Quick trip report March 15th Springer to Neels

[stephanD]

You don't call a potato a tomato, and you don't call a tomato a potato. Two different things. There's nothing magical about mass feeding of hikers who barely started their hike.




Tomato tomahto isn't it? It was everyone having a good time, and not a single hiker walked by without saying something positive and partaking. There were ample trash bags for trash, they even were asking to take hikers trash which as an end result kept trash off the trail. Hikers would stop, partake, and move on. I saw no negatives in the trail magic, if you didn't care to partake, it took no more energy from you to keep on moving.[/QUOTE]

[tdoczi]

You got a bunch of unrelated groups all choosing to go out and help hikers,

is that what they were doing? I'd call that description simplistic, at best.

you go volunteer at a soup kitchen if you want to help people. throwing a party in the woods isn't an act of charity.

[Gambit McCrae]

We aren't going to turn this into a pissing contest on whether or not feeds, trail magic, or appreciation for it is acceptable. It is what it is, it will continue to happen and people will continue to enjoy it.

[stephanD]

We aren't going to turn this into a pissing contest on whether or not feeds, trail magic, or appreciation for it is acceptable. It is what it is, it will continue to happen and people will continue to enjoy it.

You are absolutely right that hiker feeds are here to stay. I'm not anti-feeds. There's nothing inherently wrong about people wanting to feed other people. All i'm saying is that hiker feeds, which are pre-planned and highly orchestrated, are antithetical to genuine trail magic which is serendipitous and occurs just when you need it the most, for example, when i was on a nine miles of a dry stretch in Pennsylvania with no water in July, and i was offered 1/2 a liter of water by some boy scouts kids.

[JPritch]

All i'm saying is that hiker feeds, which are pre-planned and highly orchestrated, are antithetical to genuine trail magic which is serendipitous and occurs just when you need it the most, for example, when i was on a nine miles of a dry stretch in Pennsylvania with no water in July, and i was offered 1/2 a liter of water by some boy scouts kids.

9 miles, no water, pshh. That ain't trail magic. Now the guy with the medical emergency and the curious hiker who decided to check out the quiet tent. Now that's trail magic. Or maybe, just maybe, one man's burden is another man's magic and who are any of us to judge.

[Gambit McCrae]

Or maybe, just maybe, one man's burden is another man's magic and who are any of us to judge.

This guy gets it