I recently met a hiker who thru-hiked in 2001. That was the same year that I did my thru. During our discussion I mentioned a lot of folks that I had met. He did not remember meeting anyone that I knew. I first thought that he didn't thru-hike or he may have hiked in a different year. Than he told me he never slept in a shelter or tented near one. The end result was that he did a thru the same time that I did but didn't meet any of the wounderfull folks that I had met. What a shame.