[pct-l] Idiots and Angels

[Rod Belshee]

I had the "pleasure" of calming down one generous trail supporter who runs a business near the trail and accepts hiker packages. When some previous hikers came through they decided that he and his business were putting too much load on the trail, and chose to lecture him pointedly in front of his customers. He tried to move the conversation outside, but they insisted on raising their voices and lecturing him about LNT in his place of business. Good grief! What idiots!  Another hiker not far behind me also spent a couple of hours trying to "mend fences" and together we convinced him that any crowd has a few idiots and thru-hikers are no exception, and not to judge us all by the behavior of a few.

That said, I think thru-hikers will greatly benefit the thru-hiker community if when you discover these kinds of things you do whatever it takes to make it right for our supporters, even if that means some expense of time, money or humility. I get very irate at the "entitlement" attitude of some hikers. I advocate the opposite; be gracious when receiving trail magic, and be ready and willing to pay it back by cleaning up the messes from the few idiots among us.

And I certainly would warn any angels up the trail about idiots behind me. 

Steady
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