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100 Tips for Prospective 2017 AT Thru-hikers

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    • SandyofPA wrote:

      Datto wrote:

      WanderingStovie wrote:

      Ah, that's why we have activist shareholders.
      Yesterday while making homemade strawberry ice cream here at the Cabin, a visiting five year old climbed a step stool and pointedly demanded and received complete obedience from the Doberman Pinscher.
      A future CxO if I'm not mistaken.


      Datto
      Naw, Dobies just love kids!
      I'll testify to that.
      I may grow old but I'll never grow up.

    • AnotherKevin wrote:

      Datto wrote:

      What I don't like are control-freak people like televangelists. The lavish lifestyles, the cost structure and zero tolerance preaching across the airwaves leading to only one way of thinking -- that's the part I dislike. Jerry Falwell is the singular image for all of that -- even before he became directly involved in politics.
      A lot of religious control freaks - the followers, rather than the leaders, many of whom are simply psychopathic - come from the position of, "if enough people don't worship MY way, or conform to MY God's rules, then He might withdraw his favour from the whole society." The Falwell claim that 9/11 was Divine retribution for the prevalence of homosexuality is playing to that sort of thinking.
      I say that a God who is petty enough to punish me for my neighbour's beliefs and actions is a God I can't bring myself to worship. If that God turns out to be the Guy in Charge, I'll defy Him all the way into the fire. (Fortunately, my belief is that the Guy who Owns the Place is nothing at all like that.)
      You probably like the story of Lot better than the story of Jonah. The Israelites were punished collectively for the sins of a few, if I remember correctly. I would have to go digging for examples.
      I am human and I need to be loved - just like everybody else does

    • Back to Tip 63: AT Thru-hiking And The Business Cycle from Datto's Tips v2.0.

      Updated ISM and Initial Jobless Claims numbers were released this morning. Initial Jobless Claims are 251,500 for the four-week moving average (which is still very good -- the four-week moving average rounds out the peaks and valleys). The ISM updated number is 53.2 (also very good -- anything below 50 is bad). These are two of the canaries in the coalmine indicating the likely health of the economy in coming months. The Federal Reserve will set interest rates during the December 13-14 meeting so that will be even more important. Best outcome will be to have rates remains as-is for now until the next administration has a chance to move forward. In any case, churn and fluff is all that's going to happen through the holidays so judging economic action by holiday numbers, as it relates to AT thru-hike timing, probably isn't the best option (holiday periods are usually strong due to seasonal shopping). January, February and March of 2017 will likely be more of a tell.

      On the chart shown directly below, Initial Jobless Claims are shown for the last 50 years (recession periods are shown in blue at the bottom along the timeline axis). The importance of the yellow lines illustrate when a recession happens, the badness arrives very quickly. Initial Jobless Claims head steeply toward the 400,000 level as a possible tipoff a recession is looming. Note the government will not know a recession has hit for at least six months after the recession has started, so you can't rely on the government for predictions. Also, in almost every case during past recessions, the citizenry and the politicians have been in complete denial about a recession happening -- it's the head-in-the-sand view of the world during past recessions.

      As stated previously, the reason why Tip 63 is important to you as a prospective AT thru-hiker is you don't want to return from an AT thru-hike to find the country has fallen into a recession -- that would make finding a job after your AT thru-hike exceedingly difficult and could cause financial catastrophe for some. This is why it's important to pay attention to the economic canaries in the coalmine -- and be cautious about the timing of an AT thru-hike. Notice the somewhat regularity of recessions happening over the course of the last 50 years? That doesn't necessarily mean a recession is looming but adds to the cautious perspective.


      Datto

    • Also relating to Tip 63: Business Cycle vs AT Thru-hike Timing

      In the case of the timing of my AT thru-hike, the badness of a looming recession didn't start until after I was already on the AT heading north. I was so ready to leave that job and do something different -- the idea of a looming recession probably wouldn't have deterred me from starting my AT thru-hike. Upon returning to the workforce after my AT thru-hike, I just squeaked into getting another job before anyone noticed a bad thing was starting in the economy. This may be true for 2017 Prospective AT Thru-hikers also -- so ready to go and going regardless of any other situation -- but getting an idea of what may lay ahead is still important before showing up to Springer Mountain, GA next Spring.

      In the case of my long stretch of hiking the PCT, the indications of a looming recession (the Great Recession) didn't occur until about 5-6 months after I'd arrived back from the PCT. Again, as with the AT, I would just squeak into getting another job before anyone would notice looming dark clouds on the economic horizon. I would likely have done that long section of the PCT anyhow since that was a low-snow year on the PCT and I wouldn't have given up the opportunity (no snow was on Forrester Pass on the PCT when I crossed it). For someone who is a relatively slow hiker like me, doing a long stretch of the PCT during a low snow year was crucial to being able to eventually complete the PCT.

      All of the rest of the adventures I've taken since my AT thru-hike didn't bump up against a recession so finding a job afterward wasn't that big of a deal for me (I'd already had my Career Pie Slice doing well).


      Datto

      The post was edited 5 times, last by Datto ().

    • meat wrote:

      Datto, do you know if you'd have to get permission due to copywriter and the intolectual property laws to one day publish all this.
      Ha, publishing. Mostly Census Bureau and Department Of Labor information for the economics. It's the singing lessons I'm planning on offering now that the chickens are almost back to normal egg production -- the singing could present a problem. Oh come on everyone, join me... "Now that the skies are clearing, put on a happy face...". Excellent. How many of you would say you sing in English fairly well, but with a some difficulty? Great, great.


      Datto

    • LIhikers wrote:

      I speak American, which is only loosely related to English, the Queens English I mean.
      And as for singing, you should hear me in the shower !
      Visualizing it was enough for me thank you very much. :D
      ...but hey, you sounded pretty good! Though I didn't know you were a Yanni fan :D

      The post was edited 3 times, last by Socks ().

    • WanderingStovie wrote:

      Do they speak English in Queens?
      I got to use that line once. I was working at NBC with a contractor from the UK who was facing quite a language barrier with the operations people (who included among others a bunch of Cypriot-Americans from Astoria, a bunch of Haredi Jews from Borough Park, and a bunch of Puertorriqueños from East New York - in short, the usual sort of New York City mix). Eventually he sighed and said to nobody in particular, "Can't anyone in this entire city speak the Queen's English?" I answered (imagine a Queens accent here...), "I can! I was born in Queens!"

      Rhys was not amused. Carlos, Ioannis and Yaakov all thought it was hilarious.
      I'm not lost. I know where I am. I'm right here.

    • WanderingStovie wrote:

      AnotherKevin wrote:

      Datto wrote:

      What I don't like are control-freak people like televangelists. The lavish lifestyles, the cost structure and zero tolerance preaching across the airwaves leading to only one way of thinking -- that's the part I dislike. Jerry Falwell is the singular image for all of that -- even before he became directly involved in politics.
      A lot of religious control freaks - the followers, rather than the leaders, many of whom are simply psychopathic - come from the position of, "if enough people don't worship MY way, or conform to MY God's rules, then He might withdraw his favour from the whole society." The Falwell claim that 9/11 was Divine retribution for the prevalence of homosexuality is playing to that sort of thinking.I say that a God who is petty enough to punish me for my neighbour's beliefs and actions is a God I can't bring myself to worship. If that God turns out to be the Guy in Charge, I'll defy Him all the way into the fire. (Fortunately, my belief is that the Guy who Owns the Place is nothing at all like that.)
      You probably like the story of Lot better than the story of Jonah. The Israelites were punished collectively for the sins of a few, if I remember correctly. I would have to go digging for examples.
      I missed the original statement above RE God and don't know who made it...just want to say...you didn't create it and you don't make the rules...if God thinks like us punny humans it would be a terrible shame.
      Read carefully and you will see that nations are blessed or cursed according to their leadership....Isreal given three(?) of famine because Saul persecuted the Gibeonites, 70,000 died because of Davids actions, everyone over 20 died in the wilderness because the 12 (leaders of each tribe) brought back a bad report when they spied out the land.
      I may grow old but I'll never grow up.

    • Sex during an AT thru-hike

      Sex during an AT thru-hike.

      Well yes, it happens. It's unfortunate. Too bad for everyone involved. There are simply no morals anymore with people. All of these people, every one of them, will go to Hell in a handbasket.

      That was my Jerry Falwell impersonation. Thank you, good crowd. I'll be here all week. Please remember your waiters and waitresses -- they're here for you.

      People who are thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail have all day long to think about anything they wish to think about.

      Guess what? Gender neutral, age neutral, they're thinking about sex some of the time.

      A couple three years ago some guy had asked in a forum about what kind of action there was on an AT thru-hike. Someone had asked him what he'd meant. He'd responded he was interested in how much possibility there was for sex on an AT thru-hike.

      I had laughed so much. I 'd checked out his profile and he was, by my best guess from his picture, 5'-4" tall. I know women who would knock that guy to the ground, use and degrade him and then hang him upside-down naked from the rafters of a shelter. Then do a 20 miler just to round out the day without breathing hard.

      Thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail for six months is not clubbing for a man. It's not a hook-up at a bar for the usual twenty-something.

      Lots of romance actually happens lasting past Katahdin. No one starts out actually looking for romance to happen. It just does. To the great long-term benefit of AT thru-hikers.

      It's just not something to predict. It's something to enjoy if it happens.


      Datto

    • Speaking of sex on a long-distance hike...

      My hiking partner on the PCT and I had arrive at a road crossing and my hiking partner had said, "Let go into someplace and get some beer."

      Of course, I categorically said no.

      So soon we were hitching into town to get some beer.

      Some dude in a Subaru picked us up and took us downhill toward civilization. We got dropped off at what looked like civilization and the driver had said, "Find the bridge across the river and wait there."

      So we'd exited the car, found the bridge and waited on the bridge over the river. A big sign said on the other side of the bridge had stated someone would come to greet visitors at 11:00am. We'd arrive at 10:00am so it was just sit around and wait for the other set of doors to open.

      After a while I had been looking downstream from the bridge for something to do and had said to my hiking partner, "Hey, I think there someone down there with his azz hanging out." My hiking partner looked and the guy had landed into a stone surrounded pool of water off the main stream. My hiking partner had said, "Where? Where is the guy with the azz?". Of course, I'd pointed off the bridge toward the suspect location and it was just a bunch of people sitting in a pool off the main stream.

      I was still naive about life in northern California.

      No idea whatsoever. A novice. Clueless.

      Next thing you know, a woman showed up to unlock the doors on the other side of the bridge across the river. She said, "You can go in now."

      Great, my hiking partner and I head downhill like the hikers we were and arrived at the building where there was supposed to be food to be purchased. The food people weren't quite ready for dispensing food yet so my hiking partner and I waited in what appeared to be a lobby of some sort.

      Lots of people in robes waltz by. A woman stark raving naked briefly skims by and I think I'm hallucinating from not having enough water. It's a very dry section of the PCT so I am accepting of conditions to which I am not aware.

      I am still not attuned to the situation beyond questioning why there would be so many people out here in the middle of nowhere in the boondocks by the PCT. The food line finally opens up and I give my hiking partner a twenty dollar bill to go over and get us each some sandwiches. We are so, so tired of peanut butter crackers -- anything different would taste great.

      A woman came over to talk to me and asks what we're doing there and I respond that we're hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. She asks questions and I explain the business of the PCT going from Mexico to Canada and we were on the way northward.

      Her robe parts and she tells me that is so interesting. The PCT hiking that is.

      See, here is where I say the absolute best line ever uttered by any long-distance hiker in the history of long-distance hiking.

      I say to the woman with parted robe, "I'm just here for the sandwiches."


      Datto

    • Well the food arrived and we took the sandwiches outside to a table and chairs. Turned out there were groups of people with the open robe policy. Huh. So it wasn't just for me.

      While I'm eating my sandwich I'm thinking to myself, "how can these people walk around naked all day?" and the naked people are thinking, "how can those two stuff that much food into their face at one time?"

      Still couldn't get enough food and it was going to be a hundred in California dollars to get filled up so we got a ride down the mountain to find a pizza. Ended up way off-trail and I had to memorize landmarks along the dirt roads so we had a hope of finding our way back. Having a woman along sure does make hitchhiking so much easier.


      Datto

    • Datto wrote:

      Speaking of sex on a long-distance hike...

      My hiking partner on the PCT and I had arrive at a road crossing and my hiking partner had said, "Let go into someplace and get some beer."

      Of course, I categorically said no.

      So soon we were hitching into town to get some beer.

      Some dude in a Subaru picked us up and took us downhill toward civilization. We got dropped off at what looked like civilization and the driver had said, "Find the bridge across the river and wait there."

      So we'd exited the car, found the bridge and waited on the bridge over the river. A big sign said on the other side of the bridge had stated someone would come to greet visitors at 11:00am. We'd arrive at 10:00am so it was just sit around and wait for the other set of doors to open.

      After a while I had been looking downstream from the bridge for something to do and had said to my hiking partner, "Hey, I think there someone down there with his azz hanging out." My hiking partner looked and the guy had landed into a stone surrounded pool of water off the main stream. My hiking partner had said, "Where? Where is the guy with the azz?". Of course, I'd pointed off the bridge toward the suspect location and it was just a bunch of people sitting in a pool off the main stream.

      I was still naive about life in northern California.

      No idea whatsoever. A novice. Clueless.

      Next thing you know, a woman showed up to unlock the doors on the other side of the bridge across the river. She said, "You can go in now."

      Great, my hiking partner and I head downhill like the hikers we were and arrived at the building where there was supposed to be food to be purchased. The food people weren't quite ready for dispensing food yet so my hiking partner and I waited in what appeared to be a lobby of some sort.

      Lots of people in robes waltz by. A woman stark raving naked briefly skims by and I think I'm hallucinating from not having enough water. It's a very dry section of the PCT so I am accepting of conditions to which I am not aware.

      I am still not attuned to the situation beyond questioning why there would be so many people out here in the middle of nowhere in the boondocks by the PCT. The food line finally opens up and I give my hiking partner a twenty dollar bill to go over and get us each some sandwiches. We are so, so tired of peanut butter crackers -- anything different would taste great.

      A woman came over to talk to me and asks what we're doing there and I respond that we're hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. She asks questions and I explain the business of the PCT going from Mexico to Canada and we were on the way northward.

      Her robe parts and she tells me that is so interesting. The PCT hiking that is.

      See, here is where I say the absolute best line ever uttered by any long-distance hiker in the history of long-distance hiking.

      I say to the woman with parted robe, "I'm just here for the sandwiches."


      Datto
      If you guys have time to read this all I can say is.....get a life.
      I may grow old but I'll never grow up.

    • Drybones wrote:

      Datto wrote:

      Speaking of sex on a long-distance hike...

      My hiking partner on the PCT and I had arrive at a road crossing and my hiking partner had said, "Let go into someplace and get some beer."

      Of course, I categorically said no.

      So soon we were hitching into town to get some beer.

      Some dude in a Subaru picked us up and took us downhill toward civilization. We got dropped off at what looked like civilization and the driver had said, "Find the bridge across the river and wait there."

      So we'd exited the car, found the bridge and waited on the bridge over the river. A big sign said on the other side of the bridge had stated someone would come to greet visitors at 11:00am. We'd arrive at 10:00am so it was just sit around and wait for the other set of doors to open.

      After a while I had been looking downstream from the bridge for something to do and had said to my hiking partner, "Hey, I think there someone down there with his azz hanging out." My hiking partner looked and the guy had landed into a stone surrounded pool of water off the main stream. My hiking partner had said, "Where? Where is the guy with the azz?". Of course, I'd pointed off the bridge toward the suspect location and it was just a bunch of people sitting in a pool off the main stream.

      I was still naive about life in northern California.

      No idea whatsoever. A novice. Clueless.

      Next thing you know, a woman showed up to unlock the doors on the other side of the bridge across the river. She said, "You can go in now."

      Great, my hiking partner and I head downhill like the hikers we were and arrived at the building where there was supposed to be food to be purchased. The food people weren't quite ready for dispensing food yet so my hiking partner and I waited in what appeared to be a lobby of some sort.

      Lots of people in robes waltz by. A woman stark raving naked briefly skims by and I think I'm hallucinating from not having enough water. It's a very dry section of the PCT so I am accepting of conditions to which I am not aware.

      I am still not attuned to the situation beyond questioning why there would be so many people out here in the middle of nowhere in the boondocks by the PCT. The food line finally opens up and I give my hiking partner a twenty dollar bill to go over and get us each some sandwiches. We are so, so tired of peanut butter crackers -- anything different would taste great.

      A woman came over to talk to me and asks what we're doing there and I respond that we're hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. She asks questions and I explain the business of the PCT going from Mexico to Canada and we were on the way northward.

      Her robe parts and she tells me that is so interesting. The PCT hiking that is.

      See, here is where I say the absolute best line ever uttered by any long-distance hiker in the history of long-distance hiking.

      I say to the woman with parted robe, "I'm just here for the sandwiches."


      Datto
      If you guys have time to read this all I can say is.....get a life.
      or get a job and read it at work, :D that way your at least getting paid to read it.

    • Da Wolf wrote:

      why didn't you bang the broad that parted her robe?
      Ha, now that cracked me up.

      Already had a girlfriend -- one is plenty of fun, robe or no robe. Two is trouble.

      Finally found that place on Google Maps -- Stewart Mineral Springs Retreat. Prospective long-distance hikers should know long-distance hiking is not always nose to the grindstone everyday. Evidently there's a new clothing-optional policy at the retreat:

      Clothing Optional Policy
      Our Clothing Optional Policy Changed on November 1, 2016.
      In an effort to make Stewart Mineral Springs more accessible and comfortable for everyone to enjoy the wonderful benefits of our waters, it will no longer be “clothing optional” in the sauna, deck and creek. Beginning November 1, 2016, we request that people use their sheets, sarongs, bathing suit or towels in these areas.

      Google satellite view -- bridge on lower side over the creek, greenish/yellow deck area with umbrella table where we had lunch and gawked that day -- the people there had all-over tans. I did too under my clothes but my all-over tan clogged drains:

      google.com/maps/place/Stewart+…!3d41.419678!4d-122.50394


      Datto

      The post was edited 5 times, last by Datto ().