rant by "Balls"

[MuddyWaters]

Following is taken from the AT journal of "Balls and Sunshine", Mon. April 23rd. I have been following and enjoying their journal, since I enjoyed reading about their PCT hike on BPL.


"Ok, I have held my tongue long enough. I can't do it anymore. Some of my more astute readers knew I was holding back and have been sending me private emails begging me for more bluntness about the people out here. Well, it's your lucky day! I know many who read this are from around here or have a deep love and commitment to this trail. If that is you, obviously you are not one of the people or types of people I'm about to blast. You have respect for the trail and those who travel it. I thank all the kind and giving trail angels who help us along the way. We have been blessed by so many. We have met some great, wonderful, and friendly hikers as well. Not all hikers here are like the ones I'm about to describe, but far too many are. We have however, been meeting more and more quality thru-hikers the further north we travel. I thank all the ATC members and volunteers who keep this trail, the shelters and privies top notch! I commend and respect you and don't wish to offend any of you. With-out your money, time, labor, and other sacrifices, this trail would be destroyed in a few short years by all these unbelievably selfish, immature, thieving, lying, vandalizing, click forming, non-courteous pieces of garbage that we see all too often. Seriously, who steals gloves from an 11 year old girl during a snow storm? That is deplorable! Shame on them!
We are tired of walking by 6 to 8 steaming piles of human waste each day just 2 feet off the trail with used toilet paper strewn about. Really?? They walk by 2 to 3 privies each day. There is no excuse! At least bury it. Often we see this near a privy! The awesome volunteer ridge runners have to carry little shovels to clean up after these disgusting animals or the trail would be an open sewer.
You can barley see the wood of the shelter walls because they are so heavily vandalized by people writing intelligent thoughts such as "SoBo's suck #%+" or "NoBo's are gay" or "don't forget to flush the privy". What is wrong with them. Who packs their backpack for a 6 month hike and says "oh crap, I almost forgot the sharpie"!! Even the Boy Scouts (every shelter) scrawl their troop #'s all over the walls proclaiming theirs to be the best. What happened to "a scout is courteous, kind, clean and reverent"?
The shelters are filled up with discarded gear, clothing, empty fuel canisters, trash, bibles and religious books that some trail angels hand out. They don't have the courage to say "no thank you, I don't wish to carry a 2 pound book that I'm not interested in reading" so they accept them on false pretense and scatter them all over for others to haul out.
I saw a hiker in the store in Hot Springs wearing all her rain gear. It had rained a few hours earlier, but was now sunny. I cheerfully say "must be laundry day"? She glares at me and snidely blurts out "NO"! I say, "Oh sorry, I thought you were a hiker". She growls "I AM a hiker"! Back peddling I apologetically say, "usually hikers wear their rain gear while doing laundry since everything else is dirty". She then informs me, "they ALSO wear it on rainy days"! After our conversation, I walked by the laundromat where I cheerfully greeted a dozen hikers dressed in only their rain gear. This is not an isolated indecent we are met with this type of animosity daily when trying to be friendly. They just don't want to talk to you if your not in their click or age group. Out of PCT habit, I'll just smile or wave when I recognize someone as a hiker while entering a restaurant or store. Often this good will gesture is met with glares or mumbling under the breath.
Many raise ruckus late at night among their clicks keeping everyone else awake in camp sites, shelters, and hostels.
BTW, I'm specifically referring to the so called "AT thru-hikers" in this rant. There are many great thru-hikers here too that are serious about the trail and we have enjoyed their company. Unfortunately, at our pace, we don't see them for more than a day or two. The day hikers and section hikers have been first class and very kind and friendly. I have enjoyed meeting each one of them. It is a much needed reprieve from the "every hiker for him/herself" mentality we are subjected to daily.

[ChinMusic]

I read it. He's def complaining a lot this year. Not saying that stuff didn't happen. IMO, he should leave the writing to Sunshine.

[Badger]

Here's a link to the journal for those that want to read more: http://trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=364996

[WIAPilot]

Aww that's so lame that this is happening.... I, for one, really appreciate that he wrote it. Because now I am prepared for it. I think it would have hit me kind of hard to see all this after idealizing the trail for so long.

The USFS should contact the Boy Scouts of America's national office and submit a list of the troops on the shelter walls. The troops' next outing should entail cleaning up graffiti on several AT shelters...

[KVKV]

Agree that Sunshine is much more pleasant and interesting to read. His general rants don't bother me even though he comes across as a real complainer compared to other hikers, but I really don't like the defamation of the female hiker he runs into a few times. Would not be too hard to work out who she is and he really rips into her. Personally I can't see that she did much wrong apart from not wanting to talk to him.

[Jeff]

From my experience in Vermont most thru hikers are respectful and courteous. I guess the "problem" hikers have decided that long distance hiking is way too difficult.

[bigcranky]

I read it. He's def complaining a lot this year. Not saying that stuff didn't happen. IMO, he should leave the writing to Sunshine.

+1 on this. Noticed it from the beginning. Very different "voice" than other things he's written. Have been thinking that if they avoided shelters that would solve 99% of the problem.

[sweeper]

I'm glad, after reading this that I hiked the trail in 73&74 occasionally you saw outsiders, usually on weekends of coarse you were apt to get hassled by the cops when you went into town because there were so few doing this sort of thing. Yes there were a few places with toilet paper blowing around, usually because the privey had collapsed during the winter. I still get into some of the lean 2s usually in the winter to read the journals and camp always recall what a life chanhging event the hike was in my life. I like to think that the idiots who crap on the trail are too scared to go a few hundred feet into the woods and do the task justice. Hopefully these types won't go into the wilderness again.

[mmorgan]

The Trail is a microcosm of society. It is not immune to people issues but having a related percentage of issues related to the number of people using the trail. There are idiots in the world and there are idiots on the trail. I perfer to section hike when there are fewer users. This lessen the percenatge of idiots i may run into. It is a footpath for those who seek fellowship with the wilderness, but you will not be alone at certain times of the year. It is a shame the way people act, on and off the trail. Be an example to them on how it should be done. Be respectful and considerate to others, use proper trail etiquette and show (not tell) others how to behave.

[WIAPilot]

Sometimes, you just got to tell it like it is. Also regarding some of the shelters, he's in the GSMNP where all AT hikers must stay in the shelters until they are full. THEN they are "allowed" to camp in the vicinity of the shelter. I may just slack pack the Smokies.

[yellowsirocco]

From my experience in Vermont most thru hikers are respectful and courteous. I guess the "problem" hikers have decided that long distance hiking is way too difficult.

Yep, up north most of the a-holes have dropped out. I think every time a new service (or trail feed) is introduced in the first several hundred miles of the trail it kind of keeps the undesirables on trail and makes things worse (I can't fault these services for making a buck though). I think I have figured that these days people don't even have to hitch-hike south of Damascus.

[Exile]

Aww that's so lame that this is happening.... I, for one, really appreciate that he wrote it. Because now I am prepared for it. I think it would have hit me kind of hard to see all this after idealizing the trail for so long.

The USFS should contact the Boy Scouts of America's national office and submit a list of the troops on the shelter walls. The troops' next outing should entail cleaning up graffiti on several AT shelters...

+1 on the idea of letting the BSA National office know about the graffiti. Scouts should already know better than that.

[Bati]

He's got some good points. Hikers, or at least Northbounders who are just starting out, are now in competition with each other for limited resources (shelters, hostel space, rides, free food). When I started Northbound almost 20 years ago, we were all in a symbiotic relationship- space was made at the shelters as long as it was possible; there was no need for everyone to be able to sleep on their back if it was sleeting on top of the snow. If someone left the shelter first in the morning, they weren't trying to hog the space at the next shelter; they were simply breaking trail for everyone that followed. Conversations were valued since you had something in common with the other hikers and everyone had a story to tell. The only issue was the the hikers that yellow-blazed and put themselves and you in a potentially hazardous situation (if you can't hike to Fontana, you might not be ready for the park), and those with an attitude that they deserved better hiking conditions or a rescue. Most of those had dropped out early on. There were no "hiker feeds" and most rides into town involved the luck of hitching, which feels safer in pairs than alone.

I stayed at the Fontana Hilton a few years back, hungry for conversation after a long solitary stretch on the BMT, and the change was amazing to me. There were no group conversations, no sharing of meals or condiments, no sense of a shared community. It was very much "each small group on their own".
My guess is that the easier the trail becomes the more these problems will arise. When you need other hikers to survive or tell you where the spring is located or where to find the post office, you will appreciate them more. And the more hiker feeds, town maps, and hostels, the less hikers have to depend on their own wilderness skills and each other, and the more they continue to depend on the non-hiker community. A lot of the improvements to the trail, such as larger shelters that give the appearance of being more than an emergency shelter, shuttle services that make towns easier to reach, and the multitude of hostels have a mixed impact on the backpacking experience.

[GP1971]

My family is just getting started on knowing the AT. We've done a couple day hikes and for first time this year will do a 3 day hike. That being said it sounds like this is what is happening to society in general. Kids have been told for 2 generations that they are more special than everyone else and nothing they do is wrong. I have 3 kids under 7 and am not raising them that way. I actually see that there is some push back from my generation of parents from that point if view. I am also a Cubmaster. What is an accepted way to clean the graffiti from shelter walls? If I see any i will do it and send pics to BSA. There are enough issues with BSA straying from what it was.

[Johnny Thunder]

i experienced something similar to this when i went back down south the year following my through. just wanted to walk around a few weeks and share in the enthusiasm of the current year hikers. some folks were misplaced. i can remember one screed written on the floor of overmountain by a vietnam-era veteran regarding all non-vets and non-active service members as somehow subhuman. or, the kid with obvious anger management issues pal'ed up with the clear delusional schizophrenic who was one bad trip away from going into the other tree realm to learn how to fight with swords so he can beat an elf and then hunt down breeders (regular old you and me). "did i tell you about the time i was in san fransisco and i was a 30 foot tall blue dragon?"

all of these asshats greet you...ANYTIME YOU LEAVE YOUR HOME! they exist everywhere. it's just that in the woods you live in the world of unlocked doors. get over it.

for the most part the people i've found walking in the north and south have been considerate and kind. sure, northbounders down south have a deserved reputation for being inconsiderate of the trail and those around them. that's because they're still learning how to walk. raise your hand if you were brought into this world knowing everything you know at this very moment. or, haven't on your worst days, dropped all the niceties that normally foster society and just said how you felt deep down. prove to me that you've never taken an innocuous comment the wrong way.

really, i think that balls' issue is the same one i had when i went south. you go down there with this idea of what a "hiker" is. to me a hiker is my friend blaze who got lymes so bad he went all pallsy and had to sit out 6 weeks in rutland. dude still finished. and he buried his crap like a good little hiker all the way to katahdin. a professional. but, i'm sure that at one point or another blaze did something for which he might be lambasted on the internet or scorned on the trail tube. you can't expect everyone to start out on their first through hikes as professional, tanned, hard, and complete hikers. that's not how it works.

[Slo-go'en]

I am also a Cubmaster. What is an accepted way to clean the graffiti from shelter walls?

It's hopeless. Graffiti begets graffiti. A clean slate is begging for someone to write on it. Then the first one to carve or write something on the walls or floor encourages others to do the same. Kids with a new knife are the usual suspects, but thier not exclusive.

I once found a wood chisle on the side of the road while walking into town and carried it for awhile. If I had some time to spare, I'd use it to remove the more recent carvings in the shelters, but it was a hopeless task.

[ChinMusic]

+1 on this. Noticed it from the beginning. Very different "voice" than other things he's written. Have been thinking that if they avoided shelters that would solve 99% of the problem.

I agree. His journal is a study for avoiding shelters. He doesn't need them, or hostels for that matter, but for some reason hasn't figured that out.

[jakedatc]

I don't think anything he's said has been too out of line. I think they are getting a big culture shock of a way more urban trail than the PCT. With shelters and trail towns much closer to the trail and closer together there is far more access by section/day hikers and less commitment from aspiring thru-hikers. I think once the group spreads out and thins out they will be much happier.

[MuddyWaters]

If I observed someone crap on the trail , Id probably put it in a ziplock, catch up them, and put it in their pack the next night. Sans ziplock.

[aaronthebugbuffet]

I don't think anything he's said has been too out of line. I think they are getting a big culture shock of a way more urban trail than the PCT. With shelters and trail towns much closer to the trail and closer together there is far more access by section/day hikers and less commitment from aspiring thru-hikers. I think once the group spreads out and thins out they will be much happier.

I agree.

Wow they sure are eating a lot.