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  1. #181
    Registered User drifters quest's Avatar
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    Nuthatch, I don't know how those hikers came off like that to you. All I know is you had a very quick conversation with one of them and you already had an idea of what you thought they were like before you met them, hardly a way to start off right with someone. We seem to be hiking the same pace so I see them a lot and neither myself nor any of the hikers I know that know them see them come across that way. I would encourage you to get to know them a little better in a non-judgemental way.

  2. #182

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    Quote Originally Posted by Nuthatch View Post
    I think what is rubbing many people the wrong way about these folks is how they act like they're so "special"...
    That's really their burden, not mine or yours or anybody else's.
    They're kids. They don't know what they don't know, whether their backgrounds are Ivy League or Pig Pen.

    Like most people, they might learn, they might not learn, but at least they're breaking out of their "special" lives and worlds and exposing themselves to this amazing new experience -- that's how change happens to people (if they let it.) Lots of people go out with narrow ideas about what their hike should be, can't adapt and change to meet the challenges and realities and end up quitting. But at least they tried.

    I think we all carry some class resentment, but nobody talks about class; social station based upon wealth or lack of it, in this country. They tend to hide class issues in generalized "culture wars" code words, such as calling someone a liberal, a yuppie, a redneck, a yankee, or whatever. You seldom hear insults based on someone being rich or poor, though that's the real energizing undercurrent of most people's animosity. I think that's in play here, too, to some extent, with these kids. They're learning -- let 'em figure it out or get spit out.

    They do seem pretty damned annoying, especially the chick who complains that they'll never get to Maine at this pace, but maybe they'll work it out amongst themselves and the Trail. Time wounds all heels. Once the Trail assimilates them, they'll be just as alienated from the lives and the people they left behind to go hike as they are from the hiking community they are paying their dues to try to join right now. If they succeed, they'll be different people at the end of it all.

  3. #183
    Registered User Egads's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Darwin again View Post
    Time wounds all heels.
    Not sure what you said is what you meant
    The trail was here before we arrived, and it will still be here when we are gone...enjoy it now, and preserve it for others that come after us

  4. #184
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    We hike with two lawyers, two retired preachers, two active preachers and a vet pathologist and no one died... although we came close during some of our card games

  5. #185
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    I think what bothers me about this whole thing is the "Look at me" attitude. An ivy leaguer, lawyer or "city chick" hiking the AT is nothing new, unique or novel. Im sure many of us out there know one, or more of the above that they hike with on a regular basis. I personally feel that this is something that grows out of the "everyone's special" mentality. Everyone gets a participation trophy for youth soccer, kindergarden & middleschool graduations, and the everyone must know my current facebook status, need for outside validation at every step of life attitude.

    If you want to try something you never have done before or challenge yourself in a new way, do it for yourself and no one else, and really, the AT isnt exactly the wilderness with all the towns and road crossings. Your doing the same thing hundreds of other people are doing, at the same time. What do you want, a cookie?

    Now back to my rocking chair on the porch so I can yell at the damn kids riding their bikes past the house.
    Adventure is the invitation to the common person, to become uncommon. ~ wm
    Bivouac is a French word for "mistake". ~ Ed Viesturs

  6. #186
    Registered User weary's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by makoboy View Post
    I think what bothers me about this whole thing is the "Look at me" attitude. An ivy leaguer, lawyer or "city chick" hiking the AT is nothing new, unique or novel. Im sure many of us out there know one, or more of the above that they hike with on a regular basis. I personally feel that this is something that grows out of the "everyone's special" mentality. Everyone gets a participation trophy for youth soccer, kindergarden & middleschool graduations, and the everyone must know my current facebook status, need for outside validation at every step of life attitude.

    If you want to try something you never have done before or challenge yourself in a new way, do it for yourself and no one else, and really, the AT isnt exactly the wilderness with all the towns and road crossings. Your doing the same thing hundreds of other people are doing, at the same time. What do you want, a cookie?
    .....
    Everyone starting a thru hike has a sense of being unusual -- probably because they are. Very few of those that attempt a thru hike have any close friends who have attempted such a thing -- setting aside everyday lives to walk for six months or longer.

    I know I didn't. I did know a lot of people who thought such a walk was foolish, dangerous, a waste of time .... And even a couple who were envious.

    Only one in 300,000 Americans ever attempt such a thing. Only one in a million ever complete the challenge. I think the kids deserve at least two cookies.

    Weary

  7. #187
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    I hiked w/ an Ivy masters grad last year and a more down to earth gal would be hard to find. She didn't hide or run from the fact but she would never throw it in your face either. The trail is a great equalizer and rat race status and atitudes count for nothing- except to make one look uppity.

    I'm sure they are learning this as they go and wish them well.

  8. #188
    Registered User chelko's Avatar
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    They are young and have made mistakes but who among us hasn't. They have been out there for over two months and have covered over 700 miles, there is a lot to be said for that. Many of the people on this forum I think are jealous of the fact that these three kids are doing it while the rest of us are sitting here and bitchin about every thing they do that isn't done the way we might do it. Give them some slack and see what becomes of the remainder of their hike, I'm sure they will grow and mature if they haven't done so already. I hope they make it.

  9. #189
    ME => GA 19AT3 rickb's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by weary View Post
    Only one in 300,000 Americans ever attempt such a thing. Only one in a million ever complete the challenge. I think the kids deserve at least two cookies. Weary
    That's probably true, Weary.

    But something like 1 in 30,000 Americans claim to have done so.

  10. #190
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    They do deserve credit for getting as far as they have... and I hope they make it, because anyone who has the drive and desire and ability and stamina to do it, deserves to make it.

    That being said... their video blogs are kinda obnoxious, to be honest. I mean this latest one, "girl power" or whatever... ugh. Wow.

    I don't really feel bad about all the criticism they're getting... They're putting themselves out there on purpose. I'm sure they know they're pissing people off, and I'm sure they're glad, because it drives more traffic and hits to their site. It's a good strategy to have.

  11. #191
    Registered User weary's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rickb View Post
    That's probably true, Weary.

    But something like 1 in 30,000 Americans claim to have done so.
    Really? I simply rounded off some guesses. 300 million Americans. 1,000 thru hikers, a third of which claim to have finished.

    All guesses and arithmetic. Are the guesses off? Or just my arithmetic?

  12. #192

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    But you can't take the whole population of the US and then compare it to those that hike in a single year. Some of that 300million did hike the whole thing in a previous year that you aren't including. The end result is still small though.

  13. #193
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    Quote Originally Posted by weary View Post
    I think the kids deserve at least two cookies.

    Weary
    If they had humbly joined the Peace Corps and spent 2 years in Bosnia helping people I would say certainly. Instead they are doing something that is completely self absorbed for attention.

    They even went so far as to gain sponsorship (this alone seems curious given the perceived socio-economic background of a family that can send 1 kid to and ivy league school and the other to law school). Not that anyone shouldn’t try to get as much free stuff as they can, but lets call a spade a spade.
    Adventure is the invitation to the common person, to become uncommon. ~ wm
    Bivouac is a French word for "mistake". ~ Ed Viesturs

  14. #194

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    If young people learn anything in school these days, it's how to get someone else to pay for something. (only half joking).

  15. #195
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    Quote Originally Posted by makoboy View Post
    If they had humbly joined the Peace Corps and spent 2 years in Bosnia helping people I would say certainly. Instead they are doing something that is completely self absorbed for attention.

    They even went so far as to gain sponsorship (this alone seems curious given the perceived socio-economic background of a family that can send 1 kid to and ivy league school and the other to law school). Not that anyone shouldn’t try to get as much free stuff as they can, but lets call a spade a spade.

    +1. Good points... Though their schooling does not necessarily connote a wealthy family. I went to a well rated and expensive private university but my parents didn't pay my way. They helped, but it's not like I don't have student loans up the wazoo too. For all we know, they took out loans for their respective schools and are paying them off themselves. Unless they previously said their parents paid for it... then nevermind, lol.

  16. #196
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    Quote Originally Posted by hellomolly View Post
    +1. Good points... Though their schooling does not necessarily connote a wealthy family. I went to a well rated and expensive private university but my parents didn't pay my way. They helped, but it's not like I don't have student loans up the wazoo too. For all we know, they took out loans for their respective schools and are paying them off themselves. Unless they previously said their parents paid for it... then nevermind, lol.
    Thats why i left it as "perceived". I know quite a few people who have graduated from law school in the last few years. Each of them came out with $150k+ in loans and are all struggling to make the monthly payments. As Im sure you know the grace period on those loans expires 6 months after graduation and the job market for lawyers is pretty lousy right now.
    Adventure is the invitation to the common person, to become uncommon. ~ wm
    Bivouac is a French word for "mistake". ~ Ed Viesturs

  17. #197
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    Quote Originally Posted by chelko View Post
    Many of the people on this forum I think are jealous of the fact that these three kids are doing it while the rest of us are sitting here and bitchin about every thing they do that isn't done the way we might do it.
    Speak for yourself.
    I'm not really a hiker, I just play one on White Blaze.

  18. #198

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    I find "The Appalachian Trail: Unknown Territory" at the start of the videos somewhat amusing. I guess in the context of their situation it's appropriate but the AT is hardly a wilderness experience.

  19. #199
    Registered User weary's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Miner View Post
    But you can't take the whole population of the US and then compare it to those that hike in a single year. Some of that 300million did hike the whole thing in a previous year that you aren't including. The end result is still small though.
    After some more guesses and a bit of 4th grade arithmetic. I've concluded that Rickb and Miner are probably more right than I was. Who would have thought such a thing?

    Anyway, maybe two cookies are too much. After all, they are only doing something so common that one in 30,000 Americans attempt to do the same thing over a lifetime of living. How about if I just give them a cookie and a half each?

    Besides it might have been more useful to society had they joined the peace corps. Or how about just working and donating their earnings to the working poor? Or buying land to be allowed to revert to wilderness?

    Maybe we need a new White Blaze forum. Something like, "What's a better use of your time than wasting it by hiking the Appalachian Trail?

    Weary

  20. #200
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    Quote Originally Posted by weary View Post

    Maybe we need a new White Blaze forum. Something like, "What's a better use of your time than wasting it by hiking the Appalachian Trail?

    Weary
    Or maybe something like, "what's a better use of your time besides creating a self-absorbed video blog about the appalachian trail and posting about it constantly in the hopes people will talk about you?"

    that's probably too long...

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