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Yogiing

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    • I intensely dislike the practice of manipulating another person to get something out of them. I understand the argument for yogiing, but it upsets me because it ruins any feeling of satisfaction that I get from doing something nice and instead I feel resentful and used.

      It seems that some hikers think I'm a good target for yogiing, especially girls. The round-about comments about being short of money, fuel, or food automatically raises red flags for me and makes me feel like I'm not a person to them, just a potential source of assistance. Or am I misinterpreting their comments and behavior? Do thru-hikers get to a certain point in their hike where they're so desperate that they do this without thinking, or is it cold and calculating? Is it a learned behavior because of the hiker feeds, trail angels, and assistance they get from others? I thought there was a code that you don't yogi other hikers, or does that only apply to other thru hikers?
      Lost in the right direction.
    • Recently, a comment was made by a thru hiker about being short of fuel, they "didn't have enough to get through the park". They knew I had some but I didn't offer any as I only had enough for myself. We stopped at a store and they had some so I pointed it out but the hiker didn't buy it. I had planned to pay for their breakfast but it seemed obvious to me that they had tried to yogi my fuel so I decided not to. Or did I misinterpret all of it?
      Lost in the right direction.
    • TrafficJam wrote:

      Recently, a comment was made by a thru hiker about being short of fuel, they "didn't have enough to get through the park". They knew I had some but I didn't offer any as I only had enough for myself. We stopped at a store and they had some so I pointed it out but the hiker didn't buy it. I had planned to pay for their breakfast but it seemed obvious to me that they had tried to yogi my fuel so I decided not to. Or did I misinterpret all of it?
      why would you buy them breakfast?
    • hiker feeds have nothing to do with yogiing. back in the day before people starting showing up a road crossing with food doing "magic" we all knew about yogiing. dan bruce even had a definition of the term in his first thru hikers handbook in 1991.

      there were zero hiker feeds when i thru'd; we knew the church of the mountain in dwg fed the hikers on wed nites but that was it.

      no question that yogiing predates hiker feeds.
      2,000 miler
    • Da Wolf wrote:

      TrafficJam wrote:

      Recently, a comment was made by a thru hiker about being short of fuel, they "didn't have enough to get through the park". They knew I had some but I didn't offer any as I only had enough for myself. We stopped at a store and they had some so I pointed it out but the hiker didn't buy it. I had planned to pay for their breakfast but it seemed obvious to me that they had tried to yogi my fuel so I decided not to. Or did I misinterpret all of it?
      why would you buy them breakfast?
      Just to be nice. But I'm done with being nice.
      Lost in the right direction.
    • max.patch wrote:

      hiker feeds have nothing to do with yogiing. back in the day before people starting showing up a road crossing with food doing "magic" we all knew about yogiing. dan bruce even had a definition of the term in his first thru hikers handbook in 1991.

      there were zero hiker feeds when i thru'd; we knew the church of the mountain in dwg fed the hikers on wed nites but that was it.

      no question that yogiing predates hiker feeds.
      but I can see how hiker feeds, trail magic, etc, contribute to higher expectations from thru hikers...and I'm sure there are many more hiker feeds now than in the '90's.
      Lost in the right direction.
    • TrafficJam wrote:

      Da Wolf wrote:

      TrafficJam wrote:

      Recently, a comment was made by a thru hiker about being short of fuel, they "didn't have enough to get through the park". They knew I had some but I didn't offer any as I only had enough for myself. We stopped at a store and they had some so I pointed it out but the hiker didn't buy it. I had planned to pay for their breakfast but it seemed obvious to me that they had tried to yogi my fuel so I decided not to. Or did I misinterpret all of it?
      why would you buy them breakfast?
      Just to be nice. But I'm done with being nice.
      you can be nice but they're not doing anything special so don't treat them special. they're just walkin' and partyin'
    • It is a pretty sh!tty feeling when you've been taken. But I rather like the felling of having helped someone and suffer once in while getting taken rather than being a cynical d!ck all of the time (do not take that to mean I let folks walk over me either).

      Last hike between Thomas Knob and Deep Gap I happened past a thru-hiker on his way north who let it be known that he was broke. Any inkling I might have had of helping him out was dashed when he let on he had been spending what little money had getting trashed in trail towns and had spent his last dollar doing the same in Damascus.
      Of course I talk to myself... sometimes I need expert advice.
    • the one and only time i ever considered yogiing was when i hurt myself at chairback and took a zero, with two days of food left, knew it would take at least 3 days to monson, and with my ankle f*cked up, maybe 4. i figured if necessary a nobo might be willing to part with some food, but i ended up taking a blue blaze out to the amc gorman chairback lodge and got a ride to greenville instead.
      i do practice random acts of kindness when i'm out.but i wouldnt think to bail out some jerk that partied away all his money.
      when my money runs out, i go home.
      its all good
    • I have thought about this a lot in the past and concluded that if I expect something in return for helping another person, i.e. satisfaction or recognition, then I'm truly not giving, because a true giver doesn't expect anything in return. Maybe I need to look at yogiing from that perspective.
      Lost in the right direction.
    • socks wrote:

      Rasty wrote:

      Trebor wrote:

      If you can't afford to go on vacation then stay at home.
      Or use credit cards! Russian_roulette
      No, don't do it...Buying on the margin blows! Been there done that...cash on the barrel head is the only way to fly.
      Just pay that credit card with the other credit card.
      Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.
      Dr. Seuss Cof123
    • hikerboy wrote:

      AnotherKevin wrote:

      I've yogi'ed rides a couple of times. That's about it. One of them was truly memorable - the driver was John Burroughs's granddaughter.
      thats called hitchhiking.
      Uhm, that's when you ask for a ride or stick out your thumb, I thought.

      Rather than simply starting to trudge off on the roadwalk and have the people who were packing up at the trailhead say, "Hey, can I take you back to your car?" The fine art of yogi-ing is getting help without asking for it.
      I'm not lost. I know where I am. I'm right here.
    • met a guy at a road crossing in VA last summer. He was yogi ing the trail from springer to hf. His plan was to call a friend every few days and tell him he was hiking the AT and out of food and asked if he could mail him a box of food. His gear looked like it had all came from a garage sale. He had no shelter. He slept on the ground on a blue tarp and if it rained he just wrapped it around himself. There had been a big thunderstorm the night before and he had spent the whole day trying to dry his gear out in this parking area. He was really down because he was out of food and because it was noon saturday he wasnt going to have anything to eat until the PO opened on monday. When I told him it was actually noon Friday he was very happy. I ate my lunch while he read to me one of the rather macabre poetic short stories he writes while hiking. He also said he missed most had been coffee. On my way out I gladly gave him some of my excess coffee (I had packed way too much). I knew I had been yogied but he was an interesting character and he seemed sicerely happy at my offer. I thought of it payment for his story. Anyway if you are up front about you request I guess it isn't really yogiing.
    • AnotherKevin wrote:

      hikerboy wrote:

      AnotherKevin wrote:

      I've yogi'ed rides a couple of times. That's about it. One of them was truly memorable - the driver was John Burroughs's granddaughter.
      thats called hitchhiking.
      Uhm, that's when you ask for a ride or stick out your thumb, I thought.
      Rather than simply starting to trudge off on the roadwalk and have the people who were packing up at the trailhead say, "Hey, can I take you back to your car?" The fine art of yogi-ing is getting help without asking for it.
      oh.
      i just ask for a ride.
      its all good
    • TrafficJam wrote:

      Recently, a comment was made by a thru hiker about being short of fuel, they "didn't have enough to get through the park". They knew I had some but I didn't offer any as I only had enough for myself. We stopped at a store and they had some so I pointed it out but the hiker didn't buy it. I had planned to pay for their breakfast but it seemed obvious to me that they had tried to yogi my fuel so I decided not to. Or did I misinterpret all of it?
      I let a lady have enough fuel to heat water for a cup of coffee, made the mistake of letting her pour it, she got about 4 days worth of my fuel...was a cheap lesson learned.
      I may grow old but I'll never grow up.
    • To me Yoging is to get help without diretling asking for it. It can be food at a barbeque, thus the name. I have mostly ben BOO BOO, My hiker companions (usually female) have alway surpassed my skills, On my attemped thru of the PCT when most were pushing ahead a few days I decided since my back was hurting I was going to bail where I was at a FS car campground & look for a ride. Cindy, a social butterfly I had been hiking with for a few hundred miles came back to me within two hourss & had me a ride off the mountain,about 30 miles on a dead end road. This family took me out of this remote spot & while we stopped to explore the dry lava falls in the area the wife foound me a ride up north on the highway to where I was going. Should I consider it as trail majic that other people yogied rides for me?
    • Mountain-Mike wrote:

      To me Yoging is to get help without diretling asking for it. It can be food at a barbeque, thus the name. I have mostly ben BOO BOO, My hiker companions (usually female) have alway surpassed my skills, On my attemped thru of the PCT when most were pushing ahead a few days I decided since my back was hurting I was going to bail where I was at a FS car campground & look for a ride. Cindy, a social butterfly I had been hiking with for a few hundred miles came back to me within two hourss & had me a ride off the mountain,about 30 miles on a dead end road. This family took me out of this remote spot & while we stopped to explore the dry lava falls in the area the wife foound me a ride up north on the highway to where I was going. Should I consider it as trail majic that other people yogied rides for me?
      Boo Boo? You better be careful, you might end up with a new trail name. :D
      Lost in the right direction.
    • There's nothing like fresh bread right out of the oven...hhmmmmm
      Kathy used to make all of our bread herself until she started working.
      In fact she got really Pi#%ed at me one day when I offered to by a bread machine.
      She said she enjoyed beating up the dough......I sure wasn't going to argue.
    • Back to Yogiing...last weekend we car camped at a local county park
      As we were retuning to our site from our afternoon walk there was a large group of older people having a picnic under one of the pavilions. I wanted to wander over and start a conversation and see if I could get us invited to the shin-dig. Just to see if I could do it, you understand. But Kathy nixed the whole idea
    • Dmax wrote:

      We need to start a how to yogi thread...

      How To Yogi A Ride To The Beer Store;. Limp to the shoulder of the road with an ace wrap on your knee. Hobble along with thumb either in or out. The more you limp, the faster they stop. :D
      Didn't work for me last week, when the limp was real and the Ace wrap was needed. Then again, I stank. I couldn't stand myself, didn't put a thumb out because I didn't want to inflict that on a driver.
      I'm not lost. I know where I am. I'm right here.