How well do you Yogi?

[WingedMonkey]

Before long I was being treated to a gormet lunch they had brought up.

A totally random unplanned act of sharing. I'm sure they didn't set out to do "trail magic" or label themselves "trail angels".

That's the kinda of things that make trail memories.

[Hoofit]

Don't much like the term, "yogiing"
too similar to Yoga,,a,much more natural lifestyle that is often shared with others.
i just don't see how this is anything but bumming off others...taking advantage of other people's generosity.
at least show the givers some respect.....
hopefully the takers will learn to give back one day.....share and share alike, we all need help sometimes but to set out to do it all day?
just go home and earn some money for yourself before your hike
yoga is shared, yogiing is just taking....

[MDSection12]

Does the term come from Yogi the Bear? Anyone ever Yogi a picnic basket?

[Sarcasm the elf]

Does the term come from Yogi the Bear? Anyone ever Yogi a picnic basket?

I tried to once, but the rangers caught me and confiscated the bear costume.

[Train Wreck]

yogabear.jpg

..............

[Spirit Bear]

I get yogied all the time. Last spring I was up at the NOC with my girlfriend having breakfast at that little restaurant by the river. We started chatting with a guy who was thru hiking, he said his 4th one. He told my girlfriend this long story about how he nearly had hypothermia the night before, that it had rained and the 2 shelters prior to the NOC were full so he attempted to hike 35 miles and failed. Got to a FS road and found a truck, crawled under it and called someone to get him from the NOC. He didn't have a shelter of any kind and said he slept in the shelters. What he said. Anyway I felt bad enough for him that I not only paid for his breakfast but went out to my car and gave him the rest of my bourbon I had stashed away, we were going camping up in the smokeys. He said he was taking a zero and fully appreciated the trail magic. He totally yogied us and it felt great. Most people don't mind helping out or they would never offer.

[evyck da fleet]

I know this is the humour section but...I probably tried to Yogi a couple of times with mixed results. Ultimately, I didn't like playing the game and enjoying just talking to people along the way about our hikes or what I needed to see or do nearby more. If they happened to offer me a ride, place to stay, food, gear etc I appreciated the trail magic much more than anything I could have gotten by yogi-ing.

[FooFighter'12]

I've heard of them listening to sermons to get their food. In that case it was actually my first trail feed I passed up, somewhere in NC.

There were people taking hikers to a house from a roadcrossing saying they had all kinds of food, including pancakes and tons of other stuff; I passed it up. I later heard that the hikers had to sit around and listen to a sermon before they got their food. At that point I became convinced I would never ever participate in trail feeds.

I've had other encounters where they come out into the woods (far beyond road crossings) to feed hikers...I've learned to hate them.

A day north of Hot Spings? If so, you are talking about Hercules and F.A.L. It was raining when I came across their sign. I thought, "what the heck", and walked down the road to their house. I was greeted very warmly by them and their dog. They shared stories of their through hike while we ate. There weren't any sermons. After eating they asked a question, to me it sounded like a riddle, but the answer posed the possibility of a higher power. Then, they brought forth a stack of books such as CS Lewis, philosophy, etc and offered one if I wanted. Never once did I feel awkward. They not only fed me a good meal, they fed my soul. It lifted my spirits on that wet day to have a nice personal connection with such nice people. My mind was stimulated for a couple days from the conversation we had. Many hikers I knew passed that house out of fear but what I felt, was that it strangely reminded me of home. I am thankful for that experience and many more.

[Lucy Lulu]

I think everyone has very good points, and usually find the perspectives differ with the personalities. I usually avoid the hiker feeds, mostly because I personally just don't enjoy crowds and would prefer to keep hiking. That said though, some of the best encounters on the trail for me have involved the generosity of other hikers I meet. I was headed SOBO on the AT this year and met a gentleman on top of South Twin. It was a tough climb and I had just collapsed on a boulder in the sun. He came up shortly after me and sat down to chat. He was retired and a mountaineer that had climbed all over the world. It was a fascinating conversation. About 30 minutes into the conversation he pulled out his lunch and started giving me food...homemade blueberry bread, fruit, chocolate, etc. We spent over an hour eating, talking, and laughing. It is one of many encounters like that I will always remember.

[Pedaling Fool]

I get yogied all the time. Last spring I was up at the NOC with my girlfriend having breakfast at that little restaurant by the river. We started chatting with a guy who was thru hiking, he said his 4th one. He told my girlfriend this long story about how he nearly had hypothermia the night before, that it had rained and the 2 shelters prior to the NOC were full so he attempted to hike 35 miles and failed. Got to a FS road and found a truck, crawled under it and called someone to get him from the NOC. He didn't have a shelter of any kind and said he slept in the shelters. What he said. Anyway I felt bad enough for him that I not only paid for his breakfast but went out to my car and gave him the rest of my bourbon I had stashed away, we were going camping up in the smokeys. He said he was taking a zero and fully appreciated the trail magic. He totally yogied us and it felt great. Most people don't mind helping out or they would never offer.

You're a nice guy, but I don't consider that a yogi. I never take money (or services bought). It's all about people overflowing with food and not really having a clue of what you as a hiker are doing, i.e., food in exchange for stories and not all bad (Sounds like all he had were the, "please-take-pity-on-me" stories).

[Another Kevin]

I had three hikes this summer that each would have involved a 3-4 mile roadwalk to get back to my car at the end. (Loops that didn't quite close.) In each case, I parked my car at the trailhead that was closer to the nearest town, and walked to the farther one. And in each case I found someone at the trailhead to offer to run me back since they were going that way anyway.

Is it yogi-ing if I planned the direction of the hike to make this possible? I wasn't depending on it, but was perhaps "open to the possibility." OK, in my heart of hearts I might have been just a little bit disappointed if it hadn't worked out that way.

(What I really need to do if I want to preserve my self-respect is get a cheap bicycle to stash at a trailhead so I can shuttle myself.)