For all you bearded 'tramps' I thought you would enjoy reading the following advice printed in the first edition of the Appalachian Trailway News. How times have changed!
Source: ATN 1939 Vol. 1, No. 1
Beards on the Trail
The oft-mooted question, “To shave, or not to shave” is usually felt to be, after all, a matter of personal preference. Another aspect appears in a report received from Harold Pearn, President of the Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club.
On a recent trip over the Appalachian Trail from the James River to Rockfish Gap, he had opportunities to meet a number of the inhabitants of this region, about whom he says, “The people are some of the finest I have ever come in contact with. The membership of the A.T. stand well with them. That shows that the ones who have hiked the trail have left a good impression.” But he was told they like clean shaves instead of beards on hikers, as they “like to see a man’s face.”
Beards appear to be associated with tramps, not with trampers, and to raise doubt and suspicion.
Possibly, for the reputation of the hiking fraternity, a man on the Trail should shave even though he would prefer to take a vacation from that duty also.