Love that 50 degree below zero bag you were haulingOriginally Posted by Kerosene
Believe it or not, it was my huge synthetic rectangular camp bag I used in scouts, and probably wasn't good below 35F! That thing must've weighed 5 pounds! I replaced it the next year with a duck down mummy from Sears of all places that still probably weighed 3 pounds.Love that 50 degree below zero bag you were hauling
GA←↕→ME: 1973 to 2014
Excellent!
I started hiking the AT in 1975 as I remember:
Nobody used "trail names"
"Hike your own hike" was taken seriously. The trail is now very social.
The gear was a lot heavier.
WalkingStick"75"
True about "trail names"..Not sure when they became the norm.."Hike Your Own Hike"???? Never heard that term used..Who would you say it to?..There was no internet or any real interaction of people unless you ran into someone on the trail...I think that type slogan wasn`t really needed as it seemed most hikers of that era were cut from the same cloth...The gear was alittle heavier if you compare apples to apples....Now everything is so faddish and follow the leaderish...Can`t even bother taking off your pack to get a drink anymore...Never saw anyone sleeping in a hammock..Never saw anyone using "trekking poles"..HAD to wear jeans..Trail was shorter but harder back then as no one cared about switchbacks or errosion..They`d just go straight up the side of whatever... The biggest change is the internet
Sometimes you can't hear them talk..Other times you can.
The same old cliches.."Is that a woman or a man?"
You always seem out-numbered..You don't dare make a stand.
I want to say (from memory) about 30% of the hikers in '77 had trail names.
Could be slightly more or less but they were fun and I'm glad to see they stuck.
I remember the trail as being social. We had our travelers checks get wet and the word VOID came out on them. Other hikers took care of us until we could get to a fairly big town (Gatlinburg) and get it straightened out.
Not having credit cards or ATM machines made for a few different problems.
Met Warren Doyle at "The Place" that year, ('77) i believe it was his 3rd or 4th thru hike. He had a big group with him from U Connecticut. It was one of those supported hikes but they were doing big miles (20+ as i remember)
I think we stayed in 2 hotels in the 1200 miles we did that year. (like i said before, there were lots of free places to stay)
I remember it that way as well. Why every night around the campfire someone always passed around a hemostat with a joint in it!
You hit the nail on the head here. This is one of my pet peeves, backpackers who WILL NOT depack nomatter what, they will stop to talk for a moment or two but keep inching forward, always inching forward. Like, do they have a hot iron up against their bungholes? What's the rush?
"Gotta make the miles" has always been an AT mantra, but nowadays it seems to have crossed over into a religious litany. It's like a bad scene from WALL STREET but instead of hearing "Greed is Good," it's now become "Mileage is Everything."
Couple this with the ultralight craze and you have backpacking in the new millenium. They chew off light trips in short increments, god forbid a 60 pound pack for a 10 day trip. Attention spans are drastically lower. And so comes the pep-rally rush to shelters, the yearned-for town trips, and the lightest pack possible with the smallest amount of food.
Well, I've been hiking the AT since 2005 and I don't believe in Sheeple hiking.
I believe in carrying my Osprey Aether 70, my Seedhouse 2 person tent, I've only used a shelter once and that was because there was nowhere to tent. I don't think about how many miles I have to make, I just hike till I'm tired for the day...I like my Jetboil, don't plan on ever cooking out of something catfood came in...I always have a spare clean shirt and shorts, you'll never see me with a rainjacket wrapped around my middle while doing laundry.
Don't get me wrong I don't believe in carrying unecessary stuff, but who determines this other than the backpacker him/herself. I carry what I want, and it has never been too much, except for maybe that first 70lb hike on the AT...I've never actually weighed my pack but am pretty sure completely loaded I am between 30-35lbs.
I believe in pack off breaks and sit down lunches....if you can't make Katahdin in six months doing this then you shouldn't be out trying to do a thru hike....difference between sectioners and thru's in this regard....sectioners are happier!!!
Walking Dead Bear
Formerly the Hiker Known as Almost There
Indeed ... and pack off breaks are helpful for taking care of cathole business.I believe in pack off breaks and sit down lunches....if you can't make Katahdin in six months doing this then you shouldn't be out trying to do a thru hike....difference between sectioners and thru's in this regard....sectioners are happier!!!
Interesting thread with many insightful posts.
I feel the biggest impacts/changes on the trail since 1972 have been:
1) Liability
2) Increased government ownership of the trail
3) AT videos of hikers using alcohol and drugs
4) The rise of the outdoor adventure industry
5) More fear (i.e. water sources; river fording) and higher comfort levels in our culture-at-large
6) More emphasis on things rather than thoughts/feelings
7) More emphasis on the use of town hiker services
8) The meanness of the long distance hiking internet websites
9) Informal groups of hikers extolling the use of alcohol at get togethers
10) Less sleeping under the stars and atop summits
How has the Trail changed?
It was MUCH easier to hike in the '70s.
(Of course I was much YOUNGER then.
As I live, declares the Lord God, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn back from his way and live. Ezekiel 33:11
Yeah, no one drank alcohol with their friends in the 60's and 70's.
[quote=warren doyle;575092]
1) Liability
Yeah..Like rerouting the AT a half mile so you can walk under Rt 340 in MD where-as before the trail just crossed the road
2) Increased government ownership of the trail
I`ll consider that a good thing
3) AT videos of hikers using alcohol and drugs
That certainly doesn`t help the image of the "typical" hiker among the general population. Although I can recall people smoking pot back in the 70's
4) The rise of the outdoor adventure industry
Thus the slick Madison Ave marketing that drives many of the modern fads as far as gear
5) More fear (i.e. water sources; river fording) and higher comfort levels in our culture-at-large
True again..I don`t recall many people treating water back then and if anything polution was worse then..Plus the general paranoia about getting bad knees/falling etc that seems to drive many of the pole users
6) More emphasis on things rather than thoughts/feelings
I`ve said many times that lots of these potential thru-hikers seem driven by some sort of reality tv/Survivor mentality where a thru is some sort of set of challenges and tasks one must complete and things they look forward to doing or happening to them..Very little talk of the more pure motives of the 60`s/70`s
7) More emphasis on the use of town hiker services
Only reason I ever visited a town was to resupply. Never stayed in a motel/Inn or hostel (On my long hike)..Now the towns are as much or in some cases more of the lure of the thru..I`ve heard of people in towns every few days it seems
8) The meanness of the long distance hiking internet websites
People are just meaner in general..I have like 8 nieces and nephews in their mid-late teens and I`m always amazed at the hostility, nastiness and general anger of todays youth
9) Informal groups of hikers extolling the use of alcohol at get togethers
Just get togethers in general bother me
10) Less sleeping under the stars and atop summits
I think this gets back to the reason why people are even out there hiking in the first place
Obviously all of this is just my personal opinion and should not be taken to represent the feelings of hikers of any era in general
Sometimes you can't hear them talk..Other times you can.
The same old cliches.."Is that a woman or a man?"
You always seem out-numbered..You don't dare make a stand.
For the worse. And it is still great!
Been in Yellowknife NWT for last couple o weeks. Just seeing this thread....did my thru in 78.
I will agree with most of whats been said.
The one thing I find that is tremendously different, for me is the almost daily reminder that civilization as crept in closer. There are more points of contact along the trail, more road crossings, more hikers, more sounds in the air that are not natural. There is less "pure" wildlife sighting however there are more instances of wildlife-people encounters probably due to wildlife moreso than ever; associating people with food.
All in all, I think we have a better, more protected trail. There is FAR less road walking than back then and most of the trail is now in good control. I think the ongoing quest now is to practice, teach and police the leave no trace ethic. Because with more people using the resource the percentages rise and therfore your going to still have those who disrespect the path out there.
I hiked that ridge Pop told me not to that morning.
Each time out, I see that same ridge- only different.
Each one is an adventure in itself. Leading to what is beyond the next- HIKER7s
^^^^ Good post, Hiker7s. ^^^^
there were no bear cables in 1990.
only mechanical hanging devises that I remember from 1990 were the poles in SNP.
geek
pinata holders
re: hiking the AT today as compared to the 1970's
I have to agree completely with Frolicking Dinasaurs. I did not hike the trail in the 70's (I was but a young lad then) but thru hiked in 2006. One statement you made in your post really hit home for me..
You said...
My take is that the trail has become more crowded. Hiking the AT has become more about the party and socializing than about views, vistas and challenging oneself. The trail is way overused in places - something that was rare in the 1970s.
I find this very sad. While the former is important the latter (views, vistas, challenge) is no less important). How many folks I saw just zip over summits and barely taken in a vista, then crowd around in shelters, or spend days drinking in a town. I met very few people.. very very few...who actually expressed an appreciation for the land and the wilderness they walked through. It was not the AT that I had read about and hoped to find.
I have no plans... no desire ..to hike the AT again (except for small sections..mostly in northern New England, the best part of the trail). I am ready for other trails were people still hike for the views, vistas, challenge, and solitude. Where the trail is not over run.
DavidNH ('06 trail name Snickers)
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