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DebW
10-19-2005, 12:51
Along the same lines of people who give you the creeps, have you encountered register entries that give you the creeps? In most cases it's a situation to cause anger rather than fear, as the person who wrote it is long gone. I can think of 2 cases where sexually explicit material was written in a register which I found very offensive. I can understand that guys can have fantasies when they are alone on the trail for long periods, but those fantasies shouldn't be committed to paper in a public document. In one case I was southbounding on the Long Trail and read an entry expressing crude sexual desires for young women after I'd spent a couple hours in the Long Trail Tavern with the writer (a 50 year old guy). I had honestly found nothing offensive about the guy until I read that entry, but I was glad he was NOBO and I wouldn't see him again. He might have gotten an earful from me if I had. Things like that certainly contribute to making women uncomfortable on the trail.

gsingjane
10-19-2005, 14:03
I haven't seen sexually inappropriate things (per se) in the registers, although I've seen lots 'n lots of what I consider to be bad language and I try to grab the register before my kids get a peek at it. It's hard, because my kids look forward to reading them, but some of it is just pretty yucky.

BTW, I also don't think it's funny or cute when people let their little kids scribble or draw all over the registers. Call me a crabby old so-and-so, but that just irks me! I am impressed when a 4 year old can hike out to a shelter, that's terrific, but you can just note that fact rather than letting the child express himself all over the register.

Jane in CT

Hammock Hanger
10-19-2005, 17:30
There was actually a guy (hiker) who wrote some fantasies about raping someone in one of the registers. Friends of mine got creeped out enough to report it to the police, then they took a bus further up the trail and had to go back and pick up that section later. The guy was apprehended, quite a show from what I heard. He told the police it was all a joke, something he wrote out of bordom.... Not sure what happened after that, I THINK he was released and left the trail comunity.

CynJ
10-19-2005, 17:57
Stuff like that would definitely set off the creep radar. :eek:

Downunda
10-19-2005, 19:05
Being a male myself your experience makes me feel sick.

I was with another young male thru hiker off-and-on for a few days in PA (I won't name him) and on a number of ocassions he made inapproriate comments about some of the female hikers. Being an older male doesn't mean I didn't admire some of them myself but I kept my thoughts to myself as he should have.

The final straw as when we were sitting outside a deli having lunch one day and he made another inappropriate comment about a young mother entering the store. I told him he was out of line and was an embarrasssment to the hiking community. He didn't get it!