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Thread: Wingfoot

  1. #1
    Registered User Pacific Tortuga's Avatar
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    Default Wingfoot

    I just saw 3 'Wingnut' sighn's driving home from Sunday breakfast. All though I got along with him, I know many of you fondly called him by that name.
    Just wondered if any one knew what he was up too ?
    Like him or not, he was a strong advocate for Trail protection and its integrity (according to his view's).

  2. #2

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    He has gotten away from the trail community and continous to take care of his parents - I believe in Georgia. I respect what WF did and many of the same people who bad mouth him gave little back to the trail as he did.

    His book, The AT Handbook. He might have made a few bucks on the deal but considering the number of hours he put in, he didn't do it for the money. He did it for the love of the trail. I hope people can respect that.

    Wolf

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    He also did a great service to the trail community by finding Bob "501" McCaw who continues to improve the Thru Hikers Handbook.

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    "If thru-hiking isn't the most important thing in your life at the time
    you are doing it, then stop doing it and go do what is." --Wingfoot

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    Quote Originally Posted by Pacific Tortuga View Post
    I just saw 3 'Wingnut' sighn's driving home from Sunday breakfast. All though I got along with him, I know many of you fondly called him by that name.
    Just wondered if any one knew what he was up too ?
    Like him or not, he was a strong advocate for Trail protection and its integrity (according to his view's).
    Many had questions w/ his personal integrity.
    Many wonder if it wasn't the accolades that truly motivated him. There have been many editors of the different guides over the years- all more humble.
    Many consider him close minded, which is kinda ironic when you think about it.
    Some didn't appreciate his behavior when he lived near the trail.
    I, for one, am happy he moved on and has taken up a more worthy goal.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Nean View Post
    Many had questions w/ his personal integrity.
    Many wonder if it wasn't the accolades that truly motivated him. There have been many editors of the different guides over the years- all more humble.
    Many consider him close minded, which is kinda ironic when you think about it.
    Some didn't appreciate his behavior when he lived near the trail.
    I, for one, am happy he moved on and has taken up a more worthy goal.
    i agree. he was just another hiker that took over the Philosophers Guide.

  7. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jeff View Post
    He also did a great service to the trail community by finding Bob "501" McCaw who continues to improve the Thru Hikers Handbook.
    Great service? Ask the people who used his site to keep their journals - Wingfoot deleted them. Ask the people who tried the new forums - 7sisters deletes everything he doesn't agree with, just like Wingfoot. Sure Bob has made improvements, but much remains the same.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tin Man View Post
    Great service? Ask the people who used his site to keep their journals - Wingfoot deleted them. Ask the people who tried the new forums - 7sisters deletes everything he doesn't agree with, just like Wingfoot. Sure Bob has made improvements, but much remains the same.
    My journal was deleted.

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    Registered User SawnieRobertson's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by superman View Post
    My journal was deleted.
    Were you able to recover it? Kahley found mine, forwarded it, and, therefore, made it possible for me to put it up on TJ. It doesn't have those great notes of encouragement, etc., though. Not the same.--Kinnickinic
    You never know just what you can do until you realize you absolutely have to do it.
    --Salaun

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    Quote Originally Posted by SawnieRobertson View Post
    Were you able to recover it? Kahley found mine, forwarded it, and, therefore, made it possible for me to put it up on TJ. It doesn't have those great notes of encouragement, etc., though. Not the same.--Kinnickinic
    No, mine was lost completely. It wasn't a work of art. Mostly I said I hiked up and I hiked down and Winter is asleep and I will be soon. People liked my journal simply because it was brief. I didn't know it at the time but every time my journal was posted my ex had to copy it and drive it down to her mother's house in CT. My ex-mother-in-law and I had plotted and planned how to hike the AT when I came home from the service the first time. Many years latter my ex-mother-in-law was diagnosed with cancer and she sent me the article that we'd read about a guy who hiked the AT in 68. My sons were grown and I found that I had the time and the money to hike the AT, so I did. She vicariously hiked it with me through my journal. If I'd known that she was following my hike I would have tried to write a better journal. She died a short time after I summated.

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    Registered User Panzer1's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by superman View Post
    My journal was deleted.
    I'm guessing that you had a copy of it on your hard drive???

    Panzer

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    Quote Originally Posted by Panzer1 View Post
    I'm guessing that you had a copy of it on your hard drive???

    Panzer
    A friend of mine didn't. He kows it is silly in reptrospect, but at the time, Wingfoot said put it up here and I'll keep it for you. Wingfoot's right o delete all the journals, of course - the only complaint my friend had was that it would have been nice for Wingfoot to let people know before he did it. If you know Wingfoot, though, you know that isn't his way. If he thinks he is right, nothing else matters. It is right, everything else is wrong, and the people who do wrong things don't matter. The fact that he changed his mind and moved journals from the good-for-the-AT side to the bad-for-the-AT side is irrelevant. As soon as he made the switch in his mind that journals were bad, and so were the poeple who wrote them.

    I learned a lot from reading his stuff. The only complaint I ever had was when he re-issued his AT Thruhike workbook as NEW- REVISED! and it was the exact same as the old one, word for word. I emailed him aboput it, complaining, and he unloaded on me about how little he makes on them. Once I realized that he was justifying lying in order to make money by tricking people, his image was a bit tarnished for me. Still, in spite of his crooked dealings, I learned a lot about meal planning and mail drops for long distance hiking from him. Up until I read his workbook, I was a basic weekend backpacker.
    Frosty

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    Quote Originally Posted by Panzer1 View Post
    I'm guessing that you had a copy of it on your hard drive???

    Panzer
    Nope, nothing on the hard drive. I also bought his book which wasn't printed when I left to hike the AT. So I bought the data book and the companion. When I finished the AT and returned home his book was sitting on the dining room table. My girlfriend (at that time), who stole $15,000 while I hiked, couldn't remember when it arrived. Yeah, not getting Wingfoots book sent to me while I hiked was a deal breaker...I broke up with her.

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    Default

    When WhiteBlaze was started in '02, one of the things we discussed early on was that this site just wasn't going to pay a lot of attention to Dan, pro or con. I've observed that understanding imperfectly, at best, but it is a good one, and one I think would be best honored today, too, by me and perhaps everyone else. Dan is gone from the trail, at least for now; let us wish him well and let the rest pass.

    TW
    "Thank God! there is always a Land of Beyond, For us who are true to the trail..." --- Robert Service

  15. #15

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    Quote Originally Posted by The Weasel View Post
    When WhiteBlaze was started in '02, one of the things we discussed early on was that this site just wasn't going to pay a lot of attention to Dan, pro or con. I've observed that understanding imperfectly, at best, but it is a good one, and one I think would be best honored today, too, by me and perhaps everyone else. Dan is gone from the trail, at least for now; let us wish him well and let the rest pass.

    TW
    Or, better yet, one can learn what happens when you trust your data (journals, in this case) to a website and take appropriate action (make a copy) to avoid disaster (deletion, intentional or otherwise).

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    Does anyone have a simple way (other than copy and paste) to backup a journal at Trailjournals.com?

  17. #17
    Springer - Front Royal Lilred's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jeff View Post
    Does anyone have a simple way (other than copy and paste) to backup a journal at Trailjournals.com?
    I use the old fashioned way, pen and paper. Works for me. My trail journal is copied online from that. I didn't bother with an online journal this year, but I still have it on paper.
    "It was on the first of May, in the year 1769, that I resigned my domestic happiness for a time, and left my family and peaceable habitation on the Yadkin River, in North Carolina, to wander through the wilderness of America." - Daniel Boone

  18. #18
    Registered User Panzer1's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by superman View Post
    Nope, nothing on the hard drive.
    Even though it may appear that Wingfoot deleted the journals I bet he kept a backup copy of everything he deleted on his own private hard drive. Maybe he will sell you a copy of your journal

    Panzer
    ps sorry, I know its not really funny.

  19. #19
    Registered User Panzer1's Avatar
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    while we are on the subject I would like to suggest to those who have trail journals that they should keep a backup copy on a "CD". don't trust a memory stick or an old fashon disket as they are not as reliable. Also, it would not be a bad idea to print out a hard copy on paper too.

    Also, if you have more that one computer, keep a second copy on that computer too.

    Panzer

  20. #20

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    Quote Originally Posted by superman View Post
    I also bought his book which wasn't printed when I left to hike the AT. So I bought the data book and the companion. When I finished the AT and returned home his book was sitting on the dining room table.
    True story. I visited Wingfoot in Hot Springs on my NOBO hike. I too had a journal on his site. While we were talking on his porch in the evening, Dan's phone rang. It was an inquiry about the guidebook from someone who had paid for one. He told the caller, with me sitting next to him, that the book was complete and was being shipped from the publisher and was on the truck as they spoke. As he told the caller this, his knee bounced up and down nervously. I worked with a guy at Verizon whose knee would bounce the same way every time he told a lie.

    My mother had ordered 2 books, and they arrived in September or October. He was obvioulsy having some cash flow problems.

    I wish the guy well.
    'All my lies are always wishes" ~Jeff Tweedy~

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