Unwritten Rules on the Appalachian Trail

[Music] hello again everybody today I want to go over some of the unwritten / maybe written rules the trail hoping that this might give the 2019 hikers a little heads-up on certain things that that happened out there that you know if you already know about you're not gonna have to be concerned with it first thing I'm going to talk about is do not discuss politics or religion people go onto the trail to get away from the matrix or the hustle-bustle of life believe me one of the most exhilarating things I found out on the trail last year when I got out there was that I was completely shut off from politics you just get so sick of everything on the TV the newspaper the radio you know just this this this and you just get sick of it and out there it's not there it's not there for a reason because people don't discuss politics or religion so if you keep it that way no matter how passionate you are about your beliefs other people are not out there to discuss that stuff so keep it to yourself and it'll make your hike much more enjoyable trust me second thing I want to talk about a little bit as a shelter and shelter medication and when you get to a shelter really take the amount of space in the shelter that you need for your sleeping pad and sleeping bag because other people might be coming in and one sleep in that space especially if it's raining or snowing outside so you know leave that space for them and as people come in like if there's two people they're gonna be on one end want to be on the other but as people come in you know make sure that you give them that for that space that's available it's just a common courtesy and the other thing on that is if you are that person that's coming in later and they're the shelter is full and you're the one that's there late don't expect people to scrunch up and sleep on top of each other because you just happen to show up late not gonna happen just go ahead and pitch your tent and you know sleep the night out in your tent the matter what the weather is whatever your sleeping system might be the other thing on that is noise when you're coming into a shelter even if there is space available and you're coming in late it's dark outside or people are asleep or whatever be as quiet as you can don't be talking to your friends or waking people up or you know clanking stuff and what it would be just be as quiet as you can and that's that's basically common courtesy one of the other things about shelter has to do with women and privacy you know give women the privacy that they need if you see that a woman needs to change her clothes she might even in the trailer say hey I'm changing over here and the common thing courtesy thing to do is turn your back no matter what you're doing drop your stuff write whatever you need to do and turn your back and let them you know get their their privacy you know some of them will be doing the sleeping bag change you know crunch down in their sleeping bag trying to change and you know that's not an easy thing to do but you know turn your back and give them that privacy it's just it's just the right thing to do same thing out on the trail you know I walked up on a few women that you know we're leaving themselves on the side of the trail just stop turn your back say hey I'm here let me know when you're done and you know they're embarrassed and but you know give them that courtesy privacy when it comes to this or anything Oh hike will midnight I don't actually know what - midnight is some people say at seven o'clock same Thursday's a drop some good pace and says nine o'clock hiker midnight to me is when the first person who decides to lay down and go to sleep so whether that means for me it was you know I was always want to get to sleepers or up and rest but don't be making a bunch of noise in the shelter or even in your tent and talking amongst each other from 10:00 to 10:00 and all that stuff once it gets passed out some other people are trying to sleep you know so just keep it down if you have some stuff to discuss and people are at the shelter talking and nobody's sleeping in there and that's all well I'm fine you know that everybody has a good time but when it comes time to set it down you know settle down no need to be making too much noise when you're coming into a area where you're gonna maybe pitch your tent there's you one of the first ones there's hardly just a few people there and there's a bunch of spots to fit your tip and go ahead and pitch your tent in a spot that is away from other tents that are already pitched meaning if somebody has gotten there early and it's gotten the flattest prime spot and the next flattest prime spot is right next to theirs don't pitch your tent right next to theirs you know tent walls are really not realized at all and you rolling over in your bag you snoring or whatever is going to disturb them go ahead and get your find another spot somewhere else pitch your tent a little bit away from them so everybody gets their privacy even in their tent I've even had you know people pitch their tent so close to mine when there was plenty of room over there the guy wires were crossing you know it's just not right so give the other people the privacy that this just was again common courtesy nice thing to do another thing about pitching your tent and hanging your bear bag when you get to a spot so you're the first one there hang your bear bag outside the tenting area in case there are other people that come up there that want to tent even though you know you don't want to take away somebody's tent spot because you have your bear bag over my spot you never know how many people are going to come into the shelter and don't hang your bag over somebody's or around somebody else's tent let's just mean to do that it's almost like putting the carrot out in front of a bear you know I've seen it don't do it make sure that you find the right place to hang your bag don't do it over around yours or somebody else's tent next thing I want to talk about a little bit is vlogging etiquette there's it looks like there's a lot of vloggers out there this year or people that are just taking videos for themselves or Airmen maybe so when you walk up onto a an overlook or a place extreme there somewhere where somebody's videotaping just be quiet and let them finish their video tape that usually not gonna last more than 10 to 30 seconds and let them do their thing so you're not talking in the background of their video and on the other side of that if you are videotaping and you walk up on to an area where there are some people and you're gonna start videotaping or even taking pictures don't do that without asking somebody first if it's okay for them to be there is it okay for you to be in my video some people don't want to don't want to be on a video and I only had that happen a couple of times but you know what happens some people don't want to be in somebody else's video and I can completely understand that and that's completely up to them and that's once again common courtesy type of thing next thing I want to go over little uphill downhill you are trucked in up the hill and whatever it may be you start to get into a rhythm where you're stabilizing your heart rate going at a speed that your heart rate is standing it and a good rate and you get into a rhythm so you come up on to a micro that's going down here that hiker that's going uphill has the right-of-way so give that hiker the courtesy of the right away and step aside say come on up now if the hiker that's going uphill stops and says oh no no please come down I need a break but the hiker going uphill has the right away and it's when you're going down it's a lot easier to stop and you know break your rhythm than it is if you're going up because so you know uphill downhill the other thing I want to talk about is is your music wear headphones for your musics for your podcast whatever it is that you may listen to the pristine environment of the trail is what a lot of people get out there for not to listen to your disco your hip-hop your reggae whatever it may be that you like somebody else might not like it so just put your earphones in and don't last in no matter how is how light it is don't be playing your music out for everybody to hear and also in your tent and then the shelter same thing you know if you want to listen to your music listen to it with earphones you're not gonna get any issues as we got you your friends own some people say well I can't hear if a bear is coming alright well put your ear one ear in and one of your that's the way all right next thing I want to discuss is smoking if you are one of those people that smoke cigarettes then please please do not smoke cigarettes on the shelter especially if somebody else is there and if you got to get up and smoke a cigarette in the middle of night maybe get up and go outside of the shelter far enough away for but go outside the shelter far enough away to where the other hikers don't have to smell your secondhand smoke and same thing up and down the trail or even on top of the mountain other hikers don't want to smell your secondhand smoke so get to a place where like inside a building or whatever where there's an off the trail the smoking area or whatever it may be to have your cigarettes appear on the trail you just stand up there and that and the other thing you know take your bets with you and that leads me into the last a really most important thing is the Leave No Trace trail Leave No Trace policy Leave No Trace policy is exactly what it says Leave No Trace just because your apple corer your banana peel is biodegradable doesn't mean that you can just leave it at those leaving carry that and understand that people are gonna accidentally drop the candy bar wrapper or package wrapper or something in your pocket it might work its way out it probably will and it'll fall on the trail and you hope that some other hiker behind you will pick that up as you should do when you're walking along the trail and see that another hiker has accidentally dropped something they left something on the trail pick it up it's not gonna weigh you down and you'll be able to dump it off it to next trash stop so it's not that big a deal orange peels cigarette butts banana peels apple cores all of that stuff needs to be packed out and once again that's the Leave No Trace policy everything you bring in you should pack out I'll go ahead and talk a little bit about cat holes and stuff like that you dig your own cat hole six inches deep put everything in there cover it up and get far enough away off the trail to where it gets 200 feet off the trail more than 200 feet away from any water source stream or water source than anybody might be drunk either that's for your own protection and the hikers so Leave No Trace is on the ATC web site read the policy all right I hope that maybe help some of the hikers I'm just gonna mention that hike application put out a video somewhat similar to this about trail etiquette which he's much better behind the camera than me he hit some planets they I did he hit some points that I didn't so what I'm gonna do is put a link to his video that he put out down here watch that one too and I think if you listen to these you'll be kind of covered on some of the etiquette and written slash unwritten policies trail etiquette things to do next video I'm gonna do is about three Viking with your Dalek so stay tuned vitia [Music]

Channel: Probation Termination

Views: 35,057

Rating: 4.7285872 out of 5

Keywords: Hiking, Thru Hiking, Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail

Id: 0C2jvueSVt4

Length: 14min 3sec (843 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 29 2019