I read an entry yesterday and someone named Lonely Wolf mentioned following the rules to become a real thru hiker. Can someone please give me the web address where I could purchase a copy of the AT Rulebook? I want to carry it with me along with the: Rick Please No More Dumb Ass Comments Your Entrys Are Insanely Stupid Go Do Some Dangerous Experiments Guidebook and map.
New Hiker
There is no published rule book.
The rub comes in with how different people define a thru-hike. (How pure is pure?) Go to places like White Blaze and read some of the posts.
Peaks
The Cherokee Indians had a rulebook for living on the land. It was titled, ‘Live, or Die’. I would really like to see a purist hiker do the following: Go into the woods for the duration of your hike. Don’t rely on any outside support or any modern convenience. Hunt for your own food, make your own shelter, weave your own clothes, and cook over a fire each night that you make by rubbing two sticks together. And, if you fail at your task, you don’t come out of the woods for help, you stay there and die. If any purist-rule-making-hiker is up to the challenge, please post your start date so I can send someone down to Springer to take a picture of your naked butt as you enter the woods. We shall see how long you survive. Probably before the first night you will come out of the woods cold, hungry, crying for momma, a motel 6, and the closest Golden Corral.
Also, for the purist, don’t forget to walk to the southern terminus on Springer. Don’t rely on modern transportation to get you there, and for goodness sake, avoid the current highway system we have in place. Go cross-country by all means. And don’t utter a word of the English language during your entire hike, you wouldn’t want anyone to get the impression you are needy. No sireeee…
Allen
My general rule for thru-hiking is that:
Have fun
A-Train
No Rogue, I wont be there. You see, during my thru-hikes, I actually used a knife instead of my bare hands for skinning my game. So, unfortunately, I am not part of the purist rule maker club…
Allen
There is only ONE rulebook, whether you’re on the trail or off – the Holy Bible. If you don’t follow the rules in that book, don’t bother climbing Katahdin, don’t pass GO or collect $200, you’ll follow the red blazes STRAIGHT TO HELL!:evil
WillK
There is only ONE rulebook,
Well there goes that idea of hiking with masked Muslim women from Afghanistan. Dang, I had my heart set on that too. Okay, so do I have to teach them the King James version or can they use one of the newer ones that speaks it all in plain English? Woo boy do I have lots to learn about hiking the Appalachian Trail.
Datto
PS: If I gettem’ to use bible audio tapes and wear loads of makeup while they’re hikin’…does that count?
Datto
So that’s where the red blazes lead - and all this time I thought it was Billville!:cheers
TJ aka Teej
Those red blazes are from my Muslim women wiping their ruby painted lips on the nearby tree bark.
With all that crying and whining through the mascara they’re soon gonna be asking for TV donations and selling some really nice looking religious pamphlets at an outrageous profit. Wait…come to think of it???
Just as long as there aren’t any snot-balling camels near my Liptons at the shelter – I hate that. If they wanna lick the bowl, okay everything down the hatch. Might have to buy another Wal-mart grease pot in-fact. If I could just get them to stop eating the Esbits as snacks. The camels I mean.
Datto
Datto
Here is the ATC definition of a thru-hiker from the ATC
site: www.appalachiantrail.org
How does ATC define thru-hiking?
2,000-Miler" Definition
The ATC confers the designation of “2,000-miler” on any hiker who reports he or she walked the entire length of the Appalachian Trail. We use the term “2,000-miler” as a matter of tradition and convenience—that’s the original length of the Trail, and changing the designation each time the length changes would be impractical.
Our recognition policy does:
give equal recognition to thru-hikers and section-hikers,
recognize blue-blazed trails or officially required roadwalks as viable substitutes for the official, white-blazed route in the event of an emergency, such as a flood, a forest fire, or an impending storm on an exposed, high-elevation stretch, and
operate on the honor system.
Our recognition policy does not consider:
sequence,
direction,
speed, or
whether one carries a pack.
ATC assumes that those who apply for 2,000-miler status have made honest efforts to walk the Appalachian Trail from Katahdin to Springer Mountain.
Rick the lone wolf
The rules are real simple! You want to be a thru-hiker you
follow them. If you don’t want to be a thru-hiker don’t
follow them. If you want to claim to be a thru-hiker and
you yellow blaze then your a fraud. From allen’s comments
I suspect he yellow blazed around the difficult places and
is changing the definition to cover his fraud. Unlike
Allen some of us actually hiked the whole trail end to end.
Hike your own hike, but don’t claim to be something your
not. Above all go enjoy your hike it’s a great experience.
Rick the Lone Wolf
Amen to Rick! I Never know why this is such a controversy, the rules are right there in print, by the only organization who has authority to make them up. Earl Schafer was asked his opinion on the yellow blaze/blue blaze thing, he said " I don’t care how you hike it, just don’t lie about it when your done."
I spent almost seven months on the trail in 2000 and failed by about 200 miles. I went back next year and completed my hike. I tell you I was never so pissed off when the list came out fro 2000 thru hikers. I saw names of people who skipped, not just 5 miles, but 60, 70, 250 miles. Aqua blazers, yellow blazers, the whole lot of you, when your done simply say I hiked from GA to ME in such and such a year. I don’t want to hear, “I Thruhiked the AT in 200…whatever.” The ATC has defined it. You cant change it, neither can I.
There is to much outright lying in this world from politicians to church leaders (I’m catholic), to the young kids I feed in school.
If you didn’t Thruhike admit it, and move on. It wont take away from your experience, but when you lie, it cheapens my experience.
Chef
http://www.trailforums.com/index2.cfm?action=detail&PostNum=2915&thread=1&roomid=7&EntryID=24623
Topic: one-legged thru-hike attempt Posted: 3/23/04 3:31 PM
If you read the above Trail Forms link you will see under ‘Gimmick’ that Rick the Lone Wolf is cutting down the one-legged hiker because he is not living up to the rules and slack packing. However, according to the rules posted by Lone Wolf, above from the ATC, they don’t even care if you carry a pack to be a thru-hiker. Thanks for contradicting yourself. Maybe you changed your own rules because you finally read them from the ATC.
As far as my post above, it was meant as a joke for rule makers like Lonely Wolf. LOL
Allen
To Rick the Lone Wolf:
First off, I respect that you finished the trail, despite the difficulties you encountered while en route.
I’m sorry, tho, that you seem so intent on criticizing other hikers and what they’re choosing to do out there. (You did this a lot while hiking, too, but that’s another story).
The ATC Description/definition is just that—it isn’t a Guidebook, Manual, or Rule Book. There is no “Rule Book” for the Trail. Never has been. Never will be. There are over 7,000 folks who’ve done the whole Trail or most of it, and no two have done it exactly the same way.
There are folks who spend a lot of time criticizing how other people are doing the Trail—whether or not they slackpack, whether or not they spend too much time in towns, etc. In my experience, folks who spend much of their time carping about other folks’ trips are generally having pretty lousy ones of their own; people that are truly enjoying themselves don’t feel the need to spend time criticizing what other folks are doing.
Are there people who claim to have thru-hiked who actually haven’t? Sure there are. Lots of them. So what. That’s between them and their consciences; most folks don’t much care. I can understand some of Rick’s comments about folks who’ve yellow-blazed a lot of the Trail claiming to be thru-hikers, and I can understand some of his emotions about these folks. I know folks who’ve skipped Virginia yet claim to be thru-hikers. But these are extreme examples. And to criticize people who slackpack, or to malign a very brave man who’s attempting to thru-hike despite a very profound handicap seems excessive to me, and somewhat mean-spirited.
Rick: Most folks simply don’t care that much about what other folks are doing out there; most folks feel that it isn’t really anyone else’s business how someone else is hiking while out there.
And as for “rules” or “established rules” or “established traditions,” well, sorry Rick. These simply don’t exist, and for you to keep insisting that they do leaves you open to justified crtiticism: You are defending your arguments by citing rules and regulations that exist only in your mind; this isn’t helping your argument.
Baltimore Jack
One day, my buddy Rick, who isn’t my buddy anymore cause he moved away when I was like six years old, the same year that I had a big belly ache, and the doctor told me to stop eating really bad food, which made me cry, cause everyone knows that I like all kinds of food, especially when its on TV, cause my favorite show is the cartoons, or at least it was when me and my buddy Rick watched TV, who isn’t my buddy anymore cause . . .
Just thought I’d share that story.
Y’know, while everyone else is wasting space posting about fðpping rules . . .
Kineo Kid
We at the A.T. Rulebook are delighted that you are interested in purchasing and carrying the offical 33rd edition A.T. rulebook on your upcoming hike. Please send $33 plus $4.50 shipping and handling to
A.T. Rulebook - 33rd Edition
P.O. Box 2760
Atlanta GA 30342
Editor
Leave it up to humans to make something as simple as strapping pack to your back and walking complicated!
Hiking is not about finishing the trail, it’s about what happens to and around you when your on it. Yes the goal is to walk the whole trail, but if your constantly worried about well I can’t take that trail cause you know, someone will think bad of me, your focus is wacked.
The path you choose is irrelevant, if you can’t go over the mountain and you go around it, YOU STILL WALKED AROUND THE MOUNTAIN, and you still made it to the other side. The yellow blazed trails are there to by hiked upon, same as the white blazed trail is.
Another thing, while I’m on this soap box. How does one person’s achivement take away from yours? IS this a hike or a race? You finished a hike from Maine to Georgia, they finished a hike from Maine to Georgia. If they went a different way a couple of times, how does that detract from what you’ve done. This isn’t a competition, it’s a HIKE.
Hike your own hike, take only pictures, and leave only footprints, and help your fellow hikers when they are in trouble, and don’t worry about anything else.
Thunder
I really like trailforums.com. I was so happy when I found this place and started reading the postings with all the good advice, anecdotes and humor from all the friendly and happy hikers. That was right at first. I still really like trailforums.com and thank the people who run it and the people who supply all the good info and feed my obsession.
There isn’t anything wrong with healthy debate and it’s okay to agree to disagree. Having said that, I am amazed at the amount of time people spend being mean and petty to each other on here. From immediately jumping on the smallest misstatement to correcting folks’ spelling. How about a little tact and courtesy? The bickering is discouraging. Play nice, people. And remember, “War is not healthy for people and other living things.”
Morgan