Is it possible that anyone remembers this?

[Shake_N_Bake]

In the mid-90's Backpacker magazine had a fairly active chat room on AOL. Sometime around 95-96 an idea was hatched to do a tag team AT thru-hike. Many of the chatroom's regulars participated in this attempt (I was not a participant). Unfortunately life got in the way and I lost track of the results. Does anyone here remember this and if so do you happen to remember if this attempt was successsful or not?

[fiddlehead]

Shake N Bake, are you the same Shake and Bake that did the PCT in 96?
I remember there was 4 reporters from 4 different newspapers who did this kind of thing and each wrote about it in length and the stories were shared by each other's papers.
I think it was 95 although i'm not sure.
But i don't know much about AOL

[eArThworm]

[QUOTE=fiddlehead]...I remember there was 4 reporters from 4 different newspapers who did this kind of thing and each wrote about it in length and the stories were shared by each other's papers. I think it was 95 although i'm not sure... /QUOTE]
That newspaper tag-team you're thinking of had a book published about their hike: The Staff of "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution," et al. "Appalachian Adventure: From Georgia to Maine--A Spectacular Journey on the Great American Trail." Atlanta, Ga.: Longstreet Press, 1995. I just received copies of the 31 original newspaper articles from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, donated by Michelle Ray, for safe-keeping, to go in the A. T. Museum.

However, that's not it. You can find info. on the AOL Tag Team by searching Google: backpacker "tag team" aol

[Sly]

The AOL Backpacker Chat room was lots of fun, especially Monday nights when Frank and Victoria Logue were hosts of "Long Distance Hiking". Other nights featured lightweight enthusiasts, gear manufactuers, etc. I met Cheryl there, two of the guys I started with, Doctari, along with many others I still keep in touch with including Yappy, Gutsy, Ready........

[Shake_N_Bake]

Shake N Bake, are you the same Shake and Bake that did the PCT in 96?

While I would love to do that some day, unfortunately that was not me.

[Shake_N_Bake]

The AOL Backpacker Chat room was lots of fun, especially Monday nights when Frank and Victoria Logue were hosts of "Long Distance Hiking". Other nights featured lightweight enthusiasts, gear manufactuers, etc. I met Cheryl there, two of the guys I started with, Doctari, along with many others I still keep in touch with including Yappy, Gutsy, Ready........
I haven't found anything quite the same since the room's demise. One thing I will always be amazed at though is that the room was active enough I even got a new career from popping in there. But that was long enough ago that I have left that for other things.

Thanks for the info. earthworm. I'll give that a try shortly.

[SawnieRobertson]

The AOL Backpacker Chat room was lots of fun, especially Monday nights when Frank and Victoria Logue were hosts of "Long Distance Hiking". Other nights featured lightweight enthusiasts, gear manufactuers, etc. I met Cheryl there, two of the guys I started with, Doctari, along with many others I still keep in touch with including Yappy, Gutsy, Ready........

For this reason alone, I think we should petition Backpacker to do it again.

--Kinnickinic

[Programbo]

Tag team?..Meaning 2 people?......I wonder how fast the trail could be covered by a relay team of 100 hikers tagging off to each other?

[Topcat]

For this reason alone, I think we should petition Backpacker to do it again.

--Kinnickinic

Would be cool if Whiteblaze had a chat room.

[Shake_N_Bake]

For this reason alone, I think we should petition Backpacker to do it again.

--Kinnickinic

Actually Backpacker did start a new chat room, accessable through their forums, that triggered my memory and was responsible for this thread.

[Doctari]

Tag team?..Meaning 2 people?......I wonder how fast the trail could be covered by a relay team of 100 hikers tagging off to each other?

Excuse me for not remembering details, and I am over 50 now (LOL) it was after all a few years ago. But here is how I remember it:
Some "teams" were 2 or more, what happened is: team A started at (I think) Kathadin, hiked QUICKLY to point "B" Team B hiked to point "C" & etc. They carried a flag & handed it off to the next team. I seem to remember it only taking about a month to do the entire (or most of it anyway) AT. There may have been a section skipped because a team had a major mishap prior to getting to the trail. I had just started a new job so couldn't get off to do that, sounded like fun.

[Jack Tarlin]

Topcat:

Whiteblaze DOES have a chat room......it's called the Political section of the Off-Trail Forums! :D

Seriously, tho, I think a "chat" section here is a horrible idea:

*People would be going there and spending their time discussing whatever,
instead of sharing thoughts and ideas on the main Forums, where their
thoughts and experience would reach, and perhaps help people.

*On the rare occasion that something useful was discussed in the Chat Room,
all of the folks who didn't participate in the Chat would miss it.

*A Chat room would damage the site. There's a prominent A.T. Internet
mailing list which I left years ago PRECISELY because it became devoted
to mindless chat, gossip, bad jokes, political rants, etc. Eventualy, only
one post in 20 had anything useful or informative in re. to the A.T.

*There's a place for frivilous chitchat here already; it's called the Off-Trail
Off-Topic area, and there are some folks, myself included, who probably
spend too much time there already, which detracts from their ability to
use their experience, talents, and knowledge more usefully, in order to
share and exchange information with others, especially those planning
their first long hike on the A.T. A "chat" section would only make more
of Whiteblaze a non-A.T. site, and I think that's the wrong way to go.

[attroll]

Would be cool if Whiteblaze had a chat room.
No there is no chat room. This has been talked about off and on since WhiteBlaze came online and we have decided it would not be a good idea. So to answer you question, no there is not chat room and there are not any plans to ever have one.