ENOUGH: I'm calling out this serious problem in the Thru Hiking Community

Thru hikers have a problem. Enough with the fear maaaaaan.

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[SteffenThomsen]

I have heard that if you say "Dan Becker" 5 times into a mirror, it adds 5 pounds to your base weight.

[generalmartok]

I'd say there's a fine line between fearmongering and just giving people a head's up about something. Unfortunately, a lot of people panic even then when they're just getting factual information about a situation, and it's hard to control what they do in response. You just have to worry about yourself and know your own comfort zone.

[kristymoore]

If I had a dollar for everyone who told me how dangerous backpacking is especially solo, especially because I’m female and especially because I’m old, I’d be very rich. On another note, once in Oregon in massive mosquito season I could not find a cut off trail to a lake I wanted to camp at. Got lots of useless and very wrong directions from other hikers. Bought a Garmin.

[PatrioticGma]

Years ago, as a beginner backpacker, I had an older man in his late 60s tell me I could never do the JMT bc it was too hard and too advanced, let alone do it solo. He added that I definitely couldn’t do it solo. This is after finishing passage 1 of the AZT in one day…as a beginner. So I did it! Solo! Had to get off bc of a sinus infection, but I was doing it!

[marcsorensen]

this goes both ways, i was in my backyard {desolation wilderness} in early spring, i came across a pct hiker group on top of dicks pass. this group walked straight out on to the cornice peaked over the edge and proceeded to talk about leaving the trail and sliding down the snowfield. i mentioned how it was unsafe to chill on the lip of the cornice. they just looked at me dismissive and continued chatting, my point is the truth is somewhere in the middle. there is such a thing as too adventurous as well as too cautious.

[helpfulcommenter]

It wasn't fear-mongering but I heard from hikers in Idyllwild that a bunch of people got sick from the Warner Springs Community Center spigot, which was supposed to be potable. They were just all having the same issues and trying to figure out what the common element was. Like when two out of six people who ate at the same cookout get sick and only after discussing it do they both realize they ate the potato salad.

Anyway - I also got sick on trail in the days after Warner Springs and I realized it was probably because of the spigot at the community center. I'd been thinking it must have been the sausage from the gas station. Which was awesome. And I was glad to find out that it probably wasn't the sausage.

Oh - and if you're in Warner Springs, I recommend filtering the water from the community center spigot. And I highly recommend the sausages made by local sausage genius Mad Mike, sold at the gas station. LOL

[helpfulcommenter]

I will tell you that having hiked most of the PCT this summer, there are A LOT of very inexperienced people on trail. I met a guy on trail the first day who said he'd never used his water filter before. This was halfway up Morena Butte where he'd already run out of water.
I continued to meet very inexperienced hikers all along the way. I attribute this to the rise in popularity of backpacking due to social media channels (here and IG mostly) making it look easy. And to be honest, it's a lot easier now than it was when I was in my 20s (pre social media) - the reliance on Trail Angels via Facebook by people in their 20s is kind of appalling to me. For rides, places to stay, DOING LAUNDRY... lol.

It's like a bunch of children.

I think this is one factor in why fear mongering might seem like a problem. For someone my age who has been doing this longer than a lot of the younger hikers I met have been alive, I never felt "fear-mongered" because I know what's what. I think the less experience you have, the more you're susceptible to "fear mongering" because you simply don't know any better. There's just so many people who have yet to experience real world, real life, challenges. Their whole existence has been with a smart phone in their hand, and in online forums and on social media platforms. So their understanding of reality is so skewed that when reality rears its ugly head, they panic, spread fear, and believe fearful rumors.

It's kinda sad.

[andm]

I heard several people got sick from not subscribing to this channel.

[Jazmin_Ortega]

I very much agree with you here. I had a similar situation happen in 2019 when a trail angel in Washington was telling people on FB to "go home" because there was a snowstorm coming to the northern Cascades. I was in Stevens Pass at the time and I'm glad I didn't listen because yeah, hiking in knee-deep snow sucked, but I still finished and hikers finished behind even weeks later. There's a big difference between something being uncomfortable and being dangerous. It pissed me off that someone who wasn't even on trail was giving this advice based on weather reports and not on-the-ground conditions, and without accounting for hikers' experience and risk assessment. The best thing to do in these cases is to check things out for yourself and make your own decisions.

[kristinedgerton]

So true! I was watching IBTAT on the John Freakin’ Muir Podcast the other day and he was talking about that and how when he got to the northern part of the PCT people were telling him he shouldn’t go, it was too dangerous. He said he needed to see it with his own eyes. He wasn’t going to risk his life, he’d turn back if he found it was necessary, but he wasn’t going to take the word of some hikers. He said it was fine. So yeah, I believe it. Thanks for putting this out there.

[michaelb]

There's 2 sides to this. I've seen several people who really didn't belong on the PCT who were out there on their 1st hikes because they watched Wild. I've also been told I'm irresponsible for hiking by myself, hiking without an InReach, hiking off trail, etc. Personally, I try to just state the facts of what I've seen or hiked through with little or no commentary unless asked for my opinion.

[safromnc]

Just another fine example as to why I am not on FB, never have been, never will be. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

[tboneoutdoors]

I remember I was 10yrs old in the late 70’s, there were rumors about a van full of clowns driving around kidnapping kids. Scared the crap out of me! Damn fear mongering!

[michaellundphotography]

I learned what’s best is just to describe the conditions on trail… like the river is 60ft wide, 2 feet deep, maybe 35° and moving maybe 15mph. That way you can decide if that’s going to be a problem for you or not.

[justrusty]

I was hiking through Southern VA and I heard that people got sick from drinking from a water tap at the Settler's Museum of Southern Virginia. I never did find out if that was real or not. I stayed there but got water from the schoolhouse. Struck me as unlikely that a developed water source like that would be the source of sickness - maybe hiker's transmitting something via the spigot maybe.

A few miles away there WAS a problem with deer carcasses left by hunters upstream of where the trail crossed. Lots of warning signs out about it. That to me seems more likely to be the source of the illness throughout the area. So sometimes the info is real but like a game of telephone, it gets transformed with each retelling.

[JavaScripting]

I heard there’s an aggressive bear up ahead on the trail, might wanna watch out. Maybe just get a ride to Maine.

[mg.]

Fear mongering about wildfires on the PCT can get really bad because it detracts from when wildfires really are an issue. It's hard to get real time info on conditions, but I wasted many hours trying to plan out the last section of trail (Nobo 2021) after there was so much fear mongering about a fire in Mazama. Turns out it was not a big deal. However, some fires like the Dixie Fire were very much a big deal.

[pctjohn]

I think I’ve figured out the reason for fear mongering. Nobody wants to be alone when quitting, they’re trying to get others to quit with them plus the fear keeps getting bigger to justify them being quitters. I have a dream of the PCT in April ‘25 (retirement) . Serious injury or death is what it’s gonna take to get me to quit. No cheating either.

[danielkutcher]

I had a salesjerk at the NOC tell me that I needed BOOTS to hike the AT when I stopped in to buy a new pair of trail runners last spring. I had 200 miles on the worn-out shoes BEFORE I hit the trail at AFSP. I have been distance hiking in trail runners since the turn of the century. I was 68 years old at the time and carry a light pack (which the salesperson never saw or questioned me about). I also worked for REI in the mid 1980s.
Lesson for salesjerk salespeople:
Qualify your customer by asking questions before giving ignorant advice.
Oh, yeah, this salesman wasn't exactly a kid, either. Maybe he just had wimpy old man ankle muscles.
I was in the middle of a 275 mile section hike. I completed the 2, 000 plus mile AT hike last month.
I'm planning a thruhike next year. 😉
I will be turning 70 in July

[hikingmovie]

Just ran into this on a thru hike last week. We were told water sources were ‘bone dry’ for over 13 miles. We stocked up on lbs of water that we got out of a sketchy mud puddle. There were actually plenty of good water sources every mile or so. The rest of the hike we laughed everytime we saw a ‘bone dry’ stream. It sucked because we drank sketchy water and carried a lot of water over mountains because of fear mongering.