"In my day!" Thru hiking has changed a bit since 2005

[RITBlake]

Finally had a chance to get out on the trail for a long weekend. Wow things have changed since our 2005 thru hike! I recall many nights at/around shelters or camp where hikers gathered around a picnic table or a fire, discussed the day, looked at maps, told jokes, stories etc...

After spending two nights with this years thru hikers this is what I observed in camp.... hikers scattered around, staring endlessly and silently into the glowing screen of their smart phones.

[RITBlake]

Also the Walk in the Woods movie was absolutely horrible. Travesty. That is all! Hello to all my old whiteblaze pals.

[greentick]

the zombie apocalypse hath spilled onto the trail

Camaraderie is one of the best parts of hiking.

[RITBlake]

the zombie apocalypse hath spilled onto the trail

Camaraderie is one of the best parts of hiking.

Agreed. With the exception of one thru hiker asking me "where's the privy?" I heard not one word spoken in camp. It was borderline weird. 10 or 11 people hunched over their phones.

[Uriah]

Finally had a chance to get out on the trail for a long weekend. Wow things have changed since our 2005 thru hike! I recall many nights at/around shelters or camp where hikers gathered around a picnic table or a fire, discussed the day, looked at maps, told jokes, stories etc...After spending two nights with this years thru hikers this is what I observed in camp....hikers scattered around, staring endlessly and silently into the glowing screen of their smart phones.

A fair observation, and one I've experienced as well. (It seems that so many are more interested in telling their tale than they are in fully living it.) But it's not entirely indicative of all trail life in this day and age. The crowd I leap-frogged throughout (in '13) went without phones for the most part, using them only to order pizza where possible (the smartest possible use of a smartphone!), and they never passed up a social gathering around the campfire or on the shore of a lake or pond. Our crowd grew because of the laughs, until it was time to split off into smaller (quieter/more respectful) factions.

[cneill13]

Not trying to be rude but maybe it was you boring them? (I am really just kidding.)

When I get into a campsite, the first thing I do is saw a pile of logs and start a fire regardless of how many miles I have hiked.

Nothing like a campfire to get people to put down their phones.

But then again, I have never hiked the entire AT so I am really not in a position to comment.

Times are always changing. That is a constant.

Carl

[Uriah]

Times are always changing. That is a constant.

Time stays the same; we're the ones changing.

[RITBlake]

Not trying to be rude but maybe it was you boring them? (I am really just kidding.)

Haha, I doubt it! Most thru hikers seemed to barely make eye contact and would just grunt if you asked them if they were in fact thru hiking. Like I get it, you're cooler than me. You're the coolest.

[cneill13]

Mellow dude. I realize you are from the Bronx but I was just kidding.

I am actually the biggest dork you will ever meet.

Carl

[RITBlake]

Mellow dude. I realize you are from the Bronx but I was just kidding.

I am actually the biggest dork you will ever meet.

Carl

Oh 100% I know man, I read it as you were kidding. All good here!

[Mags]

A fair observation, and one I've experienced as well. (It seems that so many are more interested in telling their tale than they are in fully living it.).

The Tool becomes The Experience.

One of my favorite books is Wilderness Ethics: Preserving the spirit Wildness by Guy and Laura Waterman.

From what I wrote earlier:


The book was written just as cell phones were becoming common and affordable for many people. Yet, what the Waterman’s wrote concerning cell phones could easily apply to our much more powerful, versatile and certainly more connected smart devices:

“When a new technology is applied to the backcountry, we tend to focus on its practical uses. When someone later points out a gadget’s impact on the quality of the wilderness experience, we tend to classify such ramifications “secondary” or “side effects” of the technology’s application. By taking this view, we preclude questioning the original, intended use of this technology. But in fact the changes that a new technology makes on the wilderness experience are not all secondary, but are intrinsic to the very nature of that technology . The medium is the message. The tool becomes the experience.”
(Emphasis mine)

***
More prosaically, I enjoy what Chris Townsend wrote about smart devices:

How communication technology is used in the hills is up to the individual of course. There are no rights or wrongs. I see no reason not to check emails and social media or even make phone calls if you find it satisfying any more than I can see a reason not to read in the hills (and I have been told at times that it’s ‘wrong’ to carry a book). The key is for you to control it and not the other way round. If it becomes intrusive and you think it’s spoiling your enjoyment the answer is simple. Switch the damn thing off!

Emphasis again mine.

[adamkrz]

All true - Years past every year a group of us would do a week long hike on the A.T. - We used to sit around the fire and drink bourbon and have a great time - but since the smartphones took over it was never the same. Now it's the dog and me and I will never get him a phone.

[carouselambra]

Reminds me of a song:
Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain.
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today.
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you.
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.

[Uriah]

Now it's the dog and me and I will never get him a phone.

My dog stresses over the cost of his phone, since it's about seven times more expensive in dog money.

[colorado_rob]

Not sure where this Bronx OP dude was hiking, maybe all the way over to Manhattan? I certainly see cell phone use, but not a ton of it, battery life you know. Shelters and camps are almost just as chatty as ever, at least along the trails I've been hiking in the last 50 years or so (including the AT, JMT, CT, LT, lots of popular trails).

[capehiker]

I'm thru hiking right now. Sure, cell phones are a part of trail culture, but nowhere near the zombie-like state the OP claims. In fact, I love nights at the shelter because everyone talks and shoots the bull.

I'm curious as to what section the OP observed this?

[burger]

Two thoughts:

1) If people want to spend their time in camp staring at their phones, who are you to judge? There were plenty of nights on the AT where I just wanted to be alone in my tent reading a book. Does that make me a bad person? Also, who knows what those people were doing. Journaling? Reading a novel? Keeping up with the news? Not everything done on a smartphone is narcissistic.

2) There are still plenty of places to hike where you can't get cell reception. Pretty much the entire CDT is no-go for cell signals, as is most of the PCT I think. If you are bothered by seeing people using phones, hike somewhere where people can't.

The OP is 33. That is far too young for this sort of "the kids today" post.

[RITBlake]

Two thoughts:

1) If people want to spend their time in camp staring at their phones, who are you to judge? There were plenty of nights on the AT where I just wanted to be alone in my tent reading a book. Does that make me a bad person? Also, who knows what those people were doing. Journaling? Reading a novel? Keeping up with the news? Not everything done on a smartphone is narcissistic.

2) There are still plenty of places to hike where you can't get cell reception. Pretty much the entire CDT is no-go for cell signals, as is most of the PCT I think. If you are bothered by seeing people using phones, hike somewhere where people can't.

The OP is 33. That is far too young for this sort of "the kids today" post.

You realize there is a difference between an observation and a judgement right?

[RITBlake]

I'm thru hiking right now.

And on whiteblaze.net...

[Uriah]

You realize there is a difference between an observation and a judgement right?

It's human nature to judge; it's what you do with those thoughts that matters. I certainly didn't find your opening post all that critical, and it's an observation I'm sure many of us have witnessed.