Purist

[skinnbones]

Please correct me if I'm wrong. A hiker is on the A.T. following the white blazes. This hiker then follows the blue blazes into town for shower, resupply, and whatever else. Is only the purist backtracking to the original spot where this hiker left the white blazes. Do some skip white blazes after town visits? If so, is this like cheating? Thanks for your thoughts.

[Casey & Gina]

There's different degrees of purism, but yes, being sure to not skip any of the white-blazed trail is one of the common things associated with purism. Another would be not slackpacking. There are some places where the AT goes on a roundabout long path, where there is a shorter blue-blazed trail that is shorter. Some don't see it as a big deal to do some blue blazing. Where the trail runs parallel to a river, some like to aqua blaze (take a raft down the river instead of hiking). Some even consider yellow blazing (skipping miles by hitchhiking or otherwise getting a ride) to be okay. It's your hike, do it as you please. But it likely may not be something you have the chance to do again, so bear that in mind and make it a trip you enjoy and can be proud of.

[Sarcasm the elf]

Since all rules are self imposed, it's only cheating it you want it to be. Just my two cents.

[Don H]

Do whatever works for you, nobody's keeping score.

For me, I tried to always start from where I left off. I can say I walked evert inch of the AT. However I didn't worry about which side of the road I started on after hitching to and from town. I didn't do blue blazes or any yellow blazing but pretty of people did. No big deal.

[Dogwood]

People lie. Most skip blazes somewhere on their long hikes. Now, how are you going to determine YOUR character is the ultimate decision that needs to be answered.

[rafe]

Please correct me if I'm wrong. A hiker is on the A.T. following the white blazes. This hiker then follows the blue blazes into town for shower, resupply, and whatever else. Is only the purist backtracking to the original spot where this hiker left the white blazes. Do some skip white blazes after town visits? If so, is this like cheating? Thanks for your thoughts.

The purist will try not to miss any white blazes. Do as you conscience guides you. It's your adventure.

I've missed a few white blazes here and there, but in some cases the path I took between them was longer (and certainly more interesting) than the official trail. If I take a blue blaze (or the old AT) by accident I just shrug and carry on.

In SNP I made a point of walking along the parkway for a few miles. Many of the very early thru hikers did that routinely. I wanted to taste that part of the experience, if just for a bit.

[Woodturner]

The main reason for taking the long hike I'm planning for this summer is to fill gaps where I missed white blazes. Of course, I did miss quite a few of them. On my first attempt at a thru hike I was religious about it until just after SNP with two exceptions. The biggest was two days out of Pearisburg where the trail had a big, impossible to follow, reroute right after the old Big Pond LT. I also skipped the Albert Mountain rock climb. I may or may not get those two filled in this year. But I do plan to fill them.
I do hope to fill in all the blanks north of SNP this trip.
There are several shelters that have northbound and southbound paths branching off the AT instead of just one path leading to them. If you come in on, say, the northbound path to the shelter I see no need to retrace your steps on the same path back to the AT.

[Slo-go'en]

It depends on how anal you want to be about it. There are places where the trail to a shelter enters at one point and can return at another a couple hundred feet away. So, do you take the "short cut" leaving the shelter or do you return back the way you came as to not miss that couple 100 feet? Guess what most everyone does.

Road walks have for the most part been eliminated, but there are a few places the trail leaves a road, goes up a stupid hill for no good reason, then comes back to the road at a point 1/2 mile up the road from where the trail detoured. Do you do the pointless scramble or do you just continue down the road?

There are also foul weather blue blazes. Does it still count if you take the by-pass and it isn't foul weather? Or is this a valid alternative route?

The way I see it, if you walked the whole distance between here and there, even if you took some alternative paths, your good.

[Tuckahoe]

1) With this discussion and the on going topic if fording/ferrying the Kennebec River... Remember the ferry is the official AT

2) You're not a real thru-hiker if you consumed store bought trail mix

[No Directions]

There's different degrees of purism, but yes, being sure to not skip any of the white-blazed trail is one of the common things associated with purism. Another would be not slackpacking.

Just curious, do you carry all of the food and water you will need for the entire thru hike with you when you begin? If not then you are slackpacking to a certain extent. You still walk all of the trail. My pack doesn't really care if we hike or not.

[rafe]

1) With this discussion and the on going topic if fording/ferrying the Kennebec River... Remember the ferry is the official AT

2) You're not a real thru-hiker if you consumed store bought trail mix

At least, if you bought it at Pump 'N Pay.

[Rain Man]

My two cents, nothing more.

Now, how are you going to determine YOUR character is the ultimate decision that needs to be answered.

Yep. As the adage goes, reputation is what you do when others are watching; character is what you do when no one is watching.

... nobody's keeping score.

Actually, if you report an AT thru-hike, then lots of people are keeping score, not the least of which is the ATC (based entirely on the honor of the hiker), and everyone who sees/hears/reads of the (alleged) thru-hike, and obviously, the hiker himself/herself.

If so, is this like cheating? Thanks for your thoughts.

I'm not anal. If you skip a dozen white blazes here or there, more or less, it's no skin off my back. But if you skip large amounts of the AT footpath, and then claim you thru-hiked the AT, then yes, that's when it becomes cheating. Definitely HYOH, but don't do that, then claim you hiked some other form of hike. That's what natives call speaking with forked tongue.

As far as slack-packing, that has nothing to do with thru-HIKING. It's not called thru-backpacking for a reason.

[Hangfire]

I don't recall the purist thing being talked about much on the trail, but if you were carrying your pack the whole way and following the white blazes you definitely noticed those around you who were doing the same.

[Pedaling Fool]

In 2006 I was hiking (unofficially) with two brothers. I stopped for a break in some park in SNP and they stopped at the same place as they started back up I watched them walk back in the direction they came from, thinking they may be starting off going in the wrong direction (but I didn't say anything, since they were a little annoying...). However, they stopped once they got back to the trail and started debating where exactly they got off the trail, this was so they wouldn't miss one inch of the trail.

I'm not exaggerating this story, they literally were trying to determine the exact spot they got off the trail so they could get back on in the exact same spot

Probably had something to do with them being a little annoying to be around...I guess you can just chalk it up to the hiking community being wound tight

[Don H]

Actually, if you report an AT thru-hike, then lots of people are keeping score, not the least of which is the ATC (based entirely on the honor of the hiker), and everyone who sees/hears/reads of the (alleged) thru-hike, and obviously, the hiker himself/herself

Well the ATC does ask for documentation if your want the 2000 Miler award.

Of the "everyone else" most probably don't know what a Thru-hike actually is. In fact that definitions isn't even agreed on here.

And if the hiker themselves isn't going to be honest they why would they even care?

[Gambit McCrae]

I have accidentally taken a different connector to the trail for instance Blackburn has two connectors, I took the wrong one resulting in a 1 mile backtrack, my friends waited for me, and I carried my pack for no reason..5 days later, I took the yellow blaze down old stony in SNP by accident, I cussed all the way back up the AT to the top to turn around walk back down, my friends waited Southbound leading into Damascus there is a nice segment of the creeper that can be taken, my buddy had walked from Maine, he took the creeper, I stuck it out on the whiteblazes,

" He did his trip perfect and so did I" I like that I just made it up

[Uncle Joe]

You should absolutely hike your own hike. Just remember to be honest about your hike. If you can skip a section of the trail and still tell someone you thru-hiked the AT you likely skirt around a lot of things in your life. But if you say, "However, I missed a section in Virginia and plan to go back and hike it" you get my respect.

[Puddlefish]

Actually, if you report an AT thru-hike, then lots of people are keeping score, not the least of which is the ATC (based entirely on the honor of the hiker), and everyone who sees/hears/reads of the (alleged) thru-hike, and obviously, the hiker himself/herself.

I'm kind of a statistics purist. I never trust self reported studies. For that matter, I don't take part in studies. I did register my start date, just out of courtesy for crowd control purposes, but I doubt I'll register my completion.

If I manage to walk from Georgia to Maine, it will be my accomplishment, that's all that matters to me, not so much the color of the blaze.

[rafe]

I don't recall the purist thing being talked about much on the trail

I sure do, and that was a long time ago.

[Grampie]

Most purists that I have met on the AT never finished. In my estimation they take a AT thru-hike too serious and it becomes their downfall. Just remember HYOH and walk all the way from Springer to Katahdin and you "thru-hiked. It doesn't matter if you passed every white blaze as long as you walked the whole way.