In November of 2014 the Baxter State Park Authority penned a letter to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.  Let’s be honest, it may have been addressed to Wendy Jassen, but it was written to you, me and everyone else using the trail.  The letter should have opened a flood gate of outcry, and public shaming from those on and around the trail.  We should be encouraging everyone throughout the entire hiking community to step up their game.  The examples outlined in the letter are things that can easily be corrected.  Zach did a great job removing the clutter of the letter and discussing the Thru-Hikers Code of Conduct.  Jesse also wrote an awesome article giving examples on her 5 Ways to Inspire a Generation of Stewards with great ideas on teaching children Leave No Trace.

I’m not one for rules, or regulations.  I have this anti-authoritarianism thing going on upstairs. That being said, I try to treat and respect others as I would expect them to treat and respect me.  Unfortunately common sense and common courtesy, are not always common practice.

We, as a current generation of hikers/stewards/ambassadors must perform at our best to ensure the tradition continues.  I recently had a conversation with a lifelong friend of mine about our roles in our respective organizations.  We discussed how we are passing our values on to the next generation following in our footsteps.  I’ll use the example of myself teaching my successor how to instruct any given topic.  I spend a lot of time in front of groups of people, teaching and presenting to members of my organization on all levels.  When it comes to expecting the best from my successors, I must hold myself to a higher standard than I normally would.  If I have an 8 hour course and teach it in 7 hours in front of my successor, they will in turn lower the bar again and teach it in 6 hours.  Trust me, as an instructor I have other things I would love to be doing as well.  However, I must hold myself to the higher standard to maintain the same standard in the future generations.  This coincides with passing the torch of the 7 principles of LNT perfectly.  The more short cuts we take, the more future generations will take and so on down the line until the foundation of LNT is lost entirely.

When I was a white water raft guide we stopped at the same place on the shoreline for lunch about 5-6 days a week with groups up to 75 or 80 customers.  Needless to say we made a lot of trash, daily.  We always made sure to collect ALL of the trash before getting back on the river after lunch.  Little food scraps lead to little animals, little animals lead to big animals, and pretty soon Yogi is being eaten by a Tyrannosaurs Rex at the lunch spot because someone is too inconsiderate to pick up their left over possum loaf sandwich.  (No possums were harmed in the making of said sandwiches.)

Using discretion is one of the best ways to help heal the wounds some of our predecessors have created with the community around the trail. It’s up to each of us to make our own choices. We may or may not agree on the next part.  Feel free to comment below with your opinion.  If you want to enjoy a can of Troegs Perpetual IPA or even Troegenator atop Katadin after hiking 2,100 soggy miles so you can send them a selfie… f’in’ go for it, that shit’s awesome and so are you! You’re a certified badass now!  But if you plan to then throw the can onto the rocks instead of doing the right thing, someone should engage with you in a brief conversation about how to NOT Hike Your Own Hike.  The enjoyment of your well deserved, celebratory beer did not hinder the enjoyment of anyone else’s journey, so long as you are discrete about it.

In the letter mentioned earlier they discuss a few things that were subtle but could make a huge difference.  It’s no secret that if you hike 2,100 miles you’re going to see some weirder things than you would in normal civilization.  Drinking and drug use might be slightly more common on the trail than off.  It’s not my place to tell any other person what they can or can’t put into their own body.  However, I always recommend that they use good judgment, and use my super power of being a passive aggressive smart ass when they are harming others or someone else’s property.  Look, my boss at the rafting company called me Rockstar for good reason(Note: I have zero musical ability).  There’s a time and a place to rock out.  4 AM at a hostel or shelter full of hangry hikers just might not be it.  Be more subtle than the half naked hiker sprawling, half in & half out of their tent or at least don’t make a habit of it.  Your new trail name would be Half & Half and you would be infamous in your hiker class.  The more open you are with your extracurricular activities, the more likely you are to have someone Yogi on your stash, or have an issue with someone who may(or may not) save your butt out there sometime in the future.  Remember the trail provides, but don’t prevent yourself from being helped in your time of need.

The issue at hand goes beyond burning trash in fire rings and zombie toilet paper raising from their cat hole graves after a rain storm.  Our actions within the communities around the trail, not just the trail community, leave footprints on the minds of some with whom we never even interact.

h/t Kworth30 for the Katahdin photo

There’s something about starting a hike on a Saturday afternoon at the bottom of a mountain I just can’t seem to remember.  After a nearly sleepless night and a great opening day of trout season(ref The Student becomes the teacher) I finally opened my new GoLite Jam 50 pack I bought online. Yes I know I just bought an Osprey Exos a few weeks ago, but this one is lighter and blue.  So go count something you own too many of then we’ll talk.  

I figured out a game plan of parking at Rt 81 and heading north to the William Penn Shelter to spend the night, then off to 183 for a Sunday afternoon pick up.  Along the way I ran into two gobblers and kicked up two grouse which pretty much made the trip worth it by itself.

 Shortly after passing the wildlife I started to notice my back was getting a little soggy. My Osprey Exos has excellent air flow but I still get hot having the back on my back. At one point I took my GoLite Jam off and felt it for dampness, finding only what I assumed was back sweat. In my rush to get hiking I neglected to put my gear inside a contractor bag seperating it from my water bladder sleeve. After the soggy dampness turned to chilly water on the seat of my pants reality sank in, quickly. Somehow my hose loosened from the bladder spilling water into the sleeve and then directly into the gear compartment. I dropped my back and set up for a yard sale right in the middle of the trail. Ripping things out as fast as possible to make sure what needed to be dry, still was. I have never been so thankful to spend $20 a piece for Sea to Summit Nano sil dry stuff sacks in my life. Aside from my wet white butt and my sleeping pad everything stayed dry. Including my DIY down quilt. That would have been detrimental to getting any sleep or being warm at night. 

As I approached the last mile before the shelter things got weird. It’s not uncommon to find people’s belongings left behind on the trail. But not like this. The first grocery bag I came across had some dry cotton long johns I could see though the bag hanunging on the root ball of a downed tree. The second bag a few hundred yards down contained: a belt, a woolen scarf with matching red mittens, a sweat shirt, and a full sized paperback book.  This bag caught my curiosity pretty well and had me looking around and over my shoulder. It just didn’t add up.  The third bag put me over the threshold from curious to weirded out. At this point I am over 2 miles from the nearest main road. The third bag contains a wet pair of campfire smokey denim jeans, a pair of needle nose pliers, a full sized can opener, and an electric(corded) Wahl hair clippers, freshly used.  The overly skeptical of everything mindset is not having any part of this shelter tonight, I thought to myself. 

I made it to the 501 shelter to find two hikers from VA and a NOBO thru hiker finishing off up an attempt from a few years ago named Beavis.  His name was quite fitting, of course we got along great.  Had I known previously I would spent the night at 501 I would have forgone carrying my dinner the whole way and ordered of the delivery menu stack like everyone else did. Meat lovers pizza with extra cheese sure smells amazing while eating rehydrated freeze dried beef stew out of a bag. 

 I think all those sketchy grocery bags along the trail hgot to my head and I ended up having nightmares and waking up several times throughout the night. The worst kind of nightmare to have while you’re sleeping in an AT shelter, is a nightmare about something in an AT shelter.  The wind howling all night and the outside temp in the mid 20’s didn’t help me sleep either. 

I made my way out of 501 convinced I would have a nice hot breakfast in an hour or so at a tent site I saw on the guide.  I passed a few hikers that morning. While I was bumbling down the trail they were racing up towards the adventures ahead. One girls I passed had a pack far larger than mine including a tent that judging by the poles strapped to the bottom of her bag was more of a palace than a tent. I also passed a nother man with a pack at least 70 liters filled to the brim. It boggles my mind some of the bull and weight people carry.  I’m all for comfortable camping but the cling part only comes after the hiking part. I must spend too much time buying, researching or weighing my gear on my food scale. Ironically I was still having some knee issues and it was really slowing me down. I took a few short breaks and ended up sitting down on the side of the road at Rt 183 as my ride arrived. Perfect timing. 

            Mysterious white powder in the drinking cup box for “Good Friday” no thanks.