View Full Version : I learned a new AT hiking acronym today.
oldwetherman
05-19-2016, 21:00
I was having supper at the Smokey Mountain Diner in Hot Springs this evening and had a conversation with some young folks attempting a thru hike. In the course of the conversation I was politely informed that even though they were planning/hoping to get to finish the trail that they do not refer to themselves as thru hikers. Thru hiker was a term that they would only use when they had summited Katahdin. They referred to themselves only as LASHERS (Long Ass section hikers)! It struck me as a polite distinction to folks that have actually completed a thru hike.
I was having supper at the Smokey Mountain Diner in Hot Springs this evening and had a conversation with some young folks attempting a thru hike. In the course of the conversation I was politely informed that even though they were planning/hoping to get to finish the trail that they do not refer to themselves as thru hikers. Thru hiker was a term that they would only use when they had summited Katahdin. They referred to themselves only as LASHERS (Long Ass section hikers)! It struck me as a polite distinction to folks that have actually completed a thru hike.
I met a guy and girl on the trail a few weeks ago who said the same thing. The girl was from TN and the guy from SC. They were cousins. That's the first time I had heard to term too.
I was having supper at the Smokey Mountain Diner in Hot Springs this evening and had a conversation with some young folks attempting a thru hike. In the course of the conversation I was politely informed that even though they were planning/hoping to get to finish the trail that they do not refer to themselves as thru hikers. Thru hiker was a term that they would only use when they had summited Katahdin. They referred to themselves only as LASHERS (Long Ass section hikers)! It struck me as a polite distinction to folks that have actually completed a thru hike.
Seems rather clear to me that once you finish the Trail you become a former AT thru hiker.
I am pretty sure I was one for some months 33 years ago, but am not one today.
But it's a living language.
Perhaps we could combine these ways of thinking and all agree that you can only be an AT thru hiker for a glorious but infinitesimally short spec of time the moment you finish?
Furlough
05-20-2016, 07:26
I was having supper at the Smokey Mountain Diner in Hot Springs this evening and had a conversation with some young folks attempting a thru hike. In the course of the conversation I was politely informed that even though they were planning/hoping to get to finish the trail that they do not refer to themselves as thru hikers. Thru hiker was a term that they would only use when they had summited Katahdin. They referred to themselves only as LASHERS (Long Ass section hikers)! It struck me as a polite distinction to folks that have actually completed a thru hike.
Last year at the conclusion of my section hike from US60 to Rockfish Gap, I met an older gentleman at the Rockfish Gap visitors center whose trail name was LASHER. Shuttled him into Waynesboro to a motel.
I like the LASHer acronym and apply it to myself. I'm of the opinion that folks currently engaged in their first attempted thru hike are not yet thru hikers. The title isn't earned until the trip is complete. Until then it's a thru hike attempt.
Greenlight
05-20-2016, 09:40
I would tend to agree with this line of thinking. You're not an AT thru-hiker until you've completed a legit NOBO or SOBO from point to point. Purist or not, you've got to walk over 2000 miles. I would hope, conceptually, that once you've completed an AT thru-hike that you ARE a thru-hiker. It isn't something that disappears once you leave Springer or Katahdin. If you want to discuss it conceptually to an AT thru-hiker class of 2016, 2008, 1977 whatever that you were (past tense) a member of that distinguised group. But as a general concept, once you "graduate" from the trail, you ARE a thru-hiker.
I like the LASHer acronym and apply it to myself. I'm of the opinion that folks currently engaged in their first attempted thru hike are not yet thru hikers. The title isn't earned until the trip is complete. Until then it's a thru hike attempt.
This is progress. Thank you.
I personally watched dozens of proud "thru hikers" quit the trail before Hot Springs.
gpburdelljr
05-20-2016, 11:43
This is truly a great country. We are so well off, that we have the luxury to discuss totally inconsequential ideas.
This is truly a great country. We are so well off, that we have the luxury to discuss totally inconsequential ideas.
You are aware your on an internet forum? Hope you did not stumble upon this site while trying to do something of consequence.
You are aware your on an internet forum? Hope you did not stumble upon this site while trying to do something of consequence.
you're, just to make it consequential
Traveler
05-21-2016, 08:30
Semantics can be fun.
At what point in time does one become a thru hiker? At the start, somewhere North of Damascus, at Munson, 5 steps from the north or south terminus? Adding the context of time tends to warp this a little. If one is not a thru hiker while they are attempting the thru hike, they cannot be one after they finish because at that point they were/used to be a thru hiker.
What can be said on completion is one thru hiked, the rest is subjective.
Furlough
05-21-2016, 14:26
You are aware your on an internet forum? Hope you did not stumble upon this site while trying to do something of consequence.
Great response.
Semantics can be fun.
At what point in time does one become a thru hiker? At the start, somewhere North of Damascus, at Munson, 5 steps from the north or south terminus? Adding the context of time tends to warp this a little. If one is not a thru hiker while they are attempting the thru hike, they cannot be one after they finish because at that point they were/used to be a thru hiker.
What can be said on completion is one thru hiked, the rest is subjective.
The point where one becomes a thru-hiker is the point one becomes a former thru-hiker
Last Call
05-21-2016, 18:47
I wouldn't consider it a true "Thru-hike" unless one does the Approach Trail....
I wouldn't consider it a true "Thru-hike" unless one does the Approach Trail....
I think the Approach Trail should be done, mainly because I think you should climb up Springer as part of the hike and not just start on top. IMO, since mile 0 of the Appalachian Trail is at the summit, the Approach Trail or the climb to Springer summit isn't a requirement to be a purist thru-hiker.
Never mind all that...
How was the food at the Diner? Did you have pie?
Cheers!
Wayne
Sent from somewhere around here.
oldwetherman
05-21-2016, 20:59
The food was great as usual and the staff is the best. No pie though. I went for the strawberry cobbler and vanilla ice cream.
This is strange. An AT thru hike is your business. If it meets the official requirements of the AT Conservatory, then it really doesn't matter what other people consider a thru hike. Every year the trail changes, should we then go back and tell past thru hikers that completed the trail that it doesn't count? I've heard people put all kinds of arbitrary requirements on the definition out here. If you are hiking a thru hiked you are a thru hiker as recognized and labeled at the AT Conservatory as you pass thru. That only changes if you stop short. In three months I have only met one person out here who felt different,. Everyone else fully understood that a thru hiker was someone who was in the process of doing just that.
Tuckahoe
05-22-2016, 05:53
Yay! Another what is a thru-hiker thread...
Which is funny, because I first heard of LASHer embrased a number of years aho by some long distance hikers because their hike wasnt pure enough to be thru-hike. But they sure as hell had fun doing things like paddling the Shenandoah river. There is even a hat and T-shirt. ;)
A thru hiker is a thru hiker.
What's in a name? That which we call (a person walking from Maine to Georgia) by any other name would smell as "sweet".
Lone Wolf
05-22-2016, 07:00
they hurry up and hike through everything to get to a sign
they hurry up and hike through everything to get to a sign
4+ months is a good long vacation.
CamelMan
05-22-2016, 12:17
I thought a "thru hiker" was somebody intending to hike a thru hike, and a "section hiker" was somebody intending to hike a section. A lasher would be somebody intending to hike a long section. You can always fail at your thru hike and it becomes a section hike. You can fail to finish your section and it's still a section hike.