Next on Cable 14 "Bucket Wars"
Post #9 seems to indicate that there is more to the story. As it stands it is unclear and no speculation should be assumed to be the case.Originally Posted by rickb
OK, so perhaps good intentions gone astray. That sounds like a far more fair and accurate assessment. Maybe a plan like this could work if a little more attention to details and this incident were taken into consideration. Stronger buckets inside a larger container to hold the buckets with a key system perhaps. I never did the 100 mile without WHL being available. Did the section three times and always counted on that lay over with a few hefty meals, a big burger to go and a few days worth of food stuffs to add to the supply.
There's no way to put the genie back in the bottle, but it seems to me most of the "wilderness" has been sucked out of the HMW by shuttlers and by service providers like the one we're discussing.
There are these scary-sounding signs posted at either end of the HMW warning about the long hike ahead and the need to provision accordingly. These signs are just for show, now. Hey, we fixed that for ya.
I know, I'm sounding like an old phart. Get off my lawn, you kids! I enjoyed the challenge of hiking this stretch in one go, without resupply. It was a bit jarring to encounter a busy trailhead in the middle of it, and hikers in the middle, just out for a morning stroll. What the ... ?
When we went through the 100mw a couple months ago we too noted the sign at the trailhead northbound. But there are so many road crossings with people on them and day hikers in it that we felt it was far from "wilderness." We had a great time, don't get me wrong but we felt more isolated and alone in parts of Virginia than we did in the 100.
As for it being a new thing, as far as I know LSH has been doing the drops for quite some time without incident. With WHL being gone (as was my understanding over the summer though rumor had it they were back?) the only option is to hump the food for 8-10 days. Not a problem if you're solo or with other adults. But in our case with kids whose food we are carrying to manage their pack weight, that food drop made it so we weren't carrying torturously heavy (for us) packs for the first half of the hike.
And TD55 a better containment system might be the ticket to prevent animals. I don't personally believe it would help with us humans not cleaning up after ourselves or respecting the landowner's wishes however. Education is key but I'm not sure that alone will solve the entitlement attitude among a minority of hikers that is serving to cause angst up and down the trail over the last few years.
2,000 miler. Still keepin' on keepin' on.
Hear hear, i would say 100 Mile Woods is a more accurate term. For me it wasn't so much the resupply thing that detracted from the "wilderness" experience as the sound of jake brakes rumbling through the valley and strong cell service at nearly every major body of water. That's been my typical benchmark, if you have 4G service you're nowhere near the wilderness. Don't get me wrong, it was one of my favorite sections of the trail despite that. The scenery and wildlife were great and people's spirits were soaring with the finish in reach and gorgeous weather every day. Plenty of folks did go through without the resupply but I figured, heck it's the last hurrah of the trail and I've got money to burn might as well do it in comfort. If I went through without the drop I would probably have done it faster than nine days and not been able to soak up some of the amazing campsites as much as I did. To me if you've made it that far you'll finish whether there's 25 or 50 pounds on your back, I wouldn't find any pride or reward in dragging a heavier load along or hiking faster just to say I did it that way.
Why assume it is thru hikers? There are tons of section hikers in this stretch who take advantage of services like this as well. I would hope a thru knows better by the time they're in the HMW, unless they're a SOBO
You shouldn't assume a thru-hiker would know better. Considering the self entitlement of thru-hikers on the trail now. Why do you think Baxter is having issues with thru-hikers? Because some of them could care less about anything/anyone beside themselves. Plenty of hikers don't care about rules/laws, and this can be seen daily on any section of the trail. We saw first hand a NOBO leaving his resupply box and trash from the Post Office on the trail in NH. We packed his **** out with us for 4 day, and put it in the trash can. Do you ever hear about hostels closing because of section hikers, or even SOBO's? It really seems that 9/10 issues on the trail stem from NOBO's.
I know that the number of good hikers far out way the number of bad hikers. But it only takes one bad hiker to ruin things for all the rest of us.
AT15
OT15
This. Though I will say that on the summit of Katahdin, we took our photo with several thrus and another section hiker that we had been traveling with for the last 10 days. Up walked a DAY HIKER who offered everyone a cold PBR from his backpack. Some accepted his offer but all refused to consume it on the summit out of deference for the park rules and the controversy over the actions of a few. I reported this to the Ranger at the base station because I was so proud of how everyone had acted and wanted him to know that it was a Day Hiker that had brought the libations up. This is, of course, just one experience. But I put it out there to say that in some cases, it's more than just the thrus responsible for some of the bad feelings up and down the trail.
2,000 miler. Still keepin' on keepin' on.
In any of the crowded sections, of which the HMW is one, some of the things I saw section hikers do boggled my mind. I generally tried to move through these crowded areas as quickly as possible and get back to the wilderness with people who knew what they were doing. I would think a NOBO, by that point, would have been criticized/chastised by other thrus so they know the right thing to do. I know I had to make a few comments to some people early on, mostly just people who didn't know better yet. Section/SOBOs haven't gone through this period of peer pressure and learning yet.
In any group of people of significant size there are going to be jerks. It's unavoidable really.
I have to wonder.... have many (or even any) of the cyber-hikers/hiker-wannabes/hiker has-beens here on WB that constantly bash thru hikers, calling them "entitled" and such ever actually hiked a significant portion of the AT? I sincerely doubt that most of these self-righteous p*&^s have.
Anyway, though I only did a long section hike this year (NJ-->Katahdin), I hiked right along with and got to know scores of thru hikers, and quite simply, rude, entitled or just generally poor trail behavior (or even town behavior) was just not present. I'm sure there were isolated instances though, but I never witnessed any. When I did a long section hike (Springer--->mid VA) last year, however, bad behavior was rampant. Quite the contrast.
CR, I've observed the same thing. You're going to see some of the worst behavior issues down south, close to Springer. Reality will weed out the worst offenders, but not all. Some of it is done out of ignorance rather than malice. (Eg. Katz flinging his excess food on the approach trail.)
I've mostly taken to other trails these last few years but the handful of thrus I met in Maine a few weeks ago were OK folks.
We had a campfire one night (which in itself is a bit unusual nowadays.) I saw where one guy used it to melt down and burn a couple of plastic bottles. I personally think that's not cool, but I held my breath and let it go.
That's because 9/10 thru hikers are NOBO, not because SOBO's are angels. I met plenty of hard partying SOBO's when we all overlapped, big groups doing the four day Rutland bender etc. Look at the tagging on shelter walls in Maine, much of it is signed by SOBO's. The bad behavior just blends in more when its not coming 1,000 people at a time.
Doesn't matter if it was a SoBo, NoBo, section hiker, thru-hiker... The fact remains that someone/or a group of people made a choice that lead to the removal of a service on the trail. That is why Rebekah addressed the post to "AT hikers," rather than any one party.
If you did not use that service, or have plans to use that service, then it does not impact you in any way. However, just because you do not need/want it, that does not mean that service is not helpful to others.
If you are someone who was thinking about using that service - Thanks to multiple variables, it is no longer there.
Shaw's does still do drops to the HMW and their method leaves a lot less room for issues. (Not saying this in any way to mean anything negative against Lakeshore House - They offered a service for many years and there were no issues). The AT Lodge also provides food drops.
Would I personally use a food drop? Not at this time, but that is because I have no issues with carrying my food through the HMW. The flip side is that someday when I can still hike...but pack weight is more of an issue on my old joints, a service such as this might my prove useful to me. The service is there because people use it. Doesn't matter their reasons - There is no cause for anyone to begrudge someone else a service just because they don't use it. HYOH, right?
Is this how they left the buckets?
image.jpg
If so, I cannot imagine relying on the cache for my food.
only 5 complete hikes and 6000 section miles. i'm a self righteous young man
only 5 complete hikes and 6000 section miles. i'm a self righteous young man
CR does have a point, though.
explain......
You speak from direct experience, LW.
Many others are like the old men sitting around McDonalds carping about illegal immigration and welfare..
Makes them feel good to bitch whether they have any special insight or not.
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