What's the worst item you've seen a hiker start the AT with?

[Tin Man]

apparently, you will never get it... i'm moving on... feel free to whine one

[Summit]

apparently, you will never get it... i'm moving on... feel free to whine one

snivel snivel . . .

[Summit]

BTW, the thread about religious experiences on the trail was by and large respected and not hijacked by WB'ers who hate religion, and for that I thank you.

Now, if folks will quit using me to hijack this thread that started out funny, I'll do the same.

[Hooch]

Anyone got good stories of funny camp/hiking clothes people were wearing?

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. So here's a story:



'Nuff said.

[UnkaJesse]

My God, enough already!

oops!

[Summit]

Wow. Good thread hijacked again. Happens all the time,we should be used to it. For reference I "am" anti-religious and was no where near offended by your comment Summit.

Lay off him people, you don't get more anti religious than me and your jumping down the guys throat for a silly analogy. It's like a lynch mob sometimes.

I appreciate your 20/20 vision!

[sticks&stones]

a 5 gallon bar-b-q propane tank, a considerably large boombox, a couple who both had laptops, a disguarded bicycle, a solo hiker w/ six 1 liter nalgenes filled w PB, jelly, syrup, olive oil, pancake batter, and sugar. a hiker w speakers built into his backpack (that was actually pretty cool).

[knicksin2010]

Last year in Maine two young guys started out with full military gear. They had at least 100 lbs each. OldMan got them down to about 70 lbs, but they wouldn't leave anything else. They didn't climb K, but started south from Katadin Stream Campground. After losing some gear in a ford, they decided to go home at Abol Bridge.

I second this. Didn't they have flak jackets?

[vonfrick]

It's Sunday?????

i love you

[High Life]

oh man, GOOD THREAD RUINED BY CRAP .. bummer

[Alligator]

Can we just get back to baggin' on the n00bs?

Did you say noobs or

So did you carry all of these items, or the tent, the bag, or the girl?

He was clearly carrying a woman in the rain, what tent and bag.

This thread is making me want to do some hiking in Georgia this spring, just so I can get a good laugh and have some stories to tell!

I think I may be going southbound in a couple weeks, so maybe I will get some additions. My first time on the AT I had a metal case for my PEAK 1, one of those army stools--well they were sold in the Army-Navy Store--and a shower. I wasn't in GA though, it was NJ, hope I'm not hijacking here.

Anyone else have any interesting items spotted in GA?

[UnkaJesse]

I might run up to Neels Gap next weekend with a lawn gnome on my pack wearing nothing but a banana hammock and see if get mentioned here.....

[Summit]

I might run up to Neels Gap next weekend with a lawn gnome on my pack wearing nothing but a banana hammock and see if get mentioned here.....

TMI . . . made me shudder!

[tom_alan]

religion and politics don't belong on the trail, around a campfire or on WB. take that back to your god and keep it off here. ty

Just about a week or two ago we had one of our own rushed to a hospital after a heart attach. The man has not shown much faith on WB but there was a request for prayers that went out for him. It is my belief that without that “prayer chain” he would not be here today. I truly believe that anywhere there is man than there is room for faith. I will not “dog” anybody that doesn’t believe the same way that I do and I expect the same in return. From what I see here you all need to back off of summit. He was just making a comparison for a visual effect.

Now as for the thread, two of us were just coming down Barr’s Trail that leads up to the summit of Pikes Peak (14,110ft). We spent the night at 12,000ft in an a-frame and woke the next morning with snow above us, sleet where we were and rain below us. We hiked in and out of rain most of the day. It was around 4:00pm as we got down to the trailhead. Just before we got there we talked to two guys and a girl. Our best guess was that the girl had the lightest pack that we estimated to be 30 lbs. We suspected the guy that did most of the talking was her boyfriend. We estimated his pack to be around 85 lbs. The other guy looked like he was carrying 50 lbs. All of their packs looked brand new and were stuffed to the hilt. We on the other hand were only carrying around 25 lbs loads.

The trail starts out at 6,700ft and in the first 3.5 miles you gain nearly 2,500ft. From there you gain another 1,000ft in two miles to Barr’s Camp at around 10,200ft. In the next 3.5 miles you gain another 1,800ft to get to the a-frame (we didn’t pack a tent ~ we knew we wouldn’t need one). The trail is rough and rocky and most people only average around 1 to 1.5 miles per hour going up. Well these three were all sure that they would be at the a-frame by nightfall (about 6:30). We didn’t want to burst their bubble but we knew they wouldn’t be at Barr’s Camp by nightfall (bet the guy and girl split up after that one).


Barr's Camp


A-Frame @ 12,000ft


A view looking out of the A-Frame before we headed down.

[Summit]

Thanks for the pics Tom. I did the Barr Trail to Pike's Peak summit in 1975. In those days there was nothing but trail . . . only signs after leaving the trailhead. I probably camped somewhere near the A-frame as my camp was near tree line also.

[River Runner]

I was testing a pack once, and wanted to throw in a little weight just to see how it handled it, so I decided to take something frivolous. I took an inflatable foot tub, some foot soak, foot scrub, and lotion. I had a lot of fun that evening watching every one else's face in the group when I pulled that stuff out and had a mini-spa treatment!

[tom_alan]

Thanks for the pics Tom. I did the Barr Trail to Pike's Peak summit in 1975. In those days there was nothing but trail . . . only signs after leaving the trailhead. I probably camped somewhere near the A-frame as my camp was near tree line also.

We got up at 6:00 am to go to the summit and we had about 30 yards of visability. We3nt back to bed for a long while than headed down. We stopped in at Barr's Camp to warm up and get some left-over pancakes. We were told that the road to the top got closed due to ice and snow. That mountain will be there for another day.

"Getting up is optionial, getting back down is mandatory" ~ Steady Ed Viesturs

[tom_alan]

Lmbo :d:d:d:d:d

[Christus Cowboy]

I'm sorry guys but I have wade into this one...moderators please feel free to remove my post if you find it necessary but I feel that some context and perspective would be helpful....

As a newbie, I consider Summit's posts to be helpful and insightful. Thank you summit.

I'm with you on this one Totem... If you check out Summit's profile and look at the totality of his posts I think most objective inquiries would support your observation.

i'd like to point, as a service to newcomers here, that this is not a preachy christian website

Ironically, I agree with VonFrick's statement even though I'm probably making a conscious effort to overlook the point that is trying to be made here.... WB is not a preachy christian website, though people of faith (myself included), along with a wide diversity of others freely engage in the discourse along with everyone else. So as a service to our newcomers if you search the tens of thousands of posts on WB I think you will find the posts that even reference politics, God, religion, faith, or any other related topic are a microscopic percentage of the overall volume of discussion that takes place here. Yet what concerns me here is the few times such issues are even mentioned, alluded to, or even referenced, then sometimes we see a viceral reaction followed by calls to remove such references by those who claim to be doing so in the name of tolerance, etc.... So to our newcomers I would like to say come on in the water's warm there's alot of great stuff here on WB, alot of different perspectives here, and diversity of opinions as well...

summit i understand your point. however if a person couldn't tell that this wasn't a serious thread then well. everyone was just joking around, including the guy about those 3 things, whatever they were. then you went and got all joe serious and started talking about god. i was enjoying checking this thread for some funny stuff and to get a little laugh and you were a buzzkill. and please keep the religion stuff in the appropriate forums. there are some here who may be offended by your dogma

Wags..I appreciate the attempt to understand the point here but in your attempt to understand I believe you may have missed the point.... From my vantage point, it is quite common for humorous threads to get serious at times and serious threads take a less than serious tone...this happens on many threads at WB.... I'm not sure what buzzkill means so please pardon my ignorance here but dogma is a term (from Wikipedia)....derived from the Greek word δόγμα which is rendered "that which seems to one, opinion or belief" and that from δοκέω, which means "to think, to suppose, to imagine". Isn't that what discussion threads are for? In terms of "offending" could it not be argued that your reference to "religion stuff" is marginalizing for people who consider faith an important part of their lives? I'm not trying to get into a hypersensitivity contest nor am I trying to be "more offended" than the next person.. I just wanted to ask some questions to get people to think.... Rather than viewing faith, God, religion, etc. as some disease that should be erradicated, or viewing the word God as the source of a negative reaction, maybe we need to ask ourselves why we so quickly want to rid ourselves of such references when other references which cause a coarsening affect on our culture seem to be given a much higher level of tolerance.

As I said, with as little 'religiosity' as possible, I turned BJ's pun on 'The Last Temptation of (Christ) Trekking Poles' into an analogy. He was the one who introduced a Christian-based movie title into the discussion, and I wasn't offended. I thought it rather funny. If my little innocent one-liner was a 'buzzkill' for you, quit snivelling and man-up!

...just merely referencing another's use of a Christian movie title along with an analogy. I should also point out to newcomers that WB has its share of members who are overly sensitive and intolerant of any mention or hint of a person's faith. They are small in number but loud in voice.

It was clear to me that Bluejay was merely taking a humorous jab at Summit by using the issue of faith as a backdrop... I'll have to give Bluejay some points here for creativity as well as knowing the person he was directing the pun toward.... It just appears to me that Bluejay knows Summit well enough to make the joke to begin with and Summit knows Bluejay well enough to acknowledge the creativity by filling in the blanks of the pun... Ironically it seems like to the two individuals involved here where not even the ones who were originally "offended"....

You no right to limit free speech, political, or religious freedom as a tyrant would, here, or anywhere else. Perhaps you need to move on.

I can't agree with you more here McKeever.... I've read countless threads on WB and the diversity of opinions expressed is a testament to the free speech we have in this country. I would like to add though that since WB is a website with a user agreement in effect, moderators are empowered to regulate the various discussion threads and they have a tough job. I certainly wouldn't want to be a moderator... Moderating is imperfect science that comes with the territory.

I, and most others would completely disagree with that. A thread about religious experiences on the trail would completely disagree with that . . . not all, but many find the trail a great place to exercise their faith as well as their bodies. Read my last post about the 'WB' part of your statement. As for your demand to take it back to God, who the horse hockey are you?

I believe the thread that Summit is referring to can be found here....

http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?t=43358

While it is pretty clear that many who participated on this thread won't agree with the faith perspective of many of the thoughts on this thread, the fact remains that atleast on this thread people from many different backgrounds (Atheists, Buddists, Christians, Agnostics, etc.) discussed this very topic and for the most part were pretty civil.... for those who haven't read this thread you may find that it runs contrary to some of the assertions found on this thread.....

[Pokey2006]

Can't have nothin' nice around here.