Rules to follow when hooking up!

[Jayboflavin04]

I was headed for a trip to VA next week and was hooking up with DAKs. A WB member. It would have been Me, Ethan(my son 8), and DAKS. The trip appealed to DAKS because he had knee surgery and wanted to do the easy miles we were going to do. When I announced my plans to the X-wife.....she became uncomfortable about us hiking with someone we met over the internet. She said "That is classic pediophile stuff".

While I do understand her concern as a parent. I feel her concern is out of pure ignorance! She doesnt know how heavily traveled the AT is....we wont be alone anyway. Also it was comforting to me to have someone along. Lets face it! If something would happen to me....Ethan(8) would have to deal with it. She also said does anyone think you are "CRAZY" for taking him on this trip. Everyone thinks it is awesome that I spend the quality time I do with my son.

[ShelterLeopard]

I understand how your wife feels though- My mother and everyone does not feel comfortable when I meet people on the internet to hike with. But I've never heard of a "hook up" on whiteblaze going badly. (Though maybe those wouldn't get reported?)

[ShelterLeopard]

That grammar feels so incorrect..... My mother does not, they do not, hmmmmm....

[Christus Cowboy]

What can I say except my wife initially expressed concerns when I recently went on a 54 mile hike with Summit (also on Whiteblaze) in the Nantahala National Forest, this past April. Interestingly enough Summit's wife also had the same questions... nothing major but a situation that needed to be addressed prior to our hike.... One of the things that I did try to do was differentiate Whiteblaze from the dark world of the Internet by telling my wife what Whiteblaze was and that it wasn't a prime domain for pedofiles.... One of the things that really helped me was that Summit had made hundreds of posts prior to me even getting to know him.... I was able to show my wife his posts dating back 3 years prior to my even being on whiteblaze.... given the lengthy history of his posts, my wife determined that he was not an ax murderer and that he was an experienced backpacker who be good for a fella like to me hang around.... Our trip wound up being a very good experience for me and I'm a better man for it... after a day or two on the trail when we got phone signal, we called our wives and reassured them by telling them about trip up to that point and after a few general questions both of our wives were fine....

One thing that you could do if you wanted to take a step further is contact Daks get his real name and pull up the online sex offender registries and show her that he's good.

[MOWGLI]

It's not understandable from where I sit. It's paranoia. Or ignorance. Or a good bit of both. Common sense be damned. People should be scared that kids don't go into the woods these days, and refrain from finding reasons to keep them out of the woods.

[skinewmexico]

I'd tell her my son was going hiking with me, and that I would be with him 24/7. And ask her how she knew so much about pedophiles. Not really. But I might mention that I had heard that a "classic" pedophile like to get the children alone, away from the parent.

[CowHead]

WB is a sample of what’s in the world today and it would be sad to say that there may be more than one sex offender out there. I raise my kids, to never trust anyone on the net, there is no way of knowing who is on the other end and this could be WB or Disney sites bottom line is there are truly evil people in the world.

[ShelterLeopard]

What can I say except my wife initially expressed concerns when I recently went on a 54 mile hike with Summit (also on Whiteblaze) in the Nantahala National Forest, this past April. Interestingly enough Summit's wife also had the same questions... nothing major but a situation that needed to be addressed prior to our hike.... One of the things that I did try to do was differentiate Whiteblaze from the dark world of the Internet by telling my wife what Whiteblaze was and that it wasn't a prime domain for pedofiles.... One of the things that really helped me was that Summit had made hundreds of posts prior to me even getting to know him.... I was able to show my wife his posts dating back 3 years prior to my even being on whiteblaze.... given the lengthy history of his posts, my wife determined that he was not an ax murderer and that he was an experienced backpacker who be good for a fella like to me hang around.... Our trip wound up being a very good experience for me and I'm a better man for it... after a day or two on the trail when we got phone signal, we called our wives and reassured them by telling them about trip up to that point and after a few general questions both of our wives were fine....

One thing that you could do if you wanted to take a step further is contact Daks get his real name and pull up the online sex offender registries and show her that he's good.

I never thought of showing people old posts- that's brilliant!

[Ladytrekker]

This is what is so great about Whiteblaze you get on here you read and you comment and you get to know the names and the people and what I like best is that your age and your gender does not seem to be a factor at all because the journey is what everyone has in common. I am doing my first section of the AT next year I spend most of my time on the FT, but am totally obcessed with the AT. However, as a Mother my child is my first priority, but I would feel safe with him hiking on the AT.

[Jayboflavin04]

It's not understandable from where I sit. It's paranoia. Or ignorance. Or a good bit of both. Common sense be damned. People should be scared that kids don't go into the woods these days, and refrain from finding reasons to keep them out of the woods.

Most everybody loves that I take Ethan hiking/camping him. As a kid, I was always in the woods....I always got poison ivy 3 or 4 times every summer. I also find it disturbing that kids sit around a play video games all day! I was either on my bike riding off to god knows where, building forts, playing tag, backyard baseball.

The media has everyone so scared to do anything but stay at home and watch the TV and worry bout the terrorist pediophile theiving mass murders!

[Seeker]

I never thought of showing people old posts- that's brilliant!

sorta like feedback on EBay...

[modiyooch]

Conversation with my brother in Maine last May. I'm hiking on the AT this weekend, can I crash at your house? Sure, you are not going alone again, are you? No, I'm meeting someone that I met from the internet. What?? What's his name? Gypsy. Gypsy04. what ?????!!!!! well, he's got an AT sticker on his car.....
I say, let me get this straight, you don't want me to hike alone, you won't go with me, and now you don't want me hiking with someone from the internet. I kinda understand their concern but, I brake for AT hikers. We are a different breed, I believe.
I'm a mother, and I take my kids for outings. It's special. My husband completely supports my trail habit.

[Egads]

I never thought of showing people old posts- that's brilliant!

sorta like feedback on EBay...

Well then...that eliminates most of us

Would you hike with a dog?

or prefer to bike with a frog?

you might like to jog in a slog,

It's more fun than a trike in the fog

[sasquatch2014]

Yeah my family was a bit freaked out by the fact that I was going to hike with people off the internet, aka WB. they think I am a bit crazy with this type of thing. I told them from what I could tell these folk are the safe, talk to your self on the bus crazy not the chop you up into little chunks crazy while you sleep. Now that my family has met a bunch of the people I hike with and other hikers that come through and that I help out from time to time they have all decided that I am much more nuts than the people that hike with me. I still don't get that and I don't care if the voices in my head agree with them or not.

[tucker0104]

I just figure if it isy time to go then it is my time to go. I could spend my whole life worried about everything and not doing anything or I could just go do it.

[Homer&Marje]

Just watch out for this guy....he's been causing trouble in a lot of state and national forests. Known as the Crazy Homeless Guy

http://whiteblaze.net/forum/vbg/file...6/sdc11347.jpg

[russb]

The internet is a new paradigm. Society has embraced it for communication and commerce and as a medium for virtual congregation and hanging out. However, the natural next step of doing things with people you know from work, school, the local bar, etc... has not yet been embraced on the internet. People are slow to realize that these virtual gathering places (forums) are how we meet, interact, and get to know each other and thus face-2-face meetings are "no big deal". Families will and should be concerned if you decided to go hiking with some random dude you met on the street, so it isn't a face-2-face requirement, it is the fact you don't really know them. The same is true for online communities. We get to know each other here, often not one-to-one but as a group so "hanging out" whether by exchanging pms, emails, or face-to-face meetings is just another stage. Families should be concerned if you decide to go hiking with some random person who just joined WB, whom you and/or the group doesn't know. It isn't an internet thing, it is a "knowing the person" thing. The difference is online communities we have both individual knowledge, the personal interactions between people and also the group knowledge thing. Even though we may not respond or communicate directly with another person, we have read that persons posts and interacted with others whom they have exchanged posts. We know them not because they communicated solely with us, but we have commun icated via a larger group dynamic. These virtual communities which facilitate group communication is new. Before, only a single person or small group was able to communicate with large masses (think stage and audience) and the people in the audience did not have the ability to communicate with anyone else but those immediately around them. Now everyone is "on stage" and viewed, heard by all.

/rambling

[Tinker]

Before I joined Whiteblaze, "Hooking up" was something entirely different.

[Jayboflavin04]

Just watch out for this guy....he's been causing trouble in a lot of state and national forests. Known as the Crazy Homeless Guy

http://whiteblaze.net/forum/vbg/file...6/sdc11347.jpg

Are you serious?! Or is this a pic of one of your buddies!!

I was just talking to a girl from my hometown that likes to hike(day hikes) and goes alone because none of her friends like to hike. They all think she is nuts!!! *** we all dont go into the woods strip down and tuck our weiners in between our legs and scream "It rubs the lotion on its back!" I am going to start acting like that when people go to the beach for vacation......"OH, my god you know how much UV radiation you get at the beach,.....and do you know how many people drown in the ocean every year......you have to watch out for those jelly fish, and oh the sharks. And all you do is lay their...what fun is that. Those people are nuts!!!!

[Tinker]

Are you serious?! Or is this a pic of one of your buddies!!

I was just talking to a girl from my hometown that likes to hike(day hikes) and goes alone because none of her friends like to hike. They all think she is nuts!!! *** we all dont go into the woods strip down and tuck our weiners in between our legs and scream "It rubs the lotion on its back!" I am going to start acting like that when people go to the beach for vacation......"OH, my god you know how much UV radiation you get at the beach,.....and do you know how many people drown in the ocean every year......you have to watch out for those jelly fish, and oh the sharks. And all you do is lay their...what fun is that. Those people are nuts!!!!

Lay their what?