Couple of thoughts:

Never been looked down on that I know of. But funny response once. I was Northbound on the AT, very early on, when a guy with a German accent passed me southbound as I was taking a break. Just after passing, he looked back and asked "how far are you going?" I answered that I was hoping to make it to Main. "But dat ist a daypak!" We both laughed cause his wasn't much bigger. Mine was 40 liters, so not tiny. Turned out he was hiking with family, exchanging keys at noon most days. And as far as bumming things, a few weeks later one of my Aquamira bottles sprang a leak at a spot where I didn't trust the water and he purified for me. Still later, in New Hampshire, I was able to help one of his family. We all made it to Maine.

Bill Sephenson. You mentioned people seeing BLACK panthers in the Ozarks (another thread) I grew up in NW Arkansas, and we were used to the howling, and brought in the goats, but no one I ever met had actually seen one.

Also giggling about Californians coming in. When I was a kid, all cars had California license plates, cause the only way anybody could get cash money to buy a car was to go to California to work in the aircraft factories. Many stayed. Sounds like it's payback time.

Best, jcp