Hiking/backpacking stereotypes...

Hey guys, and gals!

My Name is Jenny Flavin, I'm an anthropology student at SUNY New Paltz, and I've chosen to mix my love of hiking with my research project this semester. I'm doing a research paper about hiking stereotypes and how they relate to food people bring on the trail. Nothing about this paper will be published.

Can you guys list as many hiking / backpacking stereotypes you can think of?

Feel free to contact me with further questions. Newpaltz.Flavin@gmail.com

Just to clarify I’m looking for “types of people” (the newbie, the ultralight etc…)

Hey Jenny,

Has anyone told you the thruhiker M&M joke?

best, jcp

Boy Scouts

I'm aware of several stereotypical categories of backpacker, such as those mentioned already above, but I'm not sure there is any strong correlation between those stereotypes and a stereotypical set of food choices. Food choices, in my experience, are very individual and only loosely associated with one's backpacking experience level or preferred style of backpacking.

For example, most thru-hikers share a similar drive to hike big miles and similar devotion to cutting grams, but while some eat Ho-Hos and other junk food, others will carefully home-dehydrate and package vegan meals to be sent ahead to drop points as they hike.

Good luck with your research, though.

No one has told me....

Hi Jenny,

I'll try to name a few styles of backpacking first.

• Bushcrafter
• Bushwhacker
• Cheapskate
• Fair weather
• Gear Head
• Gourmet
• Heavyweight
• Lightweight
• Minimalist
• Soloist
• Survivalist
• Thru-hiker
• Trail Only Hiker
• Ultralight

Some of these might be considered stereotypes:

• Bushcrafter
• Clueless
• Newbie
• X-Treme
• Techweenie
• Survivalist
• Thru-hiker

I'm sure others here can add to that, but, I don't think anyone can be purely one of those so...

I'll say by choice I'm a "fair weather lightweight cheapskate bushwhacker", which is not at all stereotypical.

How that relates to the food I bring:

I have friends who are heavyweight backpackers and food is no small part of their total weight. Same could be said for me, but my food is generally a lot lighter than theirs. So is my kitchen gear, which limits what kinds of food I can bring. My heavyweight friends seem to have no limits they consider other than if they can lift their pack before they leave.

I primarily think about food both in terms of weight and the space it takes up in my pack. The "fairweather, cheapskate, bushwhacker" styles have little to do with that for me. You could be any of those too and not be concerned about the weight or kind or volume of food you bring.

There's a bit of crossover in those lists but stereotypes, by definition, are "a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image", and that is very true when it comes to backpacking, at least here in the US.

As I see it, most of us incorporate several of what I'm calling "styles" of backpacking, so none of us are stereotypical. In fact, the backpacker here who I'd have to say is the most "X-Treme" is also the least stereotypical.

We have a few honest to goodness "Thru-hikers" here, but I'm not sure the stereotype fits the reality of those who are real thru-hikers either. The stereotype I see always depicts some kind of inner struggle that motivates them and the hardships of backpacking they endure to cure themselves, but what I see here are those with a passion to get outdoors and see and experience all of it they can. There's no cure for that, and they know it. And I don't think they feel there's any hardshipiness in for them. They love it all.

The one "style" we all have in common here, on this forum, is the "Lightweight" style. That's what brings us here, but that's not stereotypical either. Most of my friends who backpack carry 6-packs of beer and steaks and potatoes and who knows what all...

Of course one of the reasons we promote "lightweight" backpacking is so we can bring the steaks and beer without staggering under the total load!

The M&M joke: How to tell a day hiker from a weekender or a thru hiker? put a single M&M in the middle of the trail and watch. The day hiker will fail to notice. The weekender will notice, but decide to leave it. The thru hiker will stop, drop the pack and have dinner. best jcp

Jenny,

I think Bill's analytic reply is right on. There certainly are some stereotypes as noted, but usually any one individual will represent a mix of several, so it's difficult to isolate.

I think the nearest I can come is the football player type who carries lots of heavy food in a big pack and spends the evening talking about miles, how many today, how many tomorrow, etc.

Not sure where I fit in, but my first thru hike, when I was sixty, virtually every item I wore or carried was at least 20 years old, some items much older than that. The young ones gave me the trail name of "Antiques Roadshow".

At one point one of the football player types needed to move my pack and tossed it to his friend who said "wow, that weighs less than my food bag."

best, jcp