Purest or not? What I learned - 2015 AT Thru-Hiker

[Neemor]

Everyone on trail is always talking about who yellow blazed this and yellow blazed that... A lot of anger is directed towards yellow blazers, With good cause of course. Yellow blazers should be tarred and feathered and left out to beg for tuna packets. But that's just my opinion. XD

I started my Thru Hike with 3 main rules for myself:
1. Always walk north
2. Hit every INCH of trail
3. Carry my fully loaded pack the entire way.

Looking back I am glad I set these rules for my hike and stuck to them. Even though slack-packing was an option at times and looked very very enticing.
There is something that made my hike even more special by sticking to the rules I set at the beginning.

Would I do it that way again?
Yes and no.


Hitting every inch of the trail is a must and I will always keep that rule for any "thru-hike". Because that is a thru-hike. Yeah, you can argue forever about the definition of a "thru-hike" but in the end arguing doesnt change what it is.

Always walking north...I think I would keep this rule but a flip flop is an option I may take. Or a southbound hike. What I meant by this was, There where a lot of people who would slack pack north into a town, then shuttle north and slack south back into the town. That way they get two nights stay and they usually walk down hill both ways. Avoiding the inevitable climb out of town. (Something a friend said was "If you can buy beer you gotta walk uphill". Meaning the trail always dips down to go into town. Which is very true)
I think that slacking south isn't really the best option for 2 main reasons:

1. It can get very expensive. You are looking at 2 nights in town and 2 shuttles. Plus you will spend more money on town food. But the negatives also may be looked at as positives if you have the money. Because town is a hikers favorite word.

2. Logistics are too difficult for trail life. Even the simple task of calling a hostel and arranging shuttles and splitting it between the people in your group can become a nightmare. Don't believe me? Do a thru-hike. Your brain becomes mushy mush that only knows how to walk and make Ramen.

No slack-packing... This was a rule that I would change. There were a few times where Slacking was an option for free with no logistical nightmare. But I didn't go for it because of my rule. Slack packing is a beautiful thing. It always stirs up a little jealousy when you are slogging up a mountain, sweating profusely for hours and someone comes skipping by with a tiny pack telling how they will do 28 miles today because their load is so small and they feel like they are floating down the trail.....not fun. I want to be that person.
Buuuuut purists are purists and I thought I knew what I wanted.

Carrying your full pack does have benefits though. If you are on a mountain and there is a huge rain storm you can set up camp and wait it out. Or if you are really tired you can stop earlier than planned. If you are slacking you usually have to make a shuttle at a certain time and place. Usually very far away.

When I summited Katahdin there were yellow blazers and summiting at the same time and nobody cared. Nobody cared that I had hit every inch and they hadn't. Nobody cared that I had carried my pack every step of the way. But I knew.
Just know that if you go purist, nobody will care. Be okay with that.


But one of the most important thing I learned was to Hike Your Own Hike.
Yeah yeah... Everybody knows this... It is said all the time. But it is thrown around way to much. It is mostly used for an excuse to yellow blaze and still say you are Thru-Hiking... Which is nonsense. Don't lie. The way I interpret HYOH is: pay attention to yourself. If someone else is lying about their hike and what they did, who cares? Their lies and fake glory at the end don't matter to you. Getting angry at them is useless and only makes your day worse. Enjoy your hike and your own rules! If you wanna slack then go for it! If you don't, good on ya!

Go out there and get it done!



P.S. You are allowed to enjoy spending time with yellow blazers.

P.P.S. I carried camera equipment the whole way and if you want to see some of my photos, check out my Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/NeemorsWorld

[SteelCut]

Thanks for sharing.

I really liked a lot of your instagram photos.

[gregpphoto]

Ive grown up in the Northeast my whole life, and I have no interest in spending four months in a green tunnel with only occasional views, so my plan is to one day yellow blaze (which means hitchhikng, right?) most of it, getting a feel for the overall culture of it, while backpacking the more gorgeous portions of the trail. If someone asked me if I thru hiked the AT I'd probably say something like "Not really. I hitchhiked most of it, and hiked some of it." But it doesnt mean I wont have an amazing experience. And I dont need yer tuna, I get mine for cheap at Aldi's.

[Dogwood]

One of the conveniences of thru-hiking the AT is that you can usually afford to turn your mind off and just focus on walking. That is not so on every hike! Logistics, navigation, wildlife interactions, remoteness, greater weather variability, etc often need to be given greater consideration on other LD hikes. A LD hiker tends to need to be more mentally engaged/aware/thinking on many other LD hikes.

[Mags]

overall culture of it, while backpacking the more gorgeous portions of the trail. If someone asked me if I thru hiked the AT I'd probably say something like

Just say you traveled along the AT corridor. "I road tripped, backpacked, hiked and camped along or near the AT"

[mattjv89]

Definitely agree that most don't care at all about who yellowed or blued or anything else by late in the hike. Most people seem pretty honest anyways, I mean if you yellow a lot it's gonna be pretty obvious when you keep showing up ahead of folks so might as well own it. There's too much to enjoy out here to spend time worrying about what someone you will probably never see again in your life labels themselves as.

I haven't done any slacking either and won't for the remaining 190ish I have. Means something to me to carry everything the whole way but I'm definitely in a small minority in that regard. Slacking is often a logistical hassle and more $$, just not for me. I've also seen people take on huge days and have a miserable time slacking, like all the folks who got the crap beaten out of them going from Pinkham Notch to Rt. 2 in a day.

Anyways congrats on finishing, I think I last saw you near Harpers and I'm still back in Stratton ME, I'm having such a damn good time in Maine I just might have spent a month in the state by the time I finish! -Slow Ride.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Starchild]

1:Yellow Blazing is to me it's own thing, perhaps a AT lite. Blue and Aqua Blazing However I am cool with, you are still being guided by the AT from one end to the other and still under your own power. I am impressed by those who have Aqua Blazed their thru, great thing to do and also defy convention that many people would invalidate your hike.

2: You can buy beer at Bascom Lodge at the top of Mt Greylock.

3: Slackpacking does not have to be expensive there are many good will offerings of rides, although the double town nights can be costly.

[rafe]

I enjoy the diversity of experiences. Many old (pre 1975) journals talked about walking the parkway in SNP. So I did that for a few miles, just for the heck of it. When it was my time to hike southern Maine, I learned that slackpacking around Andover was easy... so I did that. My shortest AT section, from Rangeley to ME Rte. 17, was a day hike with a day pack. It's all good.

[Neemor]

like all the folks who got the crap beaten out of them going from Pinkham Notch to Rt. 2 in a day.

Hahaha we did that in one day, but with full packs hahahaha worst day on trail!

It's good to hear from you slow ride! Enjoy the remainder of your hike!

[JohnHuth]

As the saying goes, "hike your own hike". By the way, not to nit-pick, but it's called "purist" - a person who strives to be "pure", while "purest" means "most pure".

Three people I've observed:

One woman would actually retrace her path from shelters so as not to cut out a single white blaze, but could have taken a different path from the shelter to the trail that might have cut out 100 yards at most.

My son - pretty much the same ethic as the woman above, and also insisted that the approach hike to Springer "count" as part of the thru-hike - not sure what people think about the approach hike.

A couple from Montreal - she got a nasty ankle sprain in Virginia and had to have it x-rayed and treated at an emergency wars, and they had to yellow blaze to get her to the hospital followed by five days in a hostel recovering enough to get back on the trail. They decided to not go back to the 18 miles they yellow blazed. Under the circumstances, I'll give them full credit, but that's me.

[Neemor]

.
2: You can buy beer at Bascom Lodge at the top of Mt Greylock.

Ahhh. I forgot about that! Maybe you can buy it in washington as well. I am not sure.

[Malto]

"Hitting every inch of the trail is a must and I will always keep that rule for any "thru-hike". Because that is a thru-hike. Yeah, you can argue forever about the definition of a "thru-hike" but in the end arguing doesnt change what it is."

With rules like that dont ever decide to hike the PCT in a high or even a normal snow year. your every inch of the trail will be lost real quick. there was likely a couple of hundred miles of trail that I didn't hike, but I will never know as it was somewhere buried under many feet of snow.

[JohnHuth]

I agree about the PCT - I've gone many miles through the snow there, just trying to make sure I can pick it up again. It's actually something of a fun challenge.

[Kenai]

Congratulations on completing your thru hike, in the way that you envisioned doing it. Awesome accomplishment. Well done!
The only opinion that matters on how you choose to hike the trail is your own.
Great photos btw.

[Another Kevin]

The "pass every white blaze" thing shows to me that my experience with other trails has me ill-prepared for the A-T.

I've had a fair number of "short" hikes where I've had a mile or two where I couldn't find a trail - because it was obliterated by blowdown, rock slide, beaver activity, washout, whatever. Eventually the solution was just bushwhack forward until it showed up again. (This is particularly effective when the trail is going to a peak. You're practically guaranteed to find it again farther up.) And on many of the trails, I don't even begin to wonder whether I might be turned around until I've gone a quarter mile without seeing a blaze.

For instance, you can see a blaze in this picture. You can also see that the beavers have built a dam - right across the trail. The next blaze is neck-deep in the pond. Needless to say, I bushwhacked around the beaver activity.


To me, a trail that has extensive blazing, frequent maintenance, and enough visitors to keep the treadway firm, so that it's even possible to follow it for a whole day, much less two thousand miles, seems ... anomalous.

I don't think I'll ever be a purist.

[rafe]

It's not that hard to get lost on the AT, actually. Usually at road crossings where you need to jog up or down the road a bit. Sometimes when the trail's been rerouted and you find yourself walking the "old" trail before the reroute.

[Pedaling Fool]

What I learned on the AT is that the human body is extremely efficient when trained. So efficient that the current recommendation that people should eat 2,000 calories per day is dead wrong. If you eat 2,000 calories per day, you are only training your body to be inefficient. That is the reason for the world's obesity epidemic. It's not 44 oz sodas (btw I buy at least once a week a 44 oz soda for 69 cents).

It's all about the quantity. That's not to say you should just eat crap, but the most important thing people need to do is get the notion that they need 2,000 calories per day. You're actually working your body too hard by making it process 2,000 calories per day without exercise. BTW walking an hour per day is not exercise.

I never eat breakfast, that's another myth, breakfast is not the most important meal of the day. I can start my day with a tough 2-hour ride with no food in my stomach.

That's what the AT taught me.

[CarlZ993]

I wasn't a purest when I hiked in 2013. I never 'yellow blazed.' I did slack-pack four times (once in NC w/ Starchild, once in VA, & twice in NH). Three of the four times resulted in me hiking further than I had planned w/ a pack. Three out of four were NoBo.

I missed a short section of the AT (~0.3m) out of Pearisburg when I gabbing w/ another hiker leaving early (6 am). I forgot I needed to go uphill & hike the last little section to the Hwy. I took the wrong trail in the Whites & inadvertently cut the tangent on one section. When I met a hiker at that junction, he told me of my error. I didn't feel like back-tracking & doing the missing section. It ended up being a 12-hr day anyway. I frequently left a shelter area on a outgoing path rather than the incoming path I took the previous day. It seemed very regimented to have to kick the same rock whenever I left the trail.

I didn't have to worry about money on the trail. I'm frugal by nature & set aside more than enough money to hike the trail. If I had it to do again, I'd probably open up the wallet a little more & enjoy more creature comforts along the way (slack-packing, more town stays, etc). On the back half of the hike, I started doing that. I joked w/ my fellow hikers that I was spending my grandchildren's inheritance.

[Cobble]

I was an AT purist...cuz I wanted that experience. I also lugged an external frame and used a natural hiking stick...again for the same reasons.

looking at the PCT and CDT...purist is kinda silly. Continuous hike is more realistic. So...I really have no problem with people claiming a thru-hike of the AT as long as they generally stuck to the trail and have a continuous hike between Springer and Katahdin. (Now 2,000 miler claims are pretty specific...you are either did that or not.)

if they skipped a section by boat, car, donkey, airplane they just simply didn't thru-hike or hike the trail simply enough IMHO. I may point that out, give a funny look, or simply swing my bag onto my back and keep walking. I don't need to fix anyone...not my job but the AT is "narrow for chosen company." I just prefer to be around honest folks whether they be dayhikers or long distance hikers. Lie to my face and you WILL lose my respect.

[Hangfire]

"Drive your own hike"!

Congrats on the accomplishment, you are definitely part of an ever shrinking population of AT thru hikers. Unfortunately there is no distinction between purists and the mob, just a head nod from the people around you who acknowledge what you did. I'm sure you ran into a German or two who were holding to the same standards as you, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity take it seriously.

PS How was that ascent up Katahdin with the full kit on your back. I definitely questioned myself several times on the steep scrambles...