well it is just walkin'
well it is just walkin'
That's right. They are both marathoners. 3 hours or 20 hours. Both marathoners. Thru, flip flop, etc are just terms trying to distinguish or make one better. I could debate that the section hiker has accomplished a harder task. They didn't have the luxury of taking 4 or 6 months off from work. They had to juggle work and planning and scheduling, etc. I'll just call them AT hikers. Use your labels if you'd like.
And this is a problem it itself. If someone took 13 months to complete the trail and was on trail with full determination to get to the end, advancing the entire time, lets just say due to some disability it took this long, it would not be a thru hike according to the ATC definition. However it sure as hiker funk a thru hike. Also I'm sure that there are people who feel they are section hikers who just happened to complete it in a year, but know that it was never intended as such and consider themselves section hikers.
And that's the invalidation of ATC defining it 'in spirit', it does not include all thru hikes, and can include section hikers as thru hikers, thus is not defining thru hikes, but some 'lesser standard'. At the end of the day a person must conclude (if they care to) if they thru hiked the trail or not, regardless of ATC and above all be true to themselves.
Thus as stumpknocker has said:
but I don't want to be included in someone's blanket statement that attempts to include me.
I think it's important to provide your view, but it's just that....your view
Bold mine
Where 'your' in 'your view' also should include ATC, if one wants to be consistent.
Yes they can set the legal definition, but that to me in the end will not satisfy and one must reconcile it to their heart.
Love the “thru”hiker lawyers on here. Who cares if you took a 3 day break in NYC or a 2 week break to go home for a family emergency or a 9 month break due to an injury. Everyone’s life events are different and not everyone is a 20-something who has unlimited time off, no family, and whose parents subsidize their lifestyle.
If you walk from Georgia to Maine, you’re entitled to a bit of bragging rights.
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I still cannot believe this is an issue that impacts the hikes of others.....
Just a word, unless one wants to make more of all this than is actually there.
this is a section hike. To be considered a thru hike, the people would have to have gone from va to Katahding and then flip south (Katahdin to VA) in same year.. ideally same trip.
It is what it is. One can debate fine shades of meaning and make reasonable arguments that muddy things up. However, when you cross paths with someone on the trail and they ask "are you thru-hiking?", don't be pedantic. If you're planning on doing all in one year and you are still reasonably on that pace, just answer "yes". Otherwise answer "no". If you answer with just the words "flip-flopping", make sure your voice inflection indicates you're giving an affirmative answer.
the only true through hikers are the handful of record breakers. they start at one terminus and end at the other. no days off and continuity is not broken
I doubt that it ever has. Only internet hikers.
While I don't care for this logic, I would have to admit to feeling similar feelings if I was somehow comparing hikes with someone, like in a social environment where I know a person and know what their hike was vs. mine. Not like I'm going to be on some sort of list of thru hikers that are being invited to the White House, LOL, where I might find fault with others on the list.
I'm confused, are you saying a flip-flop in the same year is or isn't a thru hike IYO? Of course, a planned flip-flop is most certainly a thru hike. At heart, there shouldn't be an extended break between "stints", but sometimes things are out of your control. I think the 12-mo requirement imposed by the ATC comes pretty close to accommodating these thrus without being overly lenient. Its an arbitrary designation, but I suppose you have to draw the line somewhere, at least for giving out the 2000-miler recognition.
My guess is what's worse is being somehow affiliated socially with someone you know didn't thru, but rather sectioned the AT, and is referring to their hike as a thru hike as opposed to what you might have done all at once. That's the only benefit I can see to this discussion, is how to put them in their place. Being that its based on an "honor system", I do think sometimes folks need to be called on their supposed honor, especially if you're going to continue to be around them. Otherwise, folks are going to lie to you about stuff, and there's nothing you're gonna do about it except not befriend them and not let it occupy space in your mind.
"I wonder if anyone else has an ear so tuned and sharpened as I have, to detect the music, not of the spheres, but of earth, subtleties of major and minor chord that the wind strikes upon the tree branches. Have you ever heard the earth breathe... ?"
- Kate Chopin
The great irony is that by suggesting it is import to use the word “thru hike” to describe a bifurcated 2000 mile hike, because to do otherwise can only suggest such a hike is “less than” a traditional end-to-end hike, one is revealing themselves to have bought into a false premise, i.e that a thru hike is somehow “better”.
News flash. It is not.
Here is an experiment just for fun.
Without going back to read any of the three dozen posts that preceded this one, write down how many you think have suggested that it is anyway “better” hike the trail in a tradition manner.
Then go back and see how some of your numbers match up with reality. But read each post s-l-o-w-l-y.
Then ask yourselves, if I could be so wrong on a meaningless thread on WB, what else have I misunderstood that matters?
Part of my reasoning for my Nobo thru-hike was the appeal of the classic, continuous line from GA to ME. But I definitely respect the ATC as the institution with the most legitimate right to establish an official definition. They say it's the whole trail within 12 months. And I see why they have defined it that way. Realistically, the public interest in the Appalachian Trail is so great that limiting a "thru-hike" to a particular direction is not sustainable. If all 4000 people who want to attempt a thru-hike every year started in late March at Amicalola, we would destroy the trail. So instead of looking down on flip floppers as "not real thru hikers," I appreciate them being creative with their itinerary, because that helps spread out the impact on this trail that I love and want to preserve. Plus, a lot of people flip flop because a classic April-September thru-hike doesn't fit into their life schedule (work, school, kids, etc.) and I think it's commendable that they're finding a way to make it work within the parameters of their situation.
But whenever people get pedantic thru-hiking vs. section-hiking, I think it's valuable to recall that ATC doesn't even make a distinction between the two when recognizing 2000-milers. If you the hike the whole trail, that's an accomplishment. I wouldn't worry too much beyond that.
A.T. 2018 Thru-hiker
Follow along at www.tefltrekker.com
A walk in the woods is a walk in the woods. Now, how does slack packing integrate into the definition of a thru hike....