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  1. #1
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    Default Question for those purists

    If you get off the trail as it enters a town (to restock, sleep, etc), do you get a ride back to where it entered the town and begin your hike walking through the town, or do you get dropped off where the trail re-enters the woods (thereby skipping section of trail that goes through town)?

  2. #2
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    Since the question is "for the purists", then the answer is yes you go back to where you left the trail and walk thru town. Personally I find it interesting to see how a long trail goes through a town. But its your hike and as long as you are honest about what you're doing I don't think anyone can fairly complain about what you choose to do.

    Here's what the ATC has to say about those who apply to be 2,000-milers:

    "Section hikers and thru-hikers who complete the entire A.T. can report their journeys to us by filling out the 2,000-miler application. . . .The Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) recognizes anyone who reports completion of the entire Trail as a “2,000-miler.” The term is a matter of tradition and convenience, based upon the original estimated length of the Trail. Conservancy policy is to operate on an honor system, assuming that those who apply for 2000-miler status have hiked all of the A.T. between Katahdin and Springer Mountain, either as a thru-hiker (12 months or fewer, not restricted to a calendar year) or in sections (over a period of more than 12 months).
    In the event of an emergency, such as a flood, a forest fire, or an impending storm, blue-blazed trails or officially required road walks, shuttles, or find-your-own transportation options are viable substitutes for the white-blazed route. Issues of sequence, direction, speed, length of time or whether one carries a pack are not considered. The ATC assumes that those who apply have made an honest effort to walk the entire Trail, even if they did not walk past every white blaze. If you meet these standards, please complete and sign the form below." (emphasis added)
    AT Flip Flop (HF to ME, HF to GA) Thru Hike 2023; LT End-to-Ender 2017; NH 48/48 2015-2021; 21 of 159usForests.com

  3. #3

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    My observation is that white blaze purism is directly proportional to distance from Springer or Katahdin

    In the whites, the AT is routed around several prominent summits, Eisenhower, Monroe, Jefferson, Adams on what would otherwise be referred to "foul weather routes" as the summits are very exposed (although even the whiteblazed route goes past Thunderstorm Junction on Mt Adams). My guess is that on a nice day more than a few folks go on the blue blazed routes and few retrace the white blaze summit bypass. Some do and if it makes them feel "special" more power to them. I find the "special folks" in general were having far less fun on their hike

    As a section hiker over a multiyear period, I also had the issue that the trail had subtle and some not-so-subtle relocations every year so stringing together the white blazed route was made more difficult as a white blaze one year might be blue blaze another. I was planning to hike through the Standing Indian area one year and a hurricane came through and did major damage to Franklin. The Nantahala National Forest was closed with neat signs at all entrances included the AT " the Nantahala National Forest is closed, anyone entering will be arrested". We had some flexibility and went elsewhere for a few days, when we came back we could not overnight in the forest but we were allowed day access to bypass it via blueblaze. Per the AT rules this was "legit". We ended up doing a trip the next year and slacked that section and a few others for the heck of it but I would have in good faith filled out my application without that pickup trip.

    There was one year where a severe storm hit Northern New England (Hurricane Irene), it wiped out much of the road infrastructure of VT and the state capital complex plus sections of NH. The entire AT in VT was closed all the way to the Whites. The ATC regarded a thru hike as the entire trail minus VT and most of NH probably dipping under the 2000 mile mark.

  4. #4

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    Include the town miles for purity. They aren’t that long anyway. The only time I got my nose out of joint about following the white blazes (SOBO) was from where the trail leaves the Creeper trail for a 12 mile section of PUDS pretty much parallel to the beautifully level Creeper trail also headed to Damascus. I chose purely, but not sure if wisely.

  5. #5

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    As is written in the scriptures, “Hike your own hike.”

  6. #6

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    Having had more than a few camp-side philosophical conversations around issues of hiking purity on the AT, I can honestly say I have not seen much agreement over the years. However, in conversations along the lines of the OPs query there does seem to be some agreement. Purity suggests if one leaves the white blazed trail for resupply or other purposes, they should return to the point of trail departure to continue the thru hike.

    There are approximately 52 towns/communities the AT passes through, providing a White blazed route through town and services located there. However, these can few and far between, most resupply will require getting off the AT itself, which can spark the return to departure point issue especially if the resupply route brings the hiker close to the AT by way of a short cut.

    From a composite of purist points of view, if the AT trail moves out of the forest and is blazed onto a road that passes through a town, it is part of the formal AT and as such should be hiked.

    If a Blue trail branches off the AT to a road to town, doing that walk or hitching rides would not impact the "purity" of the AT thru hike as long as the hiker came back to the trail at the place they departed it.

    Any detours or reroutes of the AT itself should be followed since this is the "new official" location of the footpath even if it changes back to the original location the next year. For example, the construction of a new bridge in Falls Village CT required a significant road walk to move around, which became the appointed AT location for the time it remained in place. Once the bridge was completed, the AT went back to the original location.

    The consensus of the purist opinions I have heard is fairly straight forward. If one gets off the trail regardless of reason a return to the departure point of the AT is necessary.

  7. #7

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    Define it as you wish. Some "purist" and also FKT'ers, will do stuff like when getting to a shelter for a break, they hike in on the Blue blazed trail at the southern side of the shelter (for an example, a NOBO person), so when they leave, they hike OUT that same southern blue blaze, then turn and keep hiking. Yep, means they pass the other (northern) intersection of the same blue blazed trail which was for the south bound people. In towns, if the AT goes THRU the town then they'd stay on it. And same thing if the AT isn't in the town. Get a ride back to the same location where you came off the trail.
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  8. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by Spring.Bear View Post
    If you get off the trail as it enters a town (to restock, sleep, etc), do you get a ride back to where it entered the town and begin your hike walking through the town, or do you get dropped off where the trail re-enters the woods (thereby skipping section of trail that goes through town)?
    I wouldn’t worry about it, unless you have OCD. HYOH.

  9. #9
    Registered User Slugg's Avatar
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    Yes, I would personally return to the exact place I left the trail because I know it would bother me for the rest of my life if I skipped even the smallest bit and I would end up wasting days and dollars years later traveling hundreds or thousands of miles to hike a tiny portion I skipped. Just me.

  10. #10

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    The trail only goes directly through a couple of towns and those you do hike through. Most towns are off trail, often by a significant distance. Usually there is only one road in and out, so you automatically end up where you left off. There are a couple of places when you could potentially take another road out of town to a trailhead some distance from the one you left off at, off hand, I can only think of two.
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  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Slo-go'en View Post
    The trail only goes directly through a couple of towns and those you do hike through. Most towns are off trail, often by a significant distance. Usually there is only one road in and out, so you automatically end up where you left off. There are a couple of places when you could potentially take another road out of town to a trailhead some distance from the one you left off at, off hand, I can only think of two.
    That surprises me! I’ve hiked the greylock range frequently so I assumed towns like North Adams where the trail goes through are common. Potentially you could hitch a ride to the store at the trailhead on one side of town and get dropped off where it re-enters the woods on the other, and miss I think about a Mile of road walk through the town.

  12. #12

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    You could skip a mile, but if the trail is going through town, you don't need a ride because you're already walking there, just like the rest of the trail. If the road is part of the trail I am on, I don't accept rides when offered.
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  13. #13
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    I'm not a purist but would consider that something a purist would do, and it is part of my decision not to be a purist.

    My purist question is when you got a ride into town and got dropped off to continue and this pick up/drop off sequence is such a way that a road crossing is not needed, did you cross the road anyway?

  14. #14

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    I think to be a considered a purist you should walk past every white blaze, every blue blaze, and any bad weather alternative routes in the Whites. Since they are all part of the AT, how can you say you walked the entire AT without doing that.

  15. #15
    Registered User Slugg's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Starchild View Post
    I'm not a purist but would consider that something a purist would do, and it is part of my decision not to be a purist.

    My purist question is when you got a ride into town and got dropped off to continue and this pick up/drop off sequence is such a way that a road crossing is not needed, did you cross the road anyway?
    I wouldn’t worry about this, personally. Not that OCD I guess.. And I am the type to walk 20+ mile busy paved road walks and turn down rides if the road is considered the official route (not on the AT of course).

  16. #16
    Registered User LittleRock's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by peakbagger View Post
    My observation is that white blaze purism is directly proportional to distance from Springer or Katahdin
    Yep. When I started section hiking the AT back in 2011, I made a big effort to pass every white blaze. This included things like making sure to take the same side trail from the shelter back to the AT every time, even if it meant extra walking. By the time I made it into Virginia I'd abandoned some of those more OCD bits of purism, and by the time I got to Pennsylvania I was OK with taking alternate routes (for example, I took the forest service road down into Delaware Water Gap instead of the AT). A couple times I've road walked off trail for resupply, then walked back and rejoined the AT a little further than where I left. At this point, my only remaining aspiration is to walk a continuous path from Springer to Katahdin.

  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by Spring.Bear View Post
    That surprises me! I’ve hiked the greylock range frequently so I assumed towns like North Adams where the trail goes through are common. Potentially you could hitch a ride to the store at the trailhead on one side of town and get dropped off where it re-enters the woods on the other, and miss I think about a Mile of road walk through the town.
    Quote Originally Posted by LoneStranger View Post
    You could skip a mile, but if the trail is going through town, you don't need a ride because you're already walking there, just like the rest of the trail. If the road is part of the trail I am on, I don't accept rides when offered.
    If that was a specific reply to the post above it, in this case the trail goes through part of the town, but the shopping (at least the one main grocery store) is not along the trail itself. Thus, one would have to walk off trail (along a state route) or get a ride to get to said store. The trail just crosses said state route and continues on (through, along or near smaller streets in the town).

  18. #18

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    Quote Originally Posted by BillyGr View Post
    If that was a specific reply to the post above it, in this case the trail goes through part of the town, but the shopping (at least the one main grocery store) is not along the trail itself. Thus, one would have to walk off trail (along a state route) or get a ride to get to said store. The trail just crosses said state route and continues on (through, along or near smaller streets in the town).
    I've hiked through N Adams. Through. One might need to get off trail there, but not me. My carry is from CT to VT without need to do anything in N Adams but wander back and forth to use the bridge. My point was general in nature, but I'm happy to discuss specifics if you want.
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  19. #19
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    I wouldn't judge anybody's hike or considerations but I did pretty much all the things mentioned here. Taking the same shelter trail back but I always went to the furthest one at night so it was shorter out in the morning. Always going back to the same spot, doing the whole road walk and I even had my buddy pull in the opposite side of the streets lot where he picked me up, so I had to start off crossing the road. He laughed at me for that one as he was about to pull in the other side, funny you mentioned that. I really wouldn't of cared if he pulled in and would not have went back and fourth across the road but at the last second he said something like "I was gonna drop you off here so you don't have to cross unless your that true to the trail" joking around and I was like "yea you know what, pull in over there".
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  20. #20

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    Let’s face, to really pass every white blaze in the sense that the term means you’d have to go both SOBO and NOBO. So only those folks who have done THAT, in a 12 month period are real puristas.

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