Mountain Climbing with the Wizard

Quote: Wizard

You keep pushing this higher and higher on my bucket list. I think you would like the book A Walk in the Woods. The movie is a mediocre adaptation, at best.

A podcast I listen to the guy did it after he got out of the military to decompress and re-enter society. Says it really worked. Not sure I will have it on my bucket list as there are too many other places ahead of it. Same podcast had a guest woman talking about hiking and how there is some kind of circuit hikers do and she did it.

A friend of mine's son did the whole Appellation Trail this summer, solo. Hiked and camped the whole thing in one long go.

Quote: AZDuffman

A podcast I listen to the guy did it after he got out of the military to decompress and re-enter society..

A lot of guys do the hike when
they leave the service. Most
hikers are under 30 or over 50,
those in the middle have jobs
and family they can't desert for
6 months.

Here's something that I guess is
inevitable. It's the height of summer
now, and after school gets out
every year the trail fills up with what
serious hikers call 'hiker trash'.

These are day hiking college kids who
are there doing 2-3 day hikes, and every
night at every shelter it's party time.
They break out the booze and the weed
and stay up till 2am around a fire and
keep the serious hikers awake. There
is a lot of hooking up going on, a lot
of trail sex. Thru-hikers try and avoid
shelters in the summer unless it's raining.

I'm fascinated at the small town community
that forms every year along the 2200 miles.
Thru-hikers see the same people over and
over along the way, and they form bonds
like people do in small towns. The generosity
of hikers to each other, and from people
who live near the trail, is very uplifting. It's
a once in a lifetime experience to thru-hike,
for most it's the adventure of their lifetime.

Quote: Wizard

You keep pushing this higher and higher on my bucket list. .

If you're serious, this is the hiker
to watch. She has the best
thru-hiking videos on Youtube.
They're beautiful, well edited,
well narrated, and Dixie is easy
on the eyes. She's a fount of
advice and tips, and has lots
of how to videos.

In 2016 she did the AT, last year
it was the Pacific Crest Trail, and
this year it's the Continental Divide.
The scenery is the best ever, the
amount of wilderness left in this
country that's untouched is
staggering.

Just watch 5 min of this video
and you'll be hooked on this
chick.

Quote: Evenbob

If you're serious, this is the hiker
to watch. She has the best
thru-hiking videos on Youtube.

She has great photography, but I find IDTAT a one man entertainment source. (I'm up to video 30 now)

I would take whatever camera equipment she uses -- she does list it.

Quote: rxwine

She has great photography, but I find IDTAT a one man entertainment source. (I'm up to video 30 now)

I follow him for the entertainment
value, not his expertise on hiking.
He eats horribly, for one thing.
He's makes wraps out of Nutella
and M&M's and wonders why his
gut hurts afterwards. His diet is
all candy bars and ice cream when
he can get it.

I like his attitude. I wish he would
fix his sound issues. When he talks
I have to turn up the volume and
then turn it down when the music
blasts my speakers.

Quote: rxwine

She has great photography, but I find IDTAT a one man entertainment source. .

They are all majorly behind on their
videos. He posted the halfway point
video this week when he's actually
in NY now. He's weeks behind.
Handstand is at least a month behind.
It's confusing to see her currently
in Evans videos, yet in her own she
still hasn't gotten to the halfway
point.

I heard him say why he was behind but I forgot why. I would be slow to upload, to avoid random freaks from showing up on the trail where they expected me to be. Probably more important for the women to worry about that sort of thing

Quote: rxwine

I heard him say why he was behind but I forgot why. I would be slow to upload,

Uploading from a phone to the cloud
is slow, they say. And they don't have
good service a lot.

This is my fave guy hiker now. He posts
videos every day and is hiking the PCT
this year. This is from his AT hike last
year, he has 175 long videos, I'm at 82.
He talks a lot and has gossip, he's very
likeable. You get a view of life on the
trail that you don't get from a lot
of hikers.

rxwine, don't you accept PM's? I tried
to send you one.

This is interesting. In all the videos I've
seen, I have yet to see a single black
or Latino, not one. One of the hikers
I follow says after 90 days, it's the
'whitest' thing he's ever done. Not
seen a single minority in 90 days.

I looked it up and minorities have
no interest in the outdoors, for
the most part. 96% of visitors
to national parks are white,
according to the gov't.

There are efforts to change this,
but blacks especially would never
take a hiking/camping trip over
one to Vegas or Miami Beach.
They feel it's degrading to 'rough
it'.

Also, 75% of serious campers and
hikers are college grads. That might
have more to do with it than race.