by Wanda Shirk, President, KTA Board of Directors
“What’s a slackpack?” asked Wellis, one of the old guys (that includes about 90 percent of us!) in our Susquehannock Trail Club at the February meeting.
It’s interesting to reflect on how new terms come into our vocabularies, sometimes with a particularity of occasion. After having taught high schoolers for over three decades, I can remember precisely from which students I first encountered certain terms, such as “24/7” in Kirk Miller’s autobiography, a “hoodie” when Bryan Kear’s went missing from the cafeteria, or “hotties” in Nicole Miller’s essay about going to the mall (“looking for hotties” – did she mean hot pads? mittens? warm underwear? a hot water bottle? I had to ask her to find out that it meant attractive young bodies of the opposite sex).
I first encountered “Slackpack” when Becky Schreiber developed the Chuck Keiper Slackpack for Prowl the Sproul, maybe four years ago. I thought she invented the term, but apparently it has a history that goes back decades.
Richard Judy tells the story in his new book Thru: An Appalachian Trail Love Story, your purchase of which from Amazon (going through AmazonSmile) will support both the Appalachian Trail Museum and Keystone Trails Association. Apparently, a long-ago group of Appalachian Trail thru-hikers known as the South Georgia Heathens had a protracted stop at a roadhouse café noted for delectable pies. One of them, frustrated at the day’s major downtime, proclaimed that they weren’t so much backpackers as “slackpackers.” The play on words brought a laugh that was repeated in frequent re-tellings of pie-day.
Deviating from the etymology, the term has come to be used to describe long-distance hiking with “support …by vehicle, so that the main part of your gear stays in the car while you carry snacks, water, and rain gear in a day pack,” to use Judy’s phrasing. He explains that “most thru-hikers who get ‘slacked’ view it as an opportunity to put in long days with minimal effort.” Day-hiking a significant trail section with shuttles and “luggage-forwarding” service (or transportation to comfortable lodging) obviates the need to carry overnight gear. Hikers can get showers, real beds and evening meals that aren’t just trail food.
On May Day 2014, as this “goes to press” digitally, a group of us will be on Day 6 of a seven-day slackpack of the STS – the Susquehannock Trail System in Potter County. At 84 miles in length, it’s Pennsylvania’s ninth-longest trail and the longest loop. It’s back-packable in a week for most hikers, but “slackpacking” allows one to take in all the beauty of the trail without the stress on hips, back, and knees that accompanies carrying food and shelter for a week.
Some folks think slackpacking has the merit of making some body parts last longer than they otherwise might. Besides the knees we cherish, this could even include toenails. My two big-toe nails are finally within a couple weeks of returning to full-normal appearance after last season’s downhill pressures. I was amused when a non-hiker friend of mine read Cheryl Strayed’s Wild and asked if I’d ever lost toenails while backpacking. Yes! I’m up to 5 out of 10 on that count!
KTA hopes to add more slackpacking opportunities to our menu. Your next chance is three days on the Donut Hole Trail (DHT) during KTA's annual Prowl the Sproul hiking and camping weekend in July. The DHT is #8 on the list of Pennsylvania’s longest trails – at 90 miles, just ahead of the STS. The three-day Prowl slackpack this year will feature the western 45 miles. Do the west half this year, and we’ll give you a slack-option on the east half within the next couple years. I’ll be there, and I hope many of you will take the opportunity as well. Registration opens on May 1!
“Keep trees in your heart, and the birds will come there to sing.”
Happy Trails, Wanda