why you should love section hikers

[Curious G]

Well, since top 10% of wage earners pay 90% of taxes, and bottom 50% pay under 3%, we would need to prorate access accodingly......

I enjoy the quote on "Teej's" posts which I think is Jensen Bissell: "Through hikers represent 3% of our use and about 20% of our effort." Teej's reads "ATers" but I think the exact quote is 'thrus'. (Was just reading up on Baxter quotas.) I guess the same in terms of attention focus is adopted trail wide by the alphabet soup groups and clubs too. Weird.

[KCNC]

Ha, I do the same thing.

Beards irritate the hell out of me. To the point that I'll have to figure out a shaving strategy if/when I have a chance to hike more than a couple weeks at a time. I suppose I'll never have "real" cred, regardless of my experience. :-)

[Dogwood]

All hikers matter

But equally?

Yes and yes!

[ZombieDust66]

Section hikers are the steak and thru hikers are the salt


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[Curious G]

Section hikers are the steak and thru hikers are the salt


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Throw in some day walker spuds and ridgerunner salads hold the rangers!

[surf-to-summit]

So very well said.

Personally, I don't think thru-hikers deserve any special trail cred. Okay, maybe trail cred, but not outdoor cred or life cred.

Thru hikers have walked away from the hard part of juggling life for an extended, relatively responsibility free walk along a well marked, well traveled trail with regular access to other people, comfortable amenities and food, and they generally do it in easy months for travel, skipping off the trail when the snow falls.

What's so special about a thru-hike?
To take it a bit further, what's special about a thru-hike of the AT, which of course is just a section hike of the international AT.
Or, what's so special about a thru-hike of the JMT, which is, of course, essentially a section hike of the PCT?
Was Andrew Skurka's Great Western Loop hike less than a thru hike because he finished where he started?

And frankly, I don't get this whole "section hiker" ID either. Is it a section hike when you do an overnight along a trail that other people hike the full length of? If I do a 3 month hike of 3/4 of the AT, does that make me a section hiker whereas two weeks on the JMT makes me a thru-hiker? Is there really any difference whatsoever at all then? . . . In which case, why is this even a conversation?