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  1. #1
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    Default Dropping like flies...

    Geeze, c/o 2013 is making me nervous. Caught up on a few trail journals today and to my sad surprise many that I followed have given up. Getting somewhat discouraged--some say they spent too much time before hand preparing physically and not mentally.

    =/

  2. #2
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    Quote Originally Posted by alxflwrs View Post
    Geeze, c/o 2013 is making me nervous. Caught up on a few trail journals today and to my sad surprise many that I followed have given up. Getting somewhat discouraged--some say they spent too much time before hand preparing physically and not mentally.

    =/
    REALLY? As I read it many have been injured. So that would be physical

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    Most of the journals I read have hikers without winter gear hiking through winter conditions in the mountains. No wonder they are miserable and end up injured and quitting.

    sent from samsonite using tapioca 2
    Let me go

  4. #4

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    This was not a good year to start early. We tried telling them that but would they listen - no. I want to get ahead of the crowds they say. I want to make sure I have enough time to finish, they explain. Well, I guess in a way it worked out for them, but not as they expected!
    Follow slogoen on Instagram.

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    Quote Originally Posted by canoe View Post
    REALLY? As I read it many have been injured. So that would be physical
    you will find that many, not all, that quit for physical reasons actually quit for mental reasons. I saw many hikers that quit with ailments that many that finished just dealt with.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Slo-go'en View Post
    This was not a good year to start early. We tried telling them that but would they listen - no. I want to get ahead of the crowds they say. I want to make sure I have enough time to finish, they explain. Well, I guess in a way it worked out for them, but not as they expected!
    Yes you did. I guess they were planning on last year's conditions.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Malto View Post
    you will find that many, not all, that quit for physical reasons actually quit for mental reasons. I saw many hikers that quit with ailments that many that finished just dealt with.
    Yeah It is easier to hike when and ailment when the weather cooperates.

  8. #8
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    Yes it is easier to hike with an aiment when the weather cooperates.

  9. #9
    Registered User The Cleaner's Avatar
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    I liked the Trail journal entry where a hiker left camp and left his tent where he set it up.Said it was frozen to the ground.Some real hikers out there this year.Wonder who will pack that out.Probably wasn't a very good tent anyway...

  10. #10

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    If they're saying they're injured, they are lying bastards. But then again most that don't make it blame it on injuries, or money, or family...anything but themselves. If they are quitting more than normal than it's because of CC At least that's the reason they're giving for the cold.

    The Cold is demoralizing, especially for people that really didn't have it in them anyway.

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by alxflwrs View Post
    Geeze, c/o 2013 is making me nervous. Caught up on a few trail journals today and to my sad surprise many that I followed have given up. Getting somewhat discouraged--some say they spent too much time before hand preparing physically and not mentally.

    =/
    And with trail magic or a hostel at every other gap too.One hiker made it about 30 miles and said he couldn't wait for a real bed and a hot shower.I thought people went backpacking to be out in the woods and to "Get away from all that".New term for hiker slang-Hostel Hoppers...hike from one hostel/town to the next eating crappy food,being cold&wet all day.Some couldn't even stop to take a photo because their hands were too cold or their batteries were dead...

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    its been primarily some March winter weather. yesterday was dangerous with trees and tree limbs falling all over the place. a lot of people were very on drink wit for the weather. me I'm loving it.im at the noc. what if you are out of condition as well.

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Cleaner View Post
    I liked the Trail journal entry where a hiker left camp and left his tent where he set it up.Said it was frozen to the ground.Some real hikers out there this year.Wonder who will pack that out.Probably wasn't a very good tent anyway...
    Definitely not LNT practice...

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by T.S.Kobzol View Post
    Most of the journals I read have hikers without winter gear hiking through winter conditions in the mountains. No wonder they are miserable and end up injured and quitting.

    sent from samsonite using tapioca 2
    definitely a surplus of people using the wrong gear for this time of year...did anyone else SEE those pack lists?...

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by alxflwrs View Post
    Geeze, c/o 2013 is making me nervous. Caught up on a few trail journals today and to my sad surprise many that I followed have given up. Getting somewhat discouraged--some say they spent too much time before hand preparing physically and not mentally.

    =/
    Why is it making you nervous?
    The trouble I have with campfires are the folks that carry a bottle in one hand and a Bible in the other.
    You never know which one is talking.

  16. #16

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    The Gloom and Doom pronouncements from people who get their information on-line is amusing. As for those of us on the ground, no, the attrition rate this year is perfectly normal, for unlike last year (i.e. the Year Without Winter) there have been some periods of snow, ice, and really cold weather. This is normal for North Georgia and North Carolina at this time of the year. It is a phenomena called "winter" or "early spring." It generally takes place every year. Nothing to be alarmed about. The dropout/attrition rate is expected, normal, and perfectly well understood, so please spare me the thoughts and sentiments from Connecticut or wherever these wild and over-wrought posts hail from, which is obviously NOT from anywhere near the Trail or actual 2013 hikers. This week the number of hikers demanding a shuttle ride to the Train station or airport from Neel Gap was Zero. The Class of 2013 are NOT "dropping like flies" and however gleefully happy this pronouncement may be to some people, it is decidedly not a true one. The Class of 2013 is great, doing well, and having a ball. ---JT, Blairsville GA (Neel Gap).

  17. #17
    Registered User The Cleaner's Avatar
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    They should have watched several episodes of "Yukon Men" instead of reading "The Barefoot Sisters".One really has to have many days&nights of winter experience to enjoy the cold instead of just surviving it....

  18. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by WingedMonkey View Post
    Why is it making you nervous?
    If he's nervous now just wait till he gets on the trail......

  19. #19

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    I am one of those hikers who started early fully aware of the possible conditions and have enjoyed the beauty that is with the bad weather. I agree that a lot of people are under prepared, but is it really any different than any other year? I mean the success rate is under 30% for a reason. If it was an easy endeavour everyone would finish.

  20. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Cleaner View Post
    And with trail magic or a hostel at every other gap too.One hiker made it about 30 miles and said he couldn't wait for a real bed and a hot shower.I thought people went backpacking to be out in the woods and to "Get away from all that".New term for hiker slang-Hostel Hoppers...hike from one hostel/town to the next eating crappy food,being cold&wet all day.Some couldn't even stop to take a photo because their hands were too cold or their batteries were dead...
    I think part of it has to do with just proportion of people learning about it, and heading out in general. Say 15-20 years ago (maybe more 30 years ago, probably closer to the seventies than nineties) the only people who knew about the trail were people who were in a network that would know/encounter/run into the Trail. So in that way, these days, theres just hundreds if not thousands more people who just know about the trail, that without internet or other major media (AT Documentary is one of most watched things on Netflix and every joe schmoe has Netflix) they just wouldn't know about the trail.

    With this said, you're right. A lot of people go out there and are expecting some luxury, romantic, fun thing. Can't stop to take a photo? Sounds like you don't have the right gear. If they had the right layers, gloves, shoes, hats, etc I find hiking can be a fairly enjoyable experience, even in sleet, hail, snow, etc. So, we're probably just running into and reading those types of peoples trail journals. I could be wrong.

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