View Full Version : 20 Years of Whiteblaze — Happy (belated) Anniversary !
Happy belated Anniversary to Whiteblaze!
Hard to believe it started 20 years ago last month.
At the time that other personality-driven site (now defunct) was just about the only on-line option, and many of the first participants here were refugees from it.
It took me a few months to come on over, but so glad I did.
As one who hiked alone and without the benefit of any trail friends (much less trail family) it has been great getting to know the community and learning about the trail here.
For me Whiteblaze has been more than just casual entertainment or a great source of knowledge, but rather a source of connection to both the physical and social trail that I would have missed otherwise.
While there are a lot more resources today, to my mind there will only be one Whiteblaze.
Congrats on reaching your 20th anniversary.
You did well (and good).
RickB 19AT3
illabelle
10-05-2022, 11:44
Wow, 20 years! Congrats WB!
Happy birthday whiteblaze:) and thanks there's a ton and half of information here!
I certainly have gotten a great deal from this site. Thanks to all those who keep it going.
Seatbelt
10-06-2022, 08:12
I have always enjoyed this site. Sometimes it has been entertaining. I have witnessed [and tried to stay out of] many verbal skirmishes on here in years past and have noticed that most of those who participated have moved on. The info I have gleaned here has been extremely valuable to me.
Thank You and Happy Birthday!
LittleRock
10-06-2022, 08:30
Well said, rickb! It's been great learning from people on this site and a few times meeting people who post here.
Many thanks to Rick Towle (attroll) who's kept this site going, often at his own personal expense, for so long!
garlic08
10-06-2022, 09:12
That's impressive, coming from an almost-charter member.
Patrickjd9
10-06-2022, 11:52
Congrats on 20 years, and thanks to Rickb for noting it!
Took me a long time to become a donating member, but I'm glad I started several years ago.
Ankle Bone
10-06-2022, 12:26
Happy 20!
I was also one of the refugees from the other site. It was great to find this site where I received better information, better advice, and I was allowed to disagree without getting kicked off!
I wish there could be a reunion, where Baltimore Jack could come back and go in circles with Warren D and Lone Wolf about just about anything. His resupply article was my #1 "guide" for my first attempt at a thru hike. I miss Weary's no-back-down push for conservation. I miss Miss Janet's insight on the pulse of the AT community, and Ron Haven's all-around friendliness. There were some great sagas: Minnesota Smith, the FKT's - there have been tremendous outpourings of support, and of course gossip and opinion. This place was my number one resource for news updates about trail-related tragedies like Meredith Emerson and Geraldine Largay. I think a lot of us scattered among "non-hikers" in "the real world" could come to Whiteblaze and feel a little sense of comfort interacting with others who get us, and understand things like why we are so bothered about the news of a stranger called Stronghold.
I don't social media, but I suppose that's similar to Whiteblaze. Except this site never tried to sell me a damn thing through data-mined ads, or tried to sway my political opinion. It was about the purest interaction you could have with the trail community from away. Nowadays, it's a lot more like off-season hiking, when the early days were like being in the NOBO bubble. I still stop in occasionally and definitely revisit some of the old days by searching something like "Baltimore Jack Kennebec River" or "Gator Gump". And I'll still look at pictures from the good ole days when there were water balloon fights at Trail Days and lines for a payphone....and before my beard was completely gray. I definitely still enjoy seeing posts by some of the old faces like Lone Wolf, Tipi Walter, Teej, and Rickb just to name a few....but I do miss the heyday of this site.
Kaptainkriz
10-06-2022, 15:15
Very cool, happy 20th!:banana:banana:banana:dance:banana:banana:ban ana:dance:banana:banana:banana:dance
wornoutboots
10-07-2022, 08:32
Very Cool!! I've always enjoyed, learning, giving experienced input and putting out sticky food for thought over the years!! Keep it up WB!!
Twenty years of fun :banana
Trekker John
10-08-2022, 08:52
wooo HOOOO - - - WOW - yes, it has been twenty years.
I migrated over in 2002 when "The Backpacker" started to dry up.
Then, I got "caught up" in life and the pack just hung on the wall for several years. I got up to the GSM a couple of years ago and it was awesome just for a couple of days.
I truly admire you young guys and gals that still keep the spirit alive.
49587
Trekker John
Toolshed
10-11-2022, 20:28
20 years!!!! WooHoo!!! Hard to beleive. I think I made it in the first 1,000 members. I wonder what they are all doing now. Love this site. Thank you for all you do!
Congratulations to Rick Towle for an incredible success with the WhiteBlaze website. The information and community here have helped so many hikers.
And thanks to all those diligent and hard-working moderators over the years.
Thanks too to Rickb for this post.
Tim Rich
10-12-2022, 11:38
What a great service, thank you.
Congratulations to Rick Towle for an incredible success with the WhiteBlaze website. The information and community here have helped so many hikers.
And thanks to all those diligent and hard-working moderators over the years.
Thanks too to Rickb for this post.
Yeah what she said!
One last raised glass and toast to Whiteblaze!
Don't worry you'll be 21 next year and can join in....
I wish there could be a reunion, where Baltimore Jack could come back and go in circles with Warren D and Lone Wolf about just about anything. His resupply article was my #1 "guide" for my first attempt at a thru hike. I miss Weary's no-back-down push for conservation. I miss Miss Janet's insight on the pulse of the AT community, and Ron Haven's all-around friendliness. There were some great sagas: Minnesota Smith, the FKT's - there have been tremendous outpourings of support, and of course gossip and opinion. This place was my number one resource for news updates about trail-related tragedies like Meredith Emerson and Geraldine Largay. I think a lot of us scattered among "non-hikers" in "the real world" could come to Whiteblaze and feel a little sense of comfort interacting with others who get us, and understand things like why we are so bothered about the news of a stranger called Stronghold.
I don't social media, but I suppose that's similar to Whiteblaze. Except this site never tried to sell me a damn thing through data-mined ads, or tried to sway my political opinion. It was about the purest interaction you could have with the trail community from away. Nowadays, it's a lot more like off-season hiking, when the early days were like being in the NOBO bubble. I still stop in occasionally and definitely revisit some of the old days by searching something like "Baltimore Jack Kennebec River" or "Gator Gump". And I'll still look at pictures from the good ole days when there were water balloon fights at Trail Days and lines for a payphone....and before my beard was completely gray. I definitely still enjoy seeing posts by some of the old faces like Lone Wolf, Tipi Walter, Teej, and Rickb just to name a few....but I do miss the heyday of this site.
That would be very cool a meet and greet camp.
:) :)
Gambit McCrae
10-13-2022, 09:04
Congrats and Happy BD
Thanks for keeping White Blaze going all these years. I have been a member for all those 20 years. Some posts but always reading others.
Appreciate the time & effort Rick & moderators have put into this website. Numerous posters over the years have produced a wealth of information I continue to be thankful for.
Happy Birthday to Whiteblaze! This forum has been a source of comfort many times when I wanted to hike and couldn't. I love the pics, especially seeing places where I've walked. Here is to 20 more!
Mike Steger
10-14-2022, 14:22
Happy 20th WB ... Thanks to everyone who keeps it going and all the great info over the years.......... Thank you all very very much
Odd Man Out
10-14-2022, 16:16
Just for fun, I looked at the members list and found there were 5 people who joined on day 1 (09-03-2002): ez-does-it, attroll, SGT Rock, Kerosene, and jlb2012.
Of these, atttroll and Kerosene are still active (i.e. posted within the last year).
Looking deeper, I found there are 16 people who joined in the first year, have been active enough to get 1000 posts, and are still active: Attroll, Kerosene, Jeff, bigcranky, Grampie, TJ aka Teej, gravityman, Lauriep, Lone Wolf, rickb, Jaybird, Alligator, Toolshed, trailangelmary, chknfngrs, and Spirit Walker.
While I was at it, I also found that there are 19 of us who have at least 5000 posts and are still active: Lone Wolf, Alligator, Slo-go'en, Tipi Walter, Venchka, 4eyedbuzzard, bigcranky, rickb, Cookerhiker, Sarcasm the elf, TOW, saltysack, fiddlehead, Monkeyboy, TJ aka Teej, garlic08, attroll, Kerosene, and Odd Man Out. Of the active members, Skyline is next closes to joining the 5000 club.
Finally, the oldest post I could find was post #4 (looking for #1-#3 showed nothing).
https://whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php/4-Previous-Thru-Hiker-Intros?p=4&viewfull=1#post4
It was by "former admin" (not sure who that was) asking former thru hikers to introduce themselves. This thread has been inactive for exactly 20 years and 2 days. If there is a former thru hiker out there, you could reply and set the record for thread regurgitation.
Alligator
10-15-2022, 10:39
A whisper-out to the introverts is that out of all the people who joined in the first year, 65 of them visited the site at least once in the last year. Some of these are folks with lower post counts, almost 2/3 had less than 500 posts, 18 had <100 posts.
gravityman
10-18-2022, 16:40
Great history! Came here in 2002 after my first attempt in 2001 needing therapy from other hikers. Went back and restarted from GA and made it to Maine with my wife, Danger.
This site has cost me a lot of money in gear, and was a life saver in between through hikes for me mentally. We still do long trips, but with kids, and often on bikes (at also hiking).
www.ruggedfamilyadventure.com
Thank you for everyone who has contributed over the years! I do feel like it's a loss that people don't still come here to discuss as much as we used to, but life is busy and the internet has gotten much bigger.
Gravityman
PS My only complaint is how slow the pages load now!
camper10469
10-24-2022, 11:34
wow its been that long? happy aneversery!
time flys when you're having fun.
Patrickjd9
10-25-2022, 20:29
A whisper-out to the introverts is that out of all the people who joined in the first year, 65 of them visited the site at least once in the last year. Some of these are folks with lower post counts, almost 2/3 had less than 500 posts, 18 had <100 posts.
I've only been a member for 17 years, and have just over 500 posts.
Does this make me not an introvert, even though I'm one in real life?
camper10469
10-25-2022, 22:17
hahaha ive got the ame millage with low post counts... maybe we were way to busy on the trails to post instead of sitting at the boob tube?
Alligator
10-26-2022, 02:32
I've only been a member for 17 years, and have just over 500 posts.
Does this make me not an introvert, even though I'm one in real life?Beats me, those are simply frequencies of arbitrary post counts at values less than what was defined as "active". While post count is one measure of activity, as is date of last post, there are other measures of "activity". For the less garrulous, some might say introverted, date of last visit is perhaps a more reasonable measure as a rough visitation rate could be estimated which might be more representative for an introvert who posts sparingly. No guarantee at all though on correlating post counts to introversion as introverts can (not will) be quite outgoing when involved with a topic of interest. Anyway, Odd Man Out was making his observation in the context of this being an anniversary thread and I simply wanted to include (and acknowledge) some of our less frequent posters who as a result aren't so readily seen by the general membership.
You can be an I or you can be an E or maybe an F, G, or H.
Furlough
10-30-2022, 09:46
Happy Birthday and thanks for being there. Thank you to Rick and the mods over the years for keeping this site going. I joined in 2004. I was a member of Wingfoot's site near it's end. Joined SGT Rock's site as well. Can't recall if that was before I joined Whiteblaze or not. If I recall correctly SGT Rock was helping out, and or maybe a part of the "founding team" and did quite a bit in getting and keeping WhiteBlaze going. Back in those days between 2000 and 2004 I kicked around the internet looking for various forums and sites. I was in the Army back in 2000-2008, and those were busy years - so it was hard to get backpacking trail time. At some point in the 2006-2007 time frame SGT Rock and I crossed trails during our deployments briefly at a mess hall (dining facility) in Baghdad.
Pringles
10-31-2022, 08:56
Happy birthday Whiteblaze, from one of the introverts. I might not be so introverted, as much as not saying “Me, too” all the time. I never thought of myself as a refugee before, but I guess I am. Still learning and still hiking.
Long ago, I remember seeing a picture of a snail, and someone had captioned it something like, “Thru hiker, 2018.” I remember thinking that was so far in the future. Now I feel bad because the snail has probably finished, and I’m still slogging along with 40%.