I am a masters student in the United Kingdom looking to progress to a PhD, I am interested in the counter-culture, culture shock and identity that is created along these hikes. I am getting ready for a submission, would anyone be interested in sharing their experiences, readjustments, failures, successes etc?
Merely want to gage interest to know whether this is viable.
Many thanks and much love, Kieran
Kieran D.
Welcome to the world of “Hiker Trash”? We have a thru hiker counter culture. It’s great fun to observe all our rites, rules and observances. Ever notice how we spell it wrong? Thru Hiker vice through hiker. If some new hiker gets it wrong on Social Media we always correct them. We have our own private language. I love heading North in the Spring with the mob. It’s like reading Lord of the Fly’s. By the time they make it to Trail Day’s in Damascus most hikers have formed into small tribes, chief, pecking order and all. We even have small reject tribes made up of outcasts from other tribes. I’m an avid Trail Journal reader and counter culture observations are laced through them. Another good read for this type of information is shelter logs, where you can read running monologue from shelter to shelter. Thru hikers will walk well off trail to a shelter just to make sure they read the log. We will probably post new political party and promote our own candidates soon…
Francis