100 Hiker Challenge

[TOW]

It was good meeting you Taba, hope to see you soon......

[Taba]

It was great to see you, Wanderer. You are still doing a great service to the hikers with the phone on the porch. I think that's awesome. Thank you! I'll be back sometime around May 15th.

Taba

[Taba]

That is the question I want to answer here.

Hiking is not just walking through the woods. It requires the right gear, having the right knowledge of how to use the gear, having a little common sense, and the ability to improvise when in tough situations. A person can walk into the woods with no gear but how far do you think they would get without having to be rescued or turn around and leave the woods because of the lack of gear. A hiker needs a backpack, a tent, a stove, food, water treatment or filter, footwear, the proper clothing for the seasons, hiking poles and a map or guidebook. All of these items are required to successfully complete any hike no matter how far the distance.

I have gotten permission from my sponsors to call myself a professional hiker. My sponsors for this trip are Leki, Wandering Buddha and Teva. They have supplied some of the gear that I use everyday to hike with. They did not sponsor this trip for me to test gear. They sponsored the walk.

So again with permissions from my sponsors I am officially a "Professional Hiker"

I am hiking the MST now and I am at a hotel in Cherokee using the computer here and will be leaving to continue my hike tomorrow. I am hiking it both directions to update the manual and to write it for the other direction. My plan is to take 5-6 months to complete this hike.

Does anyone want to join me out here. I will be going through Waynesville on the Blue Ridge Parkway in 3 days wich will be May 23rd. I am averaging about 10 to 12 miles a day. Feel free to call me if you would like to accept the invite @ 561-319-2564.

Thanks and see you on the trail and thank you to my sponsors one more time. Who are "Leki, Wandering Buddha, and Teva." The gear is making the trip a whole lot more enjoyable.

Taba

[tucker0104]

See, most people work 6 months out of the year and hike the rest for the rest of their lives. I plan on making a lot of money and retiring in about 10-12 years. Be done with working for the rest of my life at 40. Be free to do what I want.

[restless]

I guess some people just won't rest until they have a title before their name.

[Taba]

I guess some people just won't rest until they have a title before their name.

Don't really care about a title but I wanted to prove a point that you can be a professional at whatever you do if you try hard enough at it. I work hard at what I do and therefore I have created a career out of hiking. My down time is to prepare for my next hike. Why don't you join me out here. You might learn something from me. Like being nice to fellow hikers!

Thank you,
Taba

[Tipi Walter]

Part of being a "professional hiker" is dealing with loneliness or aloneness, so suck it up and get used to getting your bag nights for the most part alone. Or get a dog for companionship. Dogs generally love the outdoors and don't need a crash course on accepting Nature as their religion, etc.

I equate backpacking and living outdoors with an inner calling, something like the "call of the wild", and no desinated "professional hiker" designation needs to go with it. For the most part it's a lonely, solitary journey, a turning back from modern life to a stint in the stone age, and if done "properly" will eat up years of a person's life in primitive shelters getting a thousand bag nights.

Who needs sponsors or titles of professionalism? Just get your gear and go. You may meet fellow backpackers or you may not.

[Frosty]

I have gotten permission from my sponsors to call myself a professional hiker.

Don't really care about a title but I wanted to prove a point that you can be a professional at whatever you do if you try hard enough at it.

Well, at least you can get people like sponsors who have a vested interest to call you a professional. And given the fact that you've posted about a hundred times trying to get us to say you were a professional hiker tells me you care a lot. Nothing wrong with it, but at least face up to its importance to you. If you put half the effort into hiking that you expend trying to get a hiking title, you'd be miles ahead of the game. It does seem to me that your emphasis is more on being called a professional hiker than it is to actually hike.

Are you going to put PhD after your trail name, now? (Doctor of Professional Hiking)

I have no idea why it is so important to you that you be called a professional hiker. You don't need validation. Just get out and hike. Hike for yourself, for your enjoyment, and don't worry about how others see you. It is the smell of fir trees or damp earth, taste of water on a hot day, an viewpoint looking way down to where you were three hours ago, laying on a sunny ledge litening to the buzzing of insects, the rhythm of your legs pumping away on a long flat straightaway, the sense of being where you are and in the moment. These are the rewards of hiking, not feeling you now have the right to brag to people, "I'm a professional hiker." As though that is somehow different from everyone else who goes out into the woods and puts one foot in front of the other.

Hiking is not just walking through the woods. It requires the right gear, having the right knowledge of how to use the gear, having a little common sense, and the ability to improvise when in tough situations. A person can walk into the woods with no gear but how far do you think they would get without having to be rescued or turn around and leave the woods because of the lack of gear. A hiker needs a backpack, a tent, a stove, food, water treatment or filter, footwear, the proper clothing for the seasons, hiking poles and a map or guidebook. All of these items are required to successfully complete any hike no matter how far the distance.

Hogwash. Read the story of Grandma Gatewood sometime, who used a shower curtain for a tent, or Earl Shaeffer, who used gas company road maps to navigate.

It makes sense to have gear in some critical situations like cold weather, but hiking is putting one foot in front of the other repeatedly. It ain't rocket science, Babe.

You should apply for a job as a writer for Backpacker Magazine. They will be impressed with your attitude and may even put professional hiker below your byline. Wouldn't surprise me a bit.

[restless]

Don't really care about a title but I wanted to prove a point that you can be a professional at whatever you do if you try hard enough at it. I work hard at what I do and therefore I have created a career out of hiking. My down time is to prepare for my next hike. Why don't you join me out here. You might learn something from me. Like being nice to fellow hikers!

Thank you,
Taba

As I've stated before, the MST is a wonderful trail, what I have seen of it, and the mountain section is on par with anything on the AT. As for joining you, I am unfortunately i nthe White Mtns of NH, building trails and gwetting paid for it. I guess that makes me a "professional" trailbuilder.

BTW, I have included the definition of the word "professional" from the Miriam-Webster dictionary for info's sake:

Main Entry:
1pro·fes·sion·al Listen to the pronunciation of 1professional
Pronunciation:
\prə-ˈfesh-nəl, -ˈfe-shə-nəl\
Function:
adjective
Date:
1606

1 a: of, relating to, or characteristic of a profession b: engaged in one of the learned professions c (1): characterized by or conforming to the technical or ethical standards of a profession (2): exhibiting a courteous, conscientious, and generally businesslike manner in the workplace2 a: participating for gain or livelihood in an activity or field of endeavor often engaged in by amateurs <a professional golfer> b: having a particular profession as a permanent career <a professional soldier> c: engaged in by persons receiving financial return <professional football>3: following a line of conduct as though it were a profession <a professional patriot>
— pro·fes·sion·al·ly adverb

[restless]

Hiking is not just walking through the woods. It requires the right gear, having the right knowledge of how to use the gear, having a little common sense, and the ability to improvise when in tough situations. A person can walk into the woods with no gear but how far do you think they would get without having to be rescued or turn around and leave the woods because of the lack of gear. A hiker needs a backpack, a tent, a stove, food, water treatment or filter, footwear, the proper clothing for the seasons, hiking poles and a map or guidebook. All of these items are required to successfully complete any hike no matter how far the distance.


Taba

Other than Gatewood, lets see, as to a water filter, maps and guidebook, and hiking poles, if memory serves me correct, Daniel Boone didn't have any of the afforementioned items. Lewis and Clark, nope. Christopher Columbus, hell he should have just fallen off the earth because it was flat! Oh I almost forgot--Earl Shaeffer. Never will figger out how he did it without maps, besides what was up with that helmet he was always wearing? Didn't I hear somewhere that Earl cut the heels off his boots? Oh YEAH I heard it from him--that's right. Don't guess you have heard of Horace Kephart (pick up a copy of Camping and Woodcraft-it will show all of us how soft we have become when we go into the woods).
In other words, hiking successfully is not ALL about the equipment. There is a element of mental toughness and ingenuity that without, no hike can be a success.

[Jester2000]

See, most people work 6 months out of the year and hike the rest for the rest of their lives. I plan on making a lot of money and retiring in about 10-12 years. Be done with working for the rest of my life at 40. Be free to do what I want.

Unless, you know, you drop dead the day after you turn 40. God seems to have a weird sense of humor when it comes to people planning out their lives.

. . . if memory serves me correct, Daniel Boone didn't have any of the afforementioned items. Lewis and Clark, nope. Christopher Columbus, hell he should have just fallen off the earth because it was flat!

True, although none of the people mentioned would have defined themselves as hikers, and if memory serves no one else has ever referred to them that way either.

Oh I almost forgot--Earl Shaeffer. Never will figger out how he did it without maps . . .In other words, hiking successfully is not ALL about the equipment. There is a element of mental toughness and ingenuity that without, no hike can be a success.

Earl did have some maps, although according to him they were free gas station road maps, so maybe not all that helpful. I do agree with you about successful hiking not being about equipment, but I think Taba would essentially agree with you as well. There have been too many people all kitted out at Springer who quit by Neels for it to be otherwise.

[Nean]

Based on the 10 million steps,-- factoring in my age, height and a few bad tacos , I've logged well over 4000 miles just going to the bathroom! Pooping is my profession and my sponsors, American Standard, White Cloud, and Depends, all agree! I'm gifted, to say the least, but because of size restraints, can only ask 3 (at a time so make a line) to join me. I have septic issues as well.
I am not, repeat NOT!!!, a RJ/WF/WD wannabe! Just wanted all the thousands of poopers, etc. who visit this site to know that this journey won't be with an average, at best, pooper.
My guidebook on the subject, some nitpickers will argue sonnet, is available within reach and comes in handy at the end of the trip...


Promote the trail, promote your guidebook, but going to lengths to promote yourself has the smell of a trip I just made. Now don't try it at home folks, as it has been well documented that I'm pretty darn special, but I did do my business.... mid-post.
just sayin word yo

[Jester2000]

Nean, that must be the record for most emoticons in one post. Congrats!

[Frosty]

Taba, if you are still looking for ways to help the MST, check this out:

http://www.carolinamtnclub.com/enews...newsletter.htm

You are invited to extend the MST (Mountains-to-Sea Trail) South on June 6 , 2009 ( rain date- June 13 ) for National Trails Day..

This is a great opportunity to give something back for all the fun and enjoyment you've had on the trails this past year. We hope to have a large group to help us complete another piece of the MST going South to the Soco Gap Overlook, South of Balsam Gap, BRP milepost 456.

We 'll meet at the Moose Café at 9:00 AM for car pooling. The second meeting place is at the intersection of the Blue Ridge Parkway and Rt. 19, South of Maggie Valley. Tools will be available but if you have digging tools of your own, please bring them.

Please call all your friends and acquaintances and invite them. The bigger the group, the more the fun!!! No prior experience is required. Piet Bodenhorst

[Taba]

Taba, if you are still looking for ways to help the MST, check this out:

http://www.carolinamtnclub.com/enews...newsletter.htm

You are invited to extend the MST (Mountains-to-Sea Trail) South on June 6 , 2009 ( rain date- June 13 ) for National Trails Day..

This is a great opportunity to give something back for all the fun and enjoyment you've had on the trails this past year. We hope to have a large group to help us complete another piece of the MST going South to the Soco Gap Overlook, South of Balsam Gap, BRP milepost 456.

We 'll meet at the Moose Café at 9:00 AM for car pooling. The second meeting place is at the intersection of the Blue Ridge Parkway and Rt. 19, South of Maggie Valley. Tools will be available but if you have digging tools of your own, please bring them.

Please call all your friends and acquaintances and invite them. The bigger the group, the more the fun!!! No prior experience is required. Piet Bodenhorst

Thank you Frosty,
That is good information for everybody to know. Unfortunately I will be past that point on that date. I am currently hiking the MST again to update the manual. I have been out since May 18th and will not be finished with my yo-yo of this trail until mid October. I am nearing Asheville and have had success with getting the new REI to carry the Manual here on Shenck Parkway. As I am hiking the trail with my manual I have found it to be extremely helpful, even to me, with planning out where I will be camping and getting my water. I am no longer in the dark as to where my resources are and I don't have the question in my brain as to whether or not I will be able to cook dinner when I get to a spot where I could camp. If there is not water near the campsite I know where to get it before I arrive at the campsite. It is a rainy season and I am finding more water sources. The water sources I find this year that were not here last year will be listed in the updated manual as "wet season water." It makes me smile every time I find the points of interest right where they are listed in the manual.

As far as helping the trail, I feel that I have contributed a great deal with releiving the stresses of navigation and planning for every other thru-hiker who plans to hike this great adventure. When I have more time I will probably be out here to help build new trail, but this year is commited to documenting the new trail that was not trail last year. There will be plenty of time to help out in the next few years as the trail grows and gets rerouted.

Taba

[Taba]

I guess some people just won't rest until they have a title before their name.

You seem to want to rest a lot. Maybe we should just call you "Rest".

Taba

[Mags]

I have lots of titles before my name:

That loser Mags..
That schmuck Mags..
That a-hole Mags...
etc..


On a serious note.. EVERY trail user should put in some sweat equity at some point.
Trails Day is a good day as any.. (other days, of course, work)
http://www.americanhiking.org/NTD.aspx

Come on..LEAVE A TRACE!

(What can I say..I grew up blue-collar and Catholic. I feel guilty all the time..and it only feels like work if I feel sore, achy and sweaty. )

[Taba]

Just wanted to give an update on my hike. I am now 46 days in and have hiked 450 miles. Sounds slow but the mountains section is tough. I will be speeding up now. The last 3 days were 21, 14, and 24 miles. Today was 3 and maybe off until the 5th. I will be hanging out with some friends for July 4th.

It doesn't feel like I have been out this long yet. I passed by another hiker named Jonathon who is hiking the MST from Sea-to-Mountains. I didn't see him though. I even carried a cheeseburger from a family reunion for him for 5 miles before I ate it. We passed as I was charting the new directions for getting to the Sauratown Trail from Pilot Mountain I guess.

Check out the updates for the manual in the "Important Updates" thread.

I have a new website:

www.thru-hiker.us

Gotta go! see you again soon.

Taba

[Taba]

There are several hikers starting thru-hikes in August and September and one more than half way complete with his. Anyone else up for the challenge yet?

Taba

[Taba]

It makes sense to have gear in some critical situations like cold weather, but hiking is putting one foot in front of the other repeatedly. It ain't rocket science, Babe.
Posted by Frosty 5-21-2009

You are so very wrong about that. Not only do you walk 15-20 miles a day you have the daily chores of setting up your tent, cooking dinner, washing you pot, and filtering water, just to name a few. Then you have the town chores; doing laundry, shopping for groceries, looking for a place to take a shower, and making sure you have all the gear you need to make it to your next resupply point. Now add in all the extra work I do to write and publish a book while hiking; tracking the mileage, looking for and documenting every resource I pass by, making contacts for possible camping locations for other hikers, then when I can find a place to print copies of the Manual. I keep the stores stocked and have copies for some future thru-hikers, and update everything on the computer so the people who are following the Manual right now have more detailed information and will have less stress on their adventure.

So, again I say hiking is not just walking. If you believe that go hike in a mall!

Taba