This weekend while driving back from Fontana I mused over another difference between section hikers and thru-hikers-the financial contribution each makes-or doesn't make....not that this matters in the long hike of life but it surely is a consideration of importance for the many businesses (shuttlers/motels/resturants/etc) that 'live' along the trail. This weekend I supported the gasoline industry, the hotel industry, and the shuttle industry and the resturant industry while doing yet another section. I do this over and over again as do many hundreds if not thousands of hikers. Surely some of us do it as economically as possible but next month in an enticement to get my girlfriend to do a section with me I have promised a stay in a nice resort as payment for the pains she will suffer while hiking-again contributing to many faces of our economy as a section hiker. The Thru also contributes but as I have alluded to in past posts it is usually a one time contribution over several months and often never again. I posit that the section hiker is a more engendered contributor to the hiking industry as a whole, one who will in the long run buy more equipment as he/she continually strains to get the 'lightest' pack or warmest sleeping bag per weight, this assumes again that many Thru's hang their hiking poles on the mantle post completion and this may be right or wrong-just an impression I have in that when a Thru hiker is through he is thru! An over generalization I am sure but something to consider.