Date: 2005-07-08
From: Hanover,NH

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Traveller's Tales (7/8/05) (Hanover,NH)        Most of the people you will meet on the trail will be fellow travellers, just as if you'd encountered them on an airliner or at a hostel. Exceptions will be people doing trail maintenance, those taking a stroll, running the trail, or out hunting from the immediate area. How you interact with your fellow travellers depends on many factors but since it can be hours or days between encounters, each is special, and at a minimum you always exchange greetings. Beyond that. the most important factor is probably the direction they're headed. If they're headed in the same direction, did they catch up to you, or you them? If they caught up to you, they're faster, and it's their choice of whether to slow down for awhile and talk, or just blow by you and leave you in the dust. Similarly, if they're stopped - eating, resting, or at a view - it's your choice of whether to stop too. If you're going in the same direction, and the conversation goes beyond "hi", the next step might be "where did you stay last night?", "when did you start (the entire hike)?" and sometimes even "do you know where we are?". But if you or they are in the mood, a "traveller's tale" may be offered up. It may be a debacle (I stood hitching a ride into town for two hours, at a place that was supposed to be an "easy hitch.", a fiasco (something even worse), an epic (a close call?), or something otherwise strange or unusual. Personally I never think I have "prepared marerial" ready to use, but find that the encounter sometimes causes a tale to emerge fully formed, surprising even myself. Sometimes the other party is just starting their hike and doesn't think they have anything current to offer, but a tidbit from a prior adventure or experience will still be greatly received.        For hikers going in opposite directions, there's a different dynamic: first, both sides have to agree to stop for awhile,but there's also more opportunity for valuable information exchange. Someone just saw a rattlesnake on the rocks and it's probably still there, there's trillium (a flower) by the stream just ahead, or a particular shelter, hostel or blue-blazed (side) trail is terrific. I someimes ask is there's a public library in the town I'm planning to go into, and if so, is it easy to get to (a few blocks vs. a couple of miles?). Perhaps the best information offered to me came as I was approaching Boiling Springs, PA, where there's an ATC (Appalachian Trail Conference) office. When I asked about the grocery store's location, I was told by a couple that they hadn't gone to that store, but that the ATC office had a bicycle that you could borrow to go there. After saying "hi" to the person in the ATC office, my next query was, "I heard there might be a bicycle I could borrow to go to the grocery store?". Yes, it was around the back. When I told the person in the office that I had returned the bike (after a mile back and forth to the store) they said I was the first person to use it this season. This means that the couple who gave me the valuable information hadn't themselves benefitted from it in any way.        What can go wrong with this information-exchange process? The time of day can be a problem. When you meet someone first thing in the morning, before either of you have any miles under your belts, there can be a reluctance to already stop walking and start talking. Late in the day, sometimes you just want to get where you're going. Or one person can be on a long decline, and the other on a long climb, and so have different mindsets. If you've already met four groups of people today, and then you meet a fifth,and you're possibly the first person they've met, they may be eager for interaction, while you may have already had your fill. This happened to me on the 4th of July,and I'm ashamed to say that I took a partial step away every so often, to try to give them a hint that I wanted to continue on my way; They were openly resentful, saying they thought "northbound hikers are always in a hurry". A single woman sometimes seems uncomfortable talking to a single man, even if the woman has one or more dogs on her. They might say that they have to go because they're meeting someone somewhere just ahead.                To break off the interaction, one person's long statement or question might be followed by something short from the other person. I was rebuffed twice in a row by a man and a woman running up a small mountain in Vermont, about five minutes apart, using the technique of not appearing to have heard my question. (This must have been their pre-planned strategy!) I asked, "Hi! How many miles do you run on the trail?" and got the reply, "Hi. Have a nice day", followed by (me again), "Hi! How far do you run on the trail?", and then, not surprisiingly, "Hi. Have a good one!" from the second person.        This is an ancient process. If we were on an Asian trade route a thousand years ago, wouldn't it be similar? More travelling may have been done in groups,but might not the leaders of one caravan interact with another similarly? You'd be less trusting than we are now, though. (There may even be bandits, which fortunately are not a problem an the Appalachian Trail!) I'd imagine that a lot of the discussion would be about where to get provisions, or who would pay them a fair price for their goods (should I be carrying goods??).