An AT purist can be defined as any hiker (thru or section) who intends to walk every mile of the trail, past every little 2" x 6" white blaze.
Let it be known that I am not a purist.
Blue-blazing can be defined as the act of following any trail detour that is not the AT (usually marked by blue blazes vs. white). Yellow-blazing might be defined more simply as "hitchhiking" - that is, getting a ride to a further point on the trail as opposed to hiking all the way there - and is thusly named because of the yellow lines of the open road.
Basically, as definied by a purist, these methods are what you might call "cheating". That is if there were some kind of actual score kept or rules broken.
Let it be known that I love cheating.
For approximately the last three weeks I have been hiking with my now trail partner/boyfriend (what?!) Voodoo (Shawn), and during this time we have blazed a trail north all our own that would make any purist turn away in horror and disgust.
Since returning from our jaunt in the city, we decided that we would continue our adventure and explore the roads less travelled (by hikers) with a little help from some long-awaited trail maps. Ah, the wonders of cartography. With maps a whole new world of untold civilization is unfolded before your eyes, and a truly straight path from Point A to Point B is finally revealed.
From Kent, CT we meandered by road and trail along the Housatonic River all the way to Cornwall Bridge where we enjoyed an afternoon swim and some free drinks. Then onward we road-walked into Falls Village for some amazing sandwiches and Moxie and hiked into Salisbury that night with nary a place to rest our heads. That is until the amazing and wonderful Olsen family took us into their own home for the night. Finally crossing into Massachusetts, we once again took the shortest path between white blazes where we ran into Del and his not-wife enjoying the day in their front lawn. When we asked for some water, we were given a ride into the nearby town of Great Barrington for some sandwiches and drinks, and then back to the trail again before the rain came down. By far our greatest blue-blaze yet was on the way to Upper Goose Pond Cabin, which involved wading across a brook, bushwhacking through fields of waist-high grass, jumping an electric fence, crossing a cow pasture, strolling down some gravel-paved-gravel roads back into the woods, and finally fording a chest-deep creek just before reaching our destination.
Since that amazing coup de grâce to AT purism we further hitched a ride into Dalton, MA, walked a bike path on a 23 mile slackpack, took a few more roads and another hitch into Bennington, VT and again to Manchester Center, VT where I currently am rushing to finish this blog.
Let it be known that I am not a purist.
Blue-blazing can be defined as the act of following any trail detour that is not the AT (usually marked by blue blazes vs. white). Yellow-blazing might be defined more simply as "hitchhiking" - that is, getting a ride to a further point on the trail as opposed to hiking all the way there - and is thusly named because of the yellow lines of the open road.
Basically, as definied by a purist, these methods are what you might call "cheating". That is if there were some kind of actual score kept or rules broken.
Let it be known that I love cheating.
For approximately the last three weeks I have been hiking with my now trail partner/boyfriend (what?!) Voodoo (Shawn), and during this time we have blazed a trail north all our own that would make any purist turn away in horror and disgust.
Since returning from our jaunt in the city, we decided that we would continue our adventure and explore the roads less travelled (by hikers) with a little help from some long-awaited trail maps. Ah, the wonders of cartography. With maps a whole new world of untold civilization is unfolded before your eyes, and a truly straight path from Point A to Point B is finally revealed.
From Kent, CT we meandered by road and trail along the Housatonic River all the way to Cornwall Bridge where we enjoyed an afternoon swim and some free drinks. Then onward we road-walked into Falls Village for some amazing sandwiches and Moxie and hiked into Salisbury that night with nary a place to rest our heads. That is until the amazing and wonderful Olsen family took us into their own home for the night. Finally crossing into Massachusetts, we once again took the shortest path between white blazes where we ran into Del and his not-wife enjoying the day in their front lawn. When we asked for some water, we were given a ride into the nearby town of Great Barrington for some sandwiches and drinks, and then back to the trail again before the rain came down. By far our greatest blue-blaze yet was on the way to Upper Goose Pond Cabin, which involved wading across a brook, bushwhacking through fields of waist-high grass, jumping an electric fence, crossing a cow pasture, strolling down some gravel-paved-gravel roads back into the woods, and finally fording a chest-deep creek just before reaching our destination.
Since that amazing coup de grâce to AT purism we further hitched a ride into Dalton, MA, walked a bike path on a 23 mile slackpack, took a few more roads and another hitch into Bennington, VT and again to Manchester Center, VT where I currently am rushing to finish this blog.
Basically what all this shortcutting and hitchhiking and random wandering means is, the AT is great and all, but there's so much else out there - people, places, llama farms - that you miss when you restrict yourself to those white blazes. Maybe we're not really thru-hikers (but we are), but we're still awesome, and life is awesome, and adventure is awesome.
So up yours, ATC.
So up yours, ATC.
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