
BELABORED COOLNESS
Another point: There's old hand Billy Bumblefoot who in my opinion can't seem to speak a coherent sentence without sounding like a self-ordained guru of all things forest and trail, every movement seemingly calculated to impress or show an enlightened trail weariness verging on jaded imperialism. The belabored coolness in and around the Walasi-Yi center could cause any experienced backpacker a hard case of Get Me Out Of Here AppalachianTrail Burnout. Billy's hiking process is always mentioned by Porter, like he would say, "For his age it's incredible how fast he moves thru the woods, his step is light and faster than hikers three times younger than him." As if speed in the woods is relevant to anything. Meanwhile, a Cherokee Indian of a thousand years ago could take ten times as long to hike the same trail and step very slow and very softly. Winton Porter says, "I wonder how a man of his age can keep such a pace. He moves like a ghost floating through the forest." (page 46) PORTER.
CONTRIVED MENTORING
People who hang out at the center seem to be intricately committed to their own purported self-importance on all aspects of hiking the AT, and newbs get silent and in awe when they walk into a room such as the example of Demetri Coupounas in conversation with another trail guru. At least this is what I've gleaned from the book. In fact, instead of hanging out to impress the newbs or to mumble pithy trailside haiku, or to use the facility as a home or half-way house for convertible pant-clad egos, these people should be out backpacking somewhere and sleeping outdoors.
Never one for crowds of self-appointed experts or group-think, I believe the Walasi-Yi experience as described in the book would drive me nuts as the AT alpha dogs spend their energy strutting, snarling, eyeballing, and condenscendingly patting the newbs on the shoulder with a contrived empathy and with "look at me" being possibly the predominant emotion. Even the pithy "It's not about the miles, it's about the smiles" is another flung philosopher's stone smacking up against the temple and is unsolicited and unneeded and best kept to one's self.
SURROUNDED BY EXPERTS
The sad fact is, newbs are surrounded by so-called experts, old hands, trail dogs, repeat thruhikers, and hiker trash, and it's like throwing a hot dog into a pit of chihuahuas. They will be told what they need as if the experts have a clue, and then the newbs will have the opportunity to improve their lot by purchasing gear at, yes, the conveniently located Walasi outfitters store. The experts are using magical words with the newbs when going thru their gear, like they are saving lives, or if they wear blue jeans or take just a blanket they'll be dead in the next week. Instead of HYOH, they are heavy on Hike My Hike Damnit.
A HALF WAY HOUSE FOR DRUNKS?
And then in the book there's the long tiresome chapter on the Walasi-Yi "drinkers" and party nights where beer seems to be the necessary drug of choice. Newbs can't help but think that to become a trail weary guru they also need to be alcoholics, and no old hand ever comes up in the book to report first hand on how the outdoors and firewater do not mix. Where is their clever pontificating then? They're crazy about spouting off about No Cotton Or You'll Be Dead In A Week, but have nothing to say about getting rid of the booze.
Sometimes I think many of the old trail legends are nothing more than bearded beer-lovers who want to be big fish in a small pond, and perhaps the Walasi-Yi center encourages their behavior and their hanging-on presence. It's a place to see and be seen, and unfortunately all AT backpackers have to pass thru the hallway and consequently have to endure the mind-numbing predictability of hero worship and stumbling wide-eyed newbs in an intricately choreographed dance honed thru the many decades of the AT's existence.
There's nothing much worse than having newbs and experts in the same room and then watching the experts make all the right sounds and moves and gestures of complete ego-inflamed idiocy. I've seen this dance play out at various shelters along the AT, and I call it "holding court." It's enough to cause a normal backpacker to blue blaze a trail around the center and thereby avoid the visual and auditory assault sure to come. So my advice to AT thruhikers is to start in December and avoid the crowds, and plan to pass thru Walasi on a nighthike at 2am and avoid the seasoned eyeball stares.
AVOID THE ROADS
Remember the old AT adage, "Avoid the Roads"? Well, the Walasi center has a car parking lot and is on a road and while the AT may actually pass thru the center, it's really just a fancy road crossing and nothing more. Often it's best to do what Doug Peacock used to do on his backpacking trips: Hide in the woods at a road crossing, then when clear run across with your pack and hide on the other side until clear and continue on your way. So too at the road crossing at Walasi: Don't be seen by the car-transported and the lard gawkers and the rolling couch potatoes. Entering a car-fed area is a real downer on a long backpacking trip and which is it gonna be, the forest or the town?
FINALLY: CRICKET AND THE ULTRALIGHTERS
But Winton Porter scores a perfect 100% on his description of ultralight backpacking and backpackers such as Cricket who come into the center with the smug satisfaction of having a very light pack. Winton calls ULers "GoFreezers" and has this to say about Cricket: He enters the store and walks around " . . . . until he has made a complete circuit of the store and established contact with all of his potential disciples. He will wait until some hiker or tourist stops him and asks The Question---"How much are you carrying?" That will be my cue to run, because then the GoFreezer will loudly give twenty minutes of show-and-tell, sprinkled with advice that is perfectly capable of killing a novice hiker." QUOTE BY WINTON PORTER. Page 31.
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