Trail/Shelter Logs

Title: Trail/Shelter Logs

General Information about Item:

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: Trail and Shelter logs are used by most hikers on trails all around the world. Hikers can communicate with each other through journaling in the shelter logs. Sometimes people get to know other hikers by reading their log entries in shelters in which they have stayed. Writing in logs is a ritual and way to pass the time.

Cultural 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:

Trail logs are composition books that are placed in shelters along the AT. Sometimes the logs are large and have years worth of entries. The entries are a way for hikers to tell their story while hiking the AT. Everyone who stays at the shelter usually inserts an entry. It is a ritual for AT hikers and serves as entertainment at night when hikers have time to sit down and read. The logs can also form connections between hikers and give advice to one another.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Transcript of Associated File:

Informant’s Comments:

“The trail logs are really cool. When I was by myself waiting for my water to boil or waiting for my food to cook, that is what I would read. It is so cool to go back and look at who was here. Sometimes the logs are really new and there are not that many entries. But one trail log that I found was huge, it was from 2014. There were so many entries in there. It was so cool to see everyone who had been there. Some people talk about the weather, some people talk about what happened to them that day, some people draw pictures. I ended meeting a guy on the trail that I had read entries of in logs for months.

Collector’s Comments:

Collector’s Name: Colton French

Tags/Keywords:

Dartmouth Folklore Archive