I'm posting this under humor, it seems to be as good a place as any.
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How did the early pioneers of long distance backpacking complete their hike, whether it be a thru, long section or simple weekend without the aid of a blog, vlog, YouTube, or any one of the other social media outlets? Think about it how did they survive and complete their hikes. Yes I know social media didn’t exist back then. But how did they do it if no one was there to tell them how? How?
I’m not one to spend hours and hours each day lurking around on the web for seemingly novice gear junkies advice on how to hike and what gear I should use. I do have a Facebook account, and I like certain pages to appear in my feed, but lately it has been a daily post sometimes multiple posts of someone(s) version of how to hike the AT or what gear to use before they have hiked it themselves. It’s mind boggling how much they think they know, when actually they don’t. So today I weeded out the pages that fill my page with unnecessary how to content, I will sleep sooooo much better tonight.
I have successfully thru-hiked the AT two times, CDT and PCT, I won't list all the other shorter trails and I hiked them all without the aid of YouTube, bloggers or vloggers to tell me how or what gear to use. This evening I am sitting here with the lights off holding my head down in shame and admitting to doing a lot of research, planning with maps and guidebooks, conditioning hikes and getting familiar with the gear I intended to use long before I began. I did ask questions on WB and of others who had previously hiked the trail I was planning to hike. This leads me to believe I had to be doing it all wrong the whole time...oh my what will my friends and relatives think? I mean I didn't get any "likes" or anything.