View Full Version : Hiker Box Usage
Lybarger
08-23-2011, 08:13
I had an old time hiker tell me that originally you only took from a hiker box if you donated something to it.
Today, it seems some budget hikers run for the hiker box in an effort to buy as little food as possible and contribute nothing in return.
Was the old timer right ??
you use the hiker box if you are in NEED. those pieces of **** you're describing are just lazy thieves. today it seems like people will take advantage of anything and anybody. there's no self-respect.
Lone Wolf
08-23-2011, 08:22
in my eyes, "hiker boxes" are just garbage cans. once you put unwanted stuff in a box it becomes anyone's property
Nutbrown
08-23-2011, 08:43
I'm gonna agree with Lone Wolf. That stuff isn't from trail angels most of the time, just stuff hikers don't want to haul around. It would be nice if there were a pay it forward ideal though.
We have a pretty active hiker box due to the fact Manchester is often the first town stop for NOBO Long Trail hikers. Lots of heavy gear, cotton clothes, an amazing collection of potty trowels, etc. I just wish hikers who donate food would mark the contents on the bag. We throw out a great deal of food because we can't figure out what it is.
Lone Wolf
08-23-2011, 08:52
We throw out a great deal of food because we can't figure out what it is.every day at "the place" during hiker season i throw out a lot of stuff. half-eaten peanut butter jars. zip-lock bags of gorp, rice, etc. anything good like mountain house meals i keep
"Someones trash, is anothers treashure."
WingedMonkey
08-23-2011, 11:33
I've never taken food from a hiker box, (if you could call it food). I have taken spare parts and odds and ends to either use or ship home with an outgoing package.
Blissful
08-23-2011, 12:27
We have a pretty active hiker box due to the fact Manchester is often the first town stop for NOBO Long Trail hikers. Lots of heavy gear, cotton clothes, an amazing collection of potty trowels, etc. I just wish hikers who donate food would mark the contents on the bag. We throw out a great deal of food because we can't figure out what it is.
Hey I got a great trash compactor bag to line my backpack out of Jeff's box last year. I ain't complain'. Thanks to whoever put the box of liners in there.
But for safety's sake I never take Ziploc bags of people's food - who knows what it is.
:)
Blissful
08-23-2011, 12:29
anything good like mountain house meals i keep
People actually get rid of those? !!
Trailbender
08-23-2011, 12:41
you use the hiker box if you are in NEED. those pieces of **** you're describing are just lazy thieves. today it seems like people will take advantage of anything and anybody. there's no self-respect.
I say take what you need, as for someone being a piece of ****, or self respect, self respect comes from within, not from how much money you make, how much you take out of hiker boxes, ect.
I have left things in hiker boxes, and taken things, I never tried to keep a total of what I took and what I gave, or whatever. If I didn't need it, I didn't take it. As far as someone being a thief, it is impossible to steal from a hiker box.
We have a pretty active hiker box due to the fact Manchester is often the first town stop for NOBO Long Trail hikers. Lots of heavy gear, cotton clothes, an amazing collection of potty trowels, etc. I just wish hikers who donate food would mark the contents on the bag. We throw out a great deal of food because we can't figure out what it is.
Indeed. I hit the jackpot there last summer. Myself and a couple of other hikers were the beneficiaries of somebody getting off the trail prematurely. Mountain houses, snickers, powdered drinks clif bars etc. We all threw stuff back in, but we definaitely traded up.
Best thing I ever found in a kiker box was a brand new alcohol stove, two days after mine broke. That's trail magic.
Spirit Walker
08-23-2011, 12:56
Some people buy a lot of freeze dried foods before they start the trail and soon discover they either hate the taste or find them not filling enough. One guy had a rice with chicken barbeque in every mail drop. Tasted nothing like he expected. So he'd trade them at every opportunity.
Seemed like most of the time what you found was lots of protein powder and/or dried milk (who could tell since the bags weren't labeled), long cooking beans and rice, oatmeal and things like half jars of peanut butter. Once I found some good dried fruit in a hiker box. They are good for replenishing things like first aid supplies.
I agree that once it's in the box, anyone can take it. However I also remember being unhappy at some "hikers" who drove from hostel to hostel and emptied out the hiker boxes.
I had an old time hiker tell me that originally you only took from a hiker box if you donated something to it.
Today, it seems some budget hikers run for the hiker box in an effort to buy as little food as possible and contribute nothing in return.
Was the old timer right ??
I think that philosophy would lead to overflowing hiker boxes.
I say take what you need, as for someone being a piece of ****, or self respect, self respect comes from within, not from how much money you make, how much you take out of hiker boxes, ect.
I have left things in hiker boxes, and taken things, I never tried to keep a total of what I took and what I gave, or whatever. If I didn't need it, I didn't take it. As far as someone being a thief, it is impossible to steal from a hiker box.
you should probably work on your reading comprehension. it's one thing to take what you need when you need it, but the op stated this:
Today, it seems some budget hikers run for the hiker box in an effort to buy as little food as possible and contribute nothing in return.
that is laziness. that is expecting somebody else to take care of you. that is hurting other, responsible hikers that come through later that might be in NEED due to some exigent circumstance.
see, this is someone who was in need and benefited from the idea of the hiker box. this is what the hiker box was made for.
Best thing I ever found in a kiker box was a brand new alcohol stove, two days after mine broke. That's trail magic.
Slo-go'en
08-23-2011, 17:52
If someone wants to try and survive on the crap which is generally found in hiker boxes, all the more power to them. Somebodies got to eat it or thow it away. I've rarely found anything I'd want in one (maybe 'cuz the afor mensioned hiker got there before me?).
Hiker boxes are a combinatin recycle bin and dumpster. Often tending towards dumpster at hostels. Better stuff is found at the PO hiker boxes, since that stuff just came out of a mail drop.
chiefduffy
08-23-2011, 18:09
Best thing I ever got out of a hiker box was a pair of nikes that fit me perfectly. This was at Mtn Harbour after blowing a shoe on the way down Roan Mtn. Best trail magic, too. I'm still hiking in them BTW.
aaronthebugbuffet
08-23-2011, 21:10
in my eyes, "hiker boxes" are just garbage cans. once you put unwanted stuff in a box it becomes anyone's property
100% agree with this.
There's some good garbage in there sometimes but once I put something in there I'm not worried about who gets it.
Trailbender
08-23-2011, 23:56
you should probably work on your reading comprehension.
Reading comprehension is fine, I have read thousands of books in my lifetime, also, did pretty well in college.
There is also nothing wrong with being a "budget" hiker. Check the box before you go shopping, you can generally save some money on food. Not everyone has a lot, I grew up fairly poor. I had enough to cover my thru, but saving a little bit at a time does add up.
garlic08
08-24-2011, 09:11
I hiked the PCT some time after Ray Jardine's book came out espousing how wonderful corn pasta was for hiking. The hiker boxes were crammed with corn pasta. Very few could stand actually eating the stuff. If you liked corn pasta, you could have hiked the PCT for free that year.
A hiker box is the equivalent of somebody saying "Does anybody want this? If not, I'm going to throw it away." Much of the stuff put in there ends up getting thrown away anyway. Its foolish and wasteful to call people who take food or anything else from hiker boxes lazy or somehow immoral for taking things that would otherwise go to waste.
If you cannot take care of your own needs then you shouldn't be out hiking to begin with...it is a recreational activity, a vacation if you will. So nobody should be "in need" on the trail in the sense that food or equipment from a hiker box will make or break them. If that is the case then you don't belong out there...you have to be able to handle your own stuff.
But if you are out on the trail and somebody is going to throw something away that you would have had to buy anyway, there's nothing wrong with pulling it out of a hiker box...there is no means testing to take from a hiker box. Its not welfare or charity, and is not meant for only poor hikers. The fact that hiker boxes might attract indigent people and encourage them to undertake a hiking trip they cannot afford without being a burden to other hikers is a good reason not to have them at all.
Rick Hancock
08-25-2011, 05:44
When I thru-hiked in 1980 (was it that long ago?) The idea was to take something if you needed it and back then there was some good stuff that people left behind. If I had to buy a gallon of Coleman fuel to get the liter I needed and there was no one else to split the cost with I left the remainder behind in hopes that it would be there when the next fellow needed some. Back in 1980 I think there was one town up north that sold fuel by the ounce or pint.
I understand that there isn't a sheriff watching the box and the contents are for whoever but we all know or have read about certain people who just can't help but be stupid and show there true character. Some of these people roam the trail sponging off of fellow hikers and townspeople.
I think I got a couple packets of grits and maybe a Lipton rice dinner from a box when I got to town ahead of a mail drop. I'm the type person who always repays a debt usually within a day or two. I was stiffed once (only once) and I didn't like the feeling.
RITBlake
08-25-2011, 08:40
Best thing I ever got out of a hiker box was a pair of nikes that fit me perfectly. This was at Mtn Harbour after blowing a shoe on the way down Roan Mtn. Best trail magic, too. I'm still hiking in them BTW.
That's pretty awesome.
4eyedbuzzard
08-25-2011, 08:56
At more remote shelters, I believe (at least years ago) that part of the idea was that hiker boxes were akin to leaving a small supply of some dry wood behind for the next people to use to get a fire going, especially if it was raining. If you had to hole up for a day or two due to weather or injury, there was some extra food to help you out. I'm thinking that as the trail became more heavily used in the late 70's and after, the original reason got somewhat corrupted. Usually the food we found in hiker boxes was stuff most of us had decided didn't taste so good either.
flemdawg1
08-25-2011, 15:47
Most of the stuff in hiker boxes is trash (holey socks, sweatshirts, cheap ponchos, unidentyable baggies of food-like powders, and other failed dirtbagging experiments), take whatever you can use. Occasionally you might find a half-used fuel canister (I leave these if I'm flying out from a hike and can't take it back).
I agree that if you are out hiking you should be prepared gear-wise and financially to be self-supporting. But there's nothing wrong with checking a hiker box before resupplying. You're just saving something from going to the landfill.
ekeverette
08-25-2011, 15:54
never heard of a hiker box? i quess it's a box at a shelter, with stuff folks don't need anymore. where will i find them? sorry i'm new.
WingedMonkey
08-25-2011, 16:14
never heard of a hiker box? i quess it's a box at a shelter, with stuff folks don't need anymore. where will i find them? sorry i'm new.
NO not at shelter, well hopefully not, attracts critters. You find them at hostels and Post Offices and places where hikers "resupply".
Lone Wolf
08-25-2011, 21:10
today i got 3 clif bars and some fru-fru herb teas
I agree that once it's in the box, anyone can take it. However I also remember being unhappy at some "hikers" who drove from hostel to hostel and emptied out the hiker boxes.
At Caratunk a well known hiker/author was 1st to the hiker box when the PO opened and held off the other hikers until he was finished taking about 4 mountain houses and some other stuff. There's was nothing left worth taking.