Our plan became flipping up to Maine and then heading south.
We had family to take care of until then.
Really had a good Fourth of July with some wonderful people.
But as we are off trail right now there won’t be much posting, I’ll resume in August.
Until then:
Pictures from Lady Di’s hike:
( I can get html strings but no pictures. Darn. https://share.google/4AvgEFJamvk12eCNH is her hostel. Great lady, great place).
Me, off trail:
At NTRPGCON I actually ran the scenario play tested on the trail with Hawkeye and Waffles.
Though now I’ve shaved off the beard, still playing with the idea of my hair growing out more. I’ve never done that before.
I’m hoping I can use longer hair to protect my neck and ears while backpacking and use a lighter hat. And…my wife likes it.
She is my life.
Otherwise, here are some reflections on a guy who just did not get it (and why stoves with piezo electric lighters aren’t more common).
The guy whined about a lighter taking multiple attempts to work. Even did an inflammatory name for a YouTube video rant. No one gave him any sympathy.
Then he came back and whined about how no one sympathized with him and we must all be happy with shoddy gear.
So, I slipped and tried to educate him:
When we decided to buy a stove I researched stoves and then we bought a couple to compare. We specifically avoided the built in lighters because of this well known issue—that the lighters weren’t as reliable as one might want.
The sad truths are:
1. Some people insist on having a built in lighter.
2. Most people will never get enough use of a lighter for it to fail. So most purchasers are happy.
3. Most users who use gear enough so they would experience a failure are the type to do the research and thus not buy one with a lighter.
4. Your lighter is still working, it just takes more than one try sometimes.
You are drawing the wrong conclusions from how people respond to your complaints. They are not tolerant of defective merchandise. They are trying to educate you.
So. Some problems—absolutely no tolerance. No one here would say those problems are ok. I Buy things at REI so I can take them back —and I do. I would never accept defective water filters for example.
Good examples of no tolerance gear issues can be found in poser trail shoes that fall apart inside of 150 miles.
Other problems—they are a known issue. Every manufacturer knows about the problems.
On that list are DNR (DWR but in cold weather they really are DNR) rain jackets, built in lighters and a very few other things.
Complaining about them reflects a completely different thing than having a legitimate complaint.
Eg, complaining about your Helium Hybrid rain coat wetting out will get you a “so what.” Of course a light and cheap DWR rain coat will wet out. Everyone expects that.
So. For some things that people complain about many have no tolerance at all.
Other things I sometimes try to educate people about the matter.
Not because I tolerate defects but because someone is identifying themselves as a buyer of poser gear.
In that guy’s case that seems like a complete accident and thus his frustration.
People were trying to explain the issue to him but he didn’t do a good job of listening.
Complaining about poser gear (stuff for sale but not intended for significant use/significant trail use) just won’t generate sympathy.
My advice to someone like that:
If you aren’t a poser and have stepped into buying some poser gear, like stepping into a cow patty on the trail, clean it off of yourself as quickly as you can without drawing attention to what happened.
