After reading a couple of messages on other threads, I began to wonder what class a section hiker completing or having completed the trail belongs to?
Would it be the year they started hiking the trail? Would it be the year they satisfied 2000 miler status? Would it be the year in which they hiked the most continuous miles? Or would it be the class they feel most attatched to?
Personally, right now at least, I feel attatched to the class of `06. I started with them (NOBOs), hiked more than half the trail with them and still talk with many on a regular basis.
But schools put you in the class that you graduated, ie. completed the trail. This kind of makes sense as you can't claim to be have a insert degree here degree until graduation.
Or do section hikers belong to a class to themselves?
A large majority of thru-hikers, do so then never set foot on the AT again. They may go on to hike all their lives but not on the AT, the been there, done that, mentality(Nothing wrong with that- it is a big world with many things to see).
But section hikers find time to hike on the AT year after year after year. Some may just be for a day, many for a week or two at a time. Some even hike the trail in two or three big sections. But they do it. And they commune with the mountains and valleys that we, as AT enthusiasts hold dear. They get to experience the just budding mountain laurel, when no one else knows it's blooming or that Rocky Top had six inches of snow last night even though it is May first and raining in Gatlinburg. What about the cloud cover on Mt. Washington clearing for just five minutes on an overcast day? All the train riders and car drivers are gone because they couldn't see a thing. But the hiker; thru, section and day alike, lingers, just in case.
Thru-hikers have these experiences as well as many others and I would never try to take away anything from that experience. But section hikers have the opportunity every year to take in nature's wonder; to experience the solitude of hiking, if even for a week, year after year.
I am just hoping to open a dialogue on the topic. I know after I summit Katahdin next year, I will know what class I belong in. I really do not know if this is something that sectioners think about, I have just come to considering myself a section hiker after last year. I just thought I'd put it out there...