[pct-l] Monetary Donations

jmhow01 at yahoo.com jmhow01 at yahoo.com
Sun Sep 23 22:10:08 CDT 2012


I've reiterated numerous times to myself to never get involved in potentially contentious discussions
on this thread.  Though a couple weeks ago, I found myself discussing this very topic with a family
member who is a self-described trail angel. So, it'd only be fitting to finally chime in.  

This post pertains to those angels who set up "angel stops" where hikers are offered an assortment 
of goodies and luxuries. Let me repeat, only this type of trail angel. We can all agree on the fact that
 most of these services are essentially non-necessities.  They simply provide a morale boost with goodies. 
And no matter how ungrateful you may be, every nasty thru hiker passing through can and should
appreciate these offerings. However, explicitly or implicitly expecting "donations" from passing thru-hikers,
seems very odd to me.

As I mentioned to my family member, I can best relate this to a life experience.  During my more 

youthful years when my friends and I would go out for a night of fun, we'd easily spend a great deal
of money for a couple hours of fun.  We had a friend, Joe, at the time, who unfortunately didn't have the
money to afford going out with us most nights.  However, Joe's way of hanging out with us, while not
spending a lavish amount of money, was to invite us to party at his house.  Seeing that we all enjoyed
his company, we all partied at Joe's!  


In many ways, I see these these type of trail angels in much the same light as I see Joe.  For whatever reason,
these type of trail angels lack some type of resources (money, time, health, etc) required to hike the trail.  Yet 

they still want to be part of the hiking community. At the same time, Thru hikers truly appreciate their 

company.  But here's the thing.  If Joe ever told us that there was a cover charge to party at his house, we
probably would have looked at him blank faced.  Sure we wanted to hang out with Joe, but to pay Joe so 

we could hang out with him.  That's an odd concept.

As stated above, this does not pertain to those trail angels who provide services that keep thru hikers safe
(i.e. water caches, rides on busy highways, shelter in increment weather).  It, also, does not include those 

random trail angels, who probably don't even know what the term "trail angel" means.  Think of the person
who would buy you hot chocolate at a gas station on a cold day without the knowledge of the term "thru-hike" (they
strike me as the most selfless type of angel).  And this is where I probably veer from popular sentiment.  I find
it hard to label people who expect "donations" for services as genuine trail angels.  They're more like businesses 

that open their doors with the intention of making zero profit.  Should we label them as angels? I don't know.
But I will definitely look at them differently than I look at the angels who spend their time making sure thru hikers
traverse the desert sections with the proper amount of water.

Best,
J


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