Methods

A thru hike is interesting because there are several ways to do it. It's a term officially used to describe someone who walks the whole trail in a single season. You can do it northbound, southbound, flip flop (middle to the north and then middle to the south, or something similar). Some people even do what they call a thru hike over two calendar years, but under 365 days. But the methods people use through their hike mean more than what direction they're going. The AT is marked with white blazes, and purists walk every step on that trail. Some will take a blue-blazed trail, which are various side trails. Actually all take blueblazed trails, even if it's to a water source and then back to all the whites. Some take the "yellow blazed" trail, roads, and cheat a bit. Many people "slackpack" which is having someone else carry (drive or hold) your stuff while you crank out a few miles with, say, only a water bottle as opposed to your 40 lbs of gear. Many hikers are scandalized by other hikers' actions. The point is, by somebody's rules, you've cheated. And by someone else's you haven't. There's no rulebook saying what is or isn't allowed to call yourself a thru hiker. It's all an honor system, and no two honor codes are identical. The trail is significantly different (read: easier) if you have unlimited resources. This is the East Coast we're talking about, and the trail is more a tour of small town Americana than it is "the wilderness". You can do fairly well going hotel to hotel and restaurant to restaurant, especially if you have a faithful friend or spouse to drive you around in a car. I have been walking through 5 different states since the last time I was even in a car, or any other train, plane, or automobiones. I got a ride back from a town in MA, then walked the rest of it, CT, NY, NJ, and am now in PA and haven't even hitched into town. I walked off the trail to the close ones. This couldn't have been done, in my opinion, in Maine, where the towns are so few and then it's several miles from the road crossing to the actual town, where dammed near everyone hitches or gets a prearranged ride to town. As far as I know, no one has thru hiked without at least using a car on a sidetrail to resupply, even if they still walk every white blaze. Again, by someone's rules you've cheated. I haven't paid for lodging since the day after I crossed my first state line, from ME to NH, back in June (Full Disclosure: I've stayed with friends, which is even better than a hotel). Hoteling can change the experience, obviously. But the common expression here is "hike your own hike" and I have and do plenty of things others look down their noses at (21st century titanium pot, safety meetings, mail drops). I really dislike slackpacking but I have mailed things to and from people, which is arguably the same thing (although my retort is that I don't mail it to myself farther down the trail to alleviate weight).

All this comes from where I am in relationship to Northbounders at the moment. I'll do another post later about the locals and the terrain lately but I'm reaching the end of the traffic going the other way. The stragglers I see now are the Nobos who have just partied and yellowblazed their way along so far, and frankly won't make it to Katahdin (northern terminus in Maine) before it closes for the season, usually around October 15. I had heard the AT was more of a party thing than a wilderness trip before, and starting Northbound in March/April is, as there are 15 people in each campsite every night, usually drinking, smoking, etc. Most drop out within a few days, or weeks. Really, the yahoos I'm seeing now are at least dedicated enough to get this far. But asked what insightful lessons about life were learned in their time in the woods, the reply is vague, or if truthful it's "nothing philosophical, I just learned how to do a lot of drugs". This yahooification (definitely also my own term) is also a lamentable byproduct of Burning Man, which a lot of my friends are now prepping for and is in many ways an AT thru hike sped up and compacted into a single week. In both you have the good and bad of a world with no rules, where people help each other in ways that renew your faith in humanity and which seems to come at a cost that's difficult to describe but is painfully obvious from certain perspectives. It kills me that every privy has posted somewhere "please do not throw plastic, cans, or other trash in the toliet."