The youth care more about what size rims they have on thier car, and all the social sewage there listening to on thier ipods. Adults care more about thier stock options then ever before. One out of four commercials are scaring the blank out of people about retirement. The masses don’t care about nature/adventure.
Bubble Boy
an estimated three million people use the AT each year, and considering the Trail runs through remote areas throughout, I’d say that’s a pretty healthy number.
And since when has thru-hiking, specifically, EVER catered to the masses. Heck, even for people who enjoy hiking, a six-month thru is impossible.
Find me one adult who doesn’t care about their stocks, or one youth who doesn’t like his music. Heck, I thru’d with an iPod, where does that put me? I would certainly say that from a stronger societal shift toward materialism would come a healthier number of people who would rebel against it and take to hiking–Yin and Yang.
0101
I thru’d with one of the greatest guys I have ever met(fish-n-game) who took out a frickin loan to pay his mortgage while he thru’d ,so don’t give me that thru is impossible garbage. If you have No children, you have No excuse. As for the ipod thing- I live in a large city, and people can’t even go to the corner store without their ipod. You can’t say hello anymore. I’m embarressed to admit I had my mp3 for about a third of the way(A.T) NOT happening on the PCTTTTT!!! I don’t care about my stocks, BECAUSE I DON’T HAVE ANY!! I have a pension that the union will probably lose before I reach that age. lolol -bubble-
joseph marecki
I see three statements above:
Older people are concerned about their financial futures; the younger people are caught up in materialism and the questionable ideas expressed in their music; and the masses don’t care about nature/adventure.
The AT is used by three million people annually; and a stronger societal shift toward materialism will result in a rebellion against materialism that will produce more hikers.
Thru-hiking is possible if you really want to do it; ipods are everywhere and interfere with human interaction; and the condition of society is such that our pensions are all in jeopardy.
This is all social commentary, which I think is good.
These statements reflect the incredible pressures people face and endure today, with everyone working their brains out, getting little reward for their efforts, and all the while watching all hope of a financially and otherwise tolerable old age slowly but surely slip away.
Part of why we go into the woods is to forget all this, for various amounts of time, and get back into a direct connection with the real world–the Planet Earth and its outer crust and all that lives on it.
Although not strickly about hiking, it seems to me a fair thing to occasionally discuss the madness that goes on outside the forest, and how we retreat back into the forest, to collect ourselves, and sometimes, to plan how to make the Cement Palace more livable.
Sincerely, Conan
Conan