Are books trail trash?

[Starchild]

I started reading a book I found in a shelter and was really getting into the story. About half way through I noticed the last two chapters were missing! Of course, it was the kind of story you really needed the last two chapters to wrap it up. No sense going any farther. Carried it to town and threw it away. If your going to use a book for kindling, use the first chapters. We can usually figure out the story without the intro.

The rest of the book is/was most likely in the next shelter that a hiker would stay at. I've know a hiker who read a book like this, it was spread in 5 shelters or so, however one section in the middle he missed.

[Leo L.]

Books in open unheated shelters I can only guess would not survive for long, but start to get mouldy and decay soon.

The Kindle as a piece of hardware is pretty fragile, I'm already on my third one, having broken the first two inside the backpack.
Now I'm reading through the Kindle app on my smartphone and this really works. It does not eat too much battery.
But note that all your books are stored in the cloud unless you are downloading them into your device before you get to an area without signal.

[D2maine]

this is even a question? of course it trash. pack out what you packed in stop trying to find justifications for being lazy.

Shelters may not be your thing, but on the AT they are not going away. the destruction caused by trail users gets concentrated in a manageable areas by shelters and their privies..

[Dogwood]

Books left in shelters don't have to be packed out. Dry pages make great fire starters.

AT maps left in shelters, are they trash? They usually don't hang around long before someone takes or burns em.

Are Shelter Journals trash? How about the pencils and pens that tend to accumulate?

Of all the crap hikers leave behind on the AT I've yet to arrive at a shelter with more than 6 small books. And if you do leave a map or small book behind leave it inside the shelter preferably in a small clear bag...next to the left behind tea candles, MRE's, occasional map, beat up tarp, and the Vienna sausage and tuna tins in the campfire ring.

C'mon common sense.

One note if you do take a book from the AT Shelter book exchange and expect to read it make sure it has the ending pages. I've read two 250 page books on trail getting near the ending climax and....

[Dogwood]

The real question are those dreaded banana and orange peels?

[Grampie]

Don’t leave anything behind in a shelter. You May think someone else will want it, but most of the time it’s useless trash to others.

[skater]

As an avid reader and trail maintainer, I can appreciate that you are meaning to do a good thing, but even books left behind are litter in shelters. Pass the book along in person to another hiker who wants it, or pack it out.

[kestral]

As an avid reader and trail maintainer, I can appreciate that you are meaning to do a good thing, but even books left behind are litter in shelters. Pass the book along in person to another hiker who wants it, or pack it out.

accepted and will do. I don’t make a habit of leaving books, but I do sometimes swap if a new title is present and beckoning

[Durwood]

I consider myself an avid reader. I was never interested in thumbing through a paper back in a shelter. As a personal rule, I avoid logbooks, pen/pencils, anything in a ziploc while I am on trail. During a LD hike I am concerned about transmission of stuff that can make me ill.

I've watched hikers return from the cat-hole and write a pleasant message in the log book. For me, it's self preservation in order to enjoy my hike. Especially on a thru.

Pack it in, pack it out. As said before, plenty of diverse and varied materials at hostels and libraries. Cheers.

[GaryM]

Leave the book until the last pictured is colored in then haul it out. Please restock all the crayons you wore out too.

[Sarcasm the elf]

I’ve seen books free for the taking in many a shelter over the years. Can’t say it’s ever bothered me any.

[The Cleaner]

Not litter IMHO.

When leaving a shelter only your name should be left in the trail register. Any books I find get burned or packed out.

[peakbagger]

I think the leaving the book age was long ago when there was a lot less usage of the trail. The popular easy to access shelters always got use but over in Maine many of the less accessible one didn't get a lot of visitors and there was far less technology on the trail. I remember seeing registers when I was kid where even during hiking season, the shelter may not get used every night except on weekends. Pure speculation based on my limited observations and few quick discussions with thruhikers in the late sixties and seventies when thru hiking was far rarer was that thru hikers tended to do far less town days. Many of the trail towns and services didn't exist and in in many rural towns thruhikers were regarded as "hippies" and bums. This is the same time where the trail was being rerouted out of towns as the locals didn't want the "hippies" in town. Keep in mind this was during or after the Vietnam war and there were a lot of baby boomers heading out into the woods into rural areas. A guy with long hair and a backpack hitching into town might have to wait for hours and risk having a beer can thrown at him while waiting on the side of the road. I ran into a couple of folks where the local law met them along the road heading into town and let them know that they had best be out of town before nightfall. This hassle in many towns meant that many carried more days of food with far fewer trips to town and when they did head into town it was a quick in an out if at possible. Thus with fewer town trips, no technology and fewer folks on the trail, thru hikers were more isolated and I expect books were a welcome diversion.

[PatmanTN]

I consider myself an avid reader. I was never interested in thumbing through a paper back in a shelter. As a personal rule, I avoid logbooks, pen/pencils, anything in a ziploc while I am on trail. During a LD hike I am concerned about transmission of stuff that can make me ill.
I've watched hikers return from the cat-hole and write a pleasant message in the log book. For me, it's self preservation in order to enjoy my hike. Especially on a thru.

Pack it in, pack it out. As said before, plenty of diverse and varied materials at hostels and libraries. Cheers.

I completely agree Durwood. I try to avoid touching public surfaces in general and especially when hiking a super-highway trail like the AT. Some years ago I contracted what was later diagnosed as noro-virus sometime during a 10 day section hike. I never slept in a shelter and only stopped at one; I did touch the log-book after being prompted to read a humorous entry by a late season thru-hiker. He handed me the book and we shared a laugh at the story. A bit later he explained that he was looking for notes from his SOBO friends that he had fallen behind. He said he had a "stomach bug" that waylaid him for five days. Who knows for sure, but I made the connection, and that was the last log book I've ever picked up.

[Tipi Walter]

I think the leaving the book age was long ago when there was a lot less usage of the trail. The popular easy to access shelters always got use but over in Maine many of the less accessible one didn't get a lot of visitors and there was far less technology on the trail. I remember seeing registers when I was kid where even during hiking season, the shelter may not get used every night except on weekends. Pure speculation based on my limited observations and few quick discussions with thruhikers in the late sixties and seventies when thru hiking was far rarer was that thru hikers tended to do far less town days.

Many of the trail towns and services didn't exist and in in many rural towns thruhikers were regarded as "hippies" and bums. This is the same time where the trail was being rerouted out of towns as the locals didn't want the "hippies" in town. Keep in mind this was during or after the Vietnam war and there were a lot of baby boomers heading out into the woods into rural areas. A guy with long hair and a backpack hitching into town might have to wait for hours and risk having a beer can thrown at him while waiting on the side of the road. I ran into a couple of folks where the local law met them along the road heading into town and let them know that they had best be out of town before nightfall. This hassle in many towns meant that many carried more days of food with far fewer trips to town and when they did head into town it was a quick in an out if at possible. Thus with fewer town trips, no technology and fewer folks on the trail, thru hikers were more isolated and I expect books were a welcome diversion.

Back in the 1980s I spent far more time backpacking on the AT---and then it tapered off and in the last 10 years I pulled a 7 day trip on the AT in 2006 and in 2011 a 19 day trip and in 2014 a 21 day trip. Point is, AT backpackers can choose to hike "in the old style" if they want---as all my trips were with one food load and no resupply and no town visits. It reminds me of Dorothy Laker who thruhiked the AT 3 times and did as you say---she stashed her pack in the woods and hitched to town and came back to her pack that same day.

Of course Kestral the OP made no mention of thruhiking or section hiking or whatever else, just whether books in a shelter could be considered trash.

[Tipi Walter]

I completely agree Durwood. I try to avoid touching public surfaces in general and especially when hiking a super-highway trail like the AT. Some years ago I contracted what was later diagnosed as noro-virus sometime during a 10 day section hike. I never slept in a shelter and only stopped at one; I did touch the log-book after being prompted to read a humorous entry by a late season thru-hiker. He handed me the book and we shared a laugh at the story. A bit later he explained that he was looking for notes from his SOBO friends that he had fallen behind. He said he had a "stomach bug" that waylaid him for five days. Who knows for sure, but I made the connection, and that was the last log book I've ever picked up.

I hear you, brother. In decades of hiking on the AT I too never slept in the blasted things---just used their water springs to get fluids and stopped for a break.

One thing I like about the AT's sister trail---the Benton MacKaye---is TN locals often take offense at any "improvements" along the trail and destroy such stuff in a redneck fury. See pics---


Back in 2015 some motivated BMTers placed this trail register and log book box on the trail sign on Big Frog Mt on the BMT.


Here's the trail register. I actually thumbed thru the thing (fingered?)---and luckily didn't get the Blue Squirts or the Blue Munge etc. I even signed the thing.


I come back a couple months later and the box is ripped off the post and destroyed---and the log book shredded. Welcome to TN. (Not bear damage! As I checked the box for claw marks etc).


I gathered up the shredded and scattered log book and found the metal box and placed the whole wad on the ground with a rock. Now boys, enjoy thumbing thru the trail register and reading the entries.


And speaking of Patman---here we are below Big Frog Mt after Patman humped in this wonderful watermelon.

POINT IS---maybe you can solve your "books left at the shelter" problem by letting in hundreds of Tennessee locals to destroy not only the log books but the shelters themselves ha ha ha.

[peakbagger]

Absolutely no argument, I just see a heck of lot more folks on the "three or four day on trail and one day off" mode than the older longer 5 to 10 days on trail and 1/2 day off.

I also expect organized slackpacks were not as available. I swear half the thru hikers I see on Wildcat Ridge and Carter Moriah trails are doing the one day slackpack from Pinkham to Gorham and they inevitably spend a night in town the night before and the night after and some slack the stretch from Gentian back to Rattle River the next day. Of course when Hikers Paradise first opened they were doing a slack the whites option (which included a whole lot of blue blazes to get down and back up to the AT.

[JPritch]

Well then, lets say the same thing about cast iron skillets, pillows, folding chairs, blue jeans, lanterns, coolers, and unwanted food.

In all cases, someone justifies leaving an item with an apriori assumption that someone else will want it, and it wont be trash.

The truth is, its all trash, packed out by more conscientious people than the ones leaving it. Or burned. Ridgerunners and shelter caretakers and trail clubs pack out 99% of this garbage.

Just because a person might come along one day, weeks later, and like it, dont make it not trash.

Its trash. Take it with you.

If you brought it in, take it out.
If your a good conscientious hiker you take out more than you brought, ie, other peoples garbage.

Stole my words! Well said.

[fiddlehead]

I appreciate books.
If I find one in a shelter and I have time to read it: THanks.
Although I stopped carrying a headlamp years ago, so it would only help me in summer, when there is more daylight.
Kindle is way too heavy for this hiker.

[Christoph]

Should have started a poll on this one. This is quite interesting.