Title: Priest Shelter Log
General Information about Item:
- Genre: Material, Ritual
Language: English
Origin: United States
Informant: David Hauge, student at Dartmouth College Class of 2021
Collector: Colton French
Date of Collection: 11-2-2017
Informant Data:
- David Hauge is a Dartmouth Student in the graduating class of 2021. David is originally from Washington D.C. He is an only child. David took a year off in between high school and college to hike the Appalachian Trail.
Contextual Data:
- Social Context: The priest shelter log is kept inside the priest shelter on the Appalachian Trail. Every hiker who stays in the priest shelter overnight writes their confessions in the shelter log. It is a tradition that every hiker takes part in if they happen to stay at the shelter. The folklore is a material log and comes in the form of a ritual because all the hikers write down their confessions.
- Cultural Context: The shelter log in the Priest shelter is only for those who stay in the shelter and who are hiking on the AT.
- Overall Context:David took a gap year to hike the Appalachian Trail after graduating from high school. David knew from the time he was twelve that hiking the Appalachian Trail was something he wanted to do. He heard about it, and it lodged itself in the back of his mind as something that he wanted to complete in his lifetime. David started hiking the AT February 6, 2017. Many people start hiking the AT mid-March to early April. That group is what is called the “bubble,” or the largest group of hikers. David’s hiker experience is a bit different from the average thru-hiker on the AT simply because he started very early in the season when there were not many people on the trail. David was probably the 60th person to start thru-hiking this past year. In the “bubble” about 75 to 100 people start hiking every day.
David started hiking the AT alone and continued to mainly hike alone throughout his entire journey. He met people at shelters along the trail. He met a young couple from New Hampshire. They were both nineteen years old and David hiked with them for a good portion of the trail. David also hiked with an ex-marine from Virginia who worked for the National Park services. He also met very nice people at the hostiles along the way. David kept a journal of all the people that he met on the trail. It is easy to meet people along the trail because everyone has something in common and is out on the AT for similar reasons.
Item:
- The Priest Shelter is located on top of the priest mountain, hence the name “Priest Shelter.” All shelters have shelter logs where people write down various things. They sometimes write about what happened to them that day, how they are feeling, advice, talk about the weather, tell jokes etc. In the priest shelter log, people write confessions to dumb or embar things they have done in their lives or on the trail. It is a ritual that everyone who stays in the Priest shelter takes part in and can be a way to cleanse oneself from things they have done on the trail.
Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):
Informant’s Comments:
- “People would write confessions as to random stuff they have done on the trail that would be embarrassing. I was at the Priest shelter early in the season, so the shelter log was pretty empty. Some people talked about pooping on the trail and skipping parts of the trail. Someone confessed to having sex on the trail.”
Collector’s Comments:
- none
Collector’s Name: Colton French
Tags/Keywords:
- Priest shelter, ritual, tradition, confessions