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View Full Version : Your interest in the AT and in hiking



Thoughtful Owl
12-12-2007, 11:10
After reading and following the thread on "Large groups on the AT", where there was much banter about scouts & other groups using the AT, I am curious as to how many were drawn to the AT and hiking as a result of being involved a scouting program of some type.

Frolicking Dinosaurs
12-12-2007, 11:14
I was born with Wanderlust... and Girl Scouts didn't hike when young dinos roamed the earth. Thank goodness this has changed.

ki0eh
12-12-2007, 11:14
Scouts got me into backpacking after a more-fit ASM joined my troop in McLean, N.Y. Had a blast on Finger Lakes Trail and in the Adk High Peaks a number of times. Moving to Boiling Springs over 10 years later got me into the A.T.

Tin Man
12-12-2007, 11:15
After reading and following the thread on "Large groups on the AT", where there was much banter about scouts & other groups using the AT, I am curious as to how many were drawn to the AT and hiking as a result of being involved a scouting program of some type.

I was drawn to hiking and the AT from the simple joy of being outdoors in the woods since I was a child. Scouting was one of the outlets to experience hiking. The AT came to my attention from my 7th grade teacher who took a long section section hike the previous summer.

maxNcathy
12-12-2007, 11:23
Never scouted or knew anything about the AT until 3 years ago.

Lone Wolf
12-12-2007, 11:23
no direct correlation

Cuffs
12-12-2007, 11:24
I was born with Wanderlust... and Girl Scouts didn't hike when young dinos roamed the earth. Thank goodness this has changed.

Same for me, the Girl Scouts did some camping, but no hiking, and selling cookies wasnt my cup of tea... so I joined the local boy scout group. More outdoor activities!

Pedaling Fool
12-12-2007, 11:28
My first hike on the AT was at the age of 16 with my father and uncle, no scout affiliation. We did a SOBO trip in Maine. Forgot the name of the trail, but it's the one that takes you over knife-edge to baxter peak then got on the AT and took it to Gorham, NH.

envirodiver
12-12-2007, 11:29
Scouts introduced me to the outdoors, camping and hiking. Then I left the outdoors for too many years in favor of less healthy and less beneficial primarily indoor activities.

Finally saw the error of my ways and got back outside about 20 or so years ago.

Todd Heyn
12-12-2007, 11:31
I was first exposed to backpacking while a Scout back in the mid 80s in upstate NY. I still vividely remember my first backpacking trek into the High Peaks of the Adirondacks. That lead to a trek to Philmont, NM in 1985. Once again, I can still feel the feeling of reaching the peak of Baldy at 12, 441 feet.

After a number of years away from hiking and backpacking. I was fortunate enough to meet Earle Schaffer during the summer of 2000. I was working as the Program Director for the Bucktail Council in Western PA. He was one of the adult leaders for a Venturing Crew that attended a camp that we held. He had recently completed his second thru-hike and spoke about his adventures.

Since then, I have gotten back into backpacking. My wife is now an avid lightweight backpacker. We are also planning a thru-hike of NJ with a group of Scouts this summer. As a professional Scouter, I get the chance to meet people of various backgrounds and it never fails to amaze me, the quality and the quanity of people that are involved in Scouting.

Mags
12-12-2007, 11:31
Whike my brief time in Boy Scouts (and cub scouts a little earlier) did not really spark my interest in the outdoors, a trip to Mt. Lafayette with my boyscout troop in 1986 had a big impact on me.

My troop did not really do much in the outdoors (seriously!). But that one trip to New Hampshire had an impact upon me that echoes to this day.

rafe
12-12-2007, 13:38
No correlation here. I was a cub scout/boy scount for a short while, mostly hated it. I discovered hiking/backpacking many years later (in my mid-twenties.)

Marta
12-12-2007, 13:42
As the ladies above have said, Girl Scouts back in the day didn't do much camping and did no hiking. I quit in disgust in when I was in jr. high.

The Weasel
12-12-2007, 13:45
When the Scenic Trails Act was adopted, I got my first info about the AT from newspapers then, about 1964. Was always a dream; after 35 years, I got to live it out.

TW
GA->VA '00
VA->ME one day for sure

Mags
12-12-2007, 13:52
No correlation here. I was a cub scout/boy scount for a short while, mostly hated it. I discovered hiking/backpacking many years later (in my mid-twenties.)

Same here. I went on two "real" hikes (Lafayette at 12, Monadnock at 19). I did not go on my first backpacking trip until I was 22 yrs old.

Been hooked ever since!

RadioFreq
12-12-2007, 13:52
As the ladies above have said, Girl Scouts back in the day didn't do much camping and did no hiking. I quit in disgust in when I was in jr. high.

A mother to one of our Boy Scouts (and a former Girl Scout adult leader) told me the exact same thing just a few nights ago. Her 14 year old daugher is going to join Venturing (a co-ed Boy Scout program).

Yes, Virginia, there are girls in the Boy Scouts.

AT-HITMAN2005
12-12-2007, 14:00
i was in scouts, but it was mostly a bunch of "cool" guys who made fun of or picked on the "loser" guys, to make them feel better about themselves. but the good out weighed the bad for the most part. the summer camp trip i took to camp daniel boone(15 yrs ago) in NC was especially memorable. the rafting trip down the nantahala was really cool. my dad had a greater affect on me for loving the outdoors though.

sasquatch2014
12-12-2007, 14:09
I recently had the chance to stand at the end of the foot bridge going over I-70 in Md. I was never a scout but as a small boy my family would travel this route on the way to the Outter Banks of NC and I would see that sign and wonder what it would be like to just be able to get into the woods and go and go and go. Over 30 years later I had a chance to stand at the spot and look down at the cars and wonder if there were any kids in the cars looking up at me and thinking the same thought. Nope the scouts had nothing to do with it but had I been a scout tying the knots for my hammock would be simpler.

doggiebag
12-12-2007, 14:14
I recently had the chance to stand at the end of the foot bridge going over I-70 in Md. I was never a scout but as a small boy my family would travel this route on the way to the Outter Banks of NC and I would see that sign and wonder what it would be like to just be able to get into the woods and go and go and go. Over 30 years later I had a chance to stand at the spot and look down at the cars and wonder if there were any kids in the cars looking up at me and thinking the same thought. Nope the scouts had nothing to do with it but had I been a scout tying the knots for my hammock would be simpler.
Any kid looking up seeing us on that day would probably be saying: "Dad look at those crazy idiots camping in this weather."

Lellers
12-12-2007, 14:24
I'm very involved in scouting at the moment, but that's not what sparked my interest in the AT. As other women here have said, I was a girl scout "back in the day". In the 1960s, we learned to sew, babysit, and sell cookies. I also vividly remember a meeting where we learned how to set a table and how to organize our silverware drawers so that the table setting would go more smoothly. garrragh!

I was lucky to have an uncle who was a Scoutmaster, and he was the guy in charge of all our family camping trips. Back in the '60s, my parents, uncle, and cousins pulled out campers to SNP for a week-long family adventure with a base camp at Lewis Mnt campground. That's where I first heard about the AT. So I guess indirectly scouting got me into all of this, but I answered the poll as "no correlation"

Wise Old Owl
12-22-2007, 21:51
Wilmington Trail Club about 1975, First 10 miles, at age 14. Joined Troop 22 Unionville PA several years later and wow, that didn't work out. Joined 280 in Palatine IL and the hike was on. Made SPL & Eagle. Now I am back and although the troop 78 hikes & backpacks a lot. Its rarely the AT. My son made Eagle last year. NI on the AT for him. my vote that they have nothing to do with each other.

Hope that helps....