LIhikers wrote:
Hey Matt,
Could you please tell us where to find these hiking "RULES" that you are referring to ? Thanks for your help in setting us all straight.
Sure some people stayed in a hostel or 2 hear and there, but they were far and few in between compared to what's going on now with people staying inside and eating in fine dining and other establishments (Everyone is sight seeing not hiking, which is that's what all anyone is doing now which BTW this NEW method of getting through the trail has only surfaced in the past 6 years.
You can blame the hostel and trail angels for this mess because they saw this generation of babies (They have everything handed to them, and skate through difficult things with ease) and turned it into a for profit business.
Lets talk about the hundred mile wilderness which had no resupply points at all, and those signs which have a warning on them about don't go through here without at least 10 day supply of food and water because there is no resupply points, now has 3 of them thanks to hostel owners thus destroying the entire section of how that was done. Just remove those signs because they have absolutely no point anymore.
The trail before this crap it has turned into was an actual challenge that only a very select few could do, now coddles people. Hell there is talk about trail angels setting up shop in there. What was once a challenge is now a playground at recess where no one has to have any hiking experience at all can do because all they have to do is whip out their credit card or just go to an ATM and pay for whatever they want.
People who understand hiking (actual hiker) are completely disgusted with the shitshow the entire trail has turned into. The babies who want to argue, disagree, make excuses and say get with the times, are the problem. BTW everything I said above about how the trail was being done between the 1970's-the early 2000's has been very thoroughly documented.
Anyone that claims to be a thru-hiker needs to be forced to do the trail how it was back in the 1970's do that and watch what happens.
The fact you even have to ask what you did shows you're either totally clueless or one of those defending this crap. You cannot take the current pay-your-way through method people are using to get through the trail, and wipe out the 30+ year required method as if the brad new method has always been used. That isn't how things work
Anyone not doing the trail the way it was back in the 1970's-the early 2000's isn't hiking the trail.