Trail Magic will live on; but it's not a guy at a road crossing with pizza and Pepsi
except for the trail magic that is some random person who happened to pick up a pizza and a pepsi and was on their way home and saw a hiker and offered it up.....
thats trail magic....
but, i know----you're implying the pre planned organized pizza parties.....
I guess it's just semantics, but I see your point, the feed thing has really gotten kinda crazy. Still, when I'm hiking along a big hike and I cross a road and there's food of any sort, it all feels kinda magical to me! Especially pizza and a frosty beverage. Magical!
I'm still at a loss on the alleged "damage" at Max Patch... a few years ago some clown did donuts or something on the grassy areas, but it looks OK to me these days, and I was just there.
It is quite clear that the meaning of the term has changed significantly over time. Twenty years ago Trail Magic was used to describe those acts of chance and serendipity that seem to happen so often on the trail when you need them most. I have no problem with planned hiker feeds, but they certainly don't fit in that category.
Now that said, I don't have much if a horse in this race. It's clear that the majority of hikers now use the term to described feeds and preplanned activities and I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. I only wish that someone would finally go ahead and hire a magician as entertainment for their feed, I think that would settle the issue once and for all.
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
Cool!
I was there last Tuesday, doing a section from Davenport Gap to Devils fork gap, and "Two of a Kind" (thruhikers from 2010) were doing trail magic in the parking area.
They had a sign that said trail magic up the hill - but lots of hikers stopped on the first part of the hill for their lunch and didn't see the sign until after they had eaten lunch... so if you have a sign, put it a little further sobo on the patch to get more hikers!
Whenever I come upon a hiker feed I get really bummed if they only have beer, Coke and water....why don't they at least offer Pepsi sometimes over Coca-Cola. And please, no more stale Wal-mart pastries past their expiration date.
Let's head for the roundhouse; they can't corner us there!