Where are all the old regulars TT'ers?

“Nobody asked, but I'm still around and lurk occasionally. In the winter, I spend more of my time on the IMDb boards...come spring, maybe I'll post a trip report or two.”

“I occasionally still lurk.
I miss the days when G.Ben wrote stories about Wanda.”

“I've been here for over almost 2 years now. I must say, the greatest time I had on this site was september 2000.”

“That was back with the TT grammar thread”

“How's the health, Hobbit?
How's the City, Tehepite?”

“See, alot of old regulars lurk about.

I have been on three llama treks. Dunk was the only person I saw who could hike fast enough to stay in front of the llama. I was doing good to stay up with Cork, Freedom, Meerkat, and Creekjumper.

Creekjumper may be lurking about under another name.

It was Hobbit's Idea to start the photo page. I hope he sticks around to protect the idea of it all.

I went on great three-day trip with YES DEAR, WillyWonka, and 10 Bears...but don't see them posting. Do any of you Arizonians know YES DEAR? (a.k.a. Rolf)”

“Hey Dunadan, weren't you Adventurer at one time?”

“I've evolved into an infrequent lurker and very infrequent poster. I drop in maybe once or twice a week, just to see if there's any new or interesting threads. I seldom find content that interests me, and I don't post just for posting's sake. I watch the 'recent posters' list to see if anyone I've hiked with is currently playing, and sometimes I'll drop a comment their way.

I also enjoy reading the trip reports and perusing Phils' pix. Whenever someone discusses an upcoming hike and the locale is within reasonable driving distance, I check the maps and calendar to see if there's a possibility of participating. I've even been known to drop in on a trip unannounced, just for fun.

As for frequent posting.... There's only so many times I can re-state my old, tired opinions or suggestions regarding the same hiking or gear related details or topics. I don't care to invest time on the wild variety of non hiking topics that fill most threads, and the trolling activity has long since lost its' humorous appeal for me. No criticism intended towards anyone who enjoys participating in those types of threads - I'm glad you have fun and it's nice that you have this forum to have fun in. If there's anything that TT participants can never do enough of, it's saying thanks to Matt.

Bottom line, most of the banter is just not my style, I guess. If anyone wants to get in touch (and they don't know my e-mail addy already), I'd notice a "hey strider" thread title eventually.....”

“Geeee, I was in hell last year about this time, Kleetn. I think I'll pass, LOL

Lessee... last I heard, Ground0 was doin' fine. 10 Bears... now that's a blast from the past. Seems like he used to post at Backpacker 3 or 4 years ago.”

“Strider & Flip - Glad to know you are lurking about. Strider said lot by pointing out that he is looking for trips to participate in. That is a big factor for may people.

I must admit, after discussing a piece of gear a half-dozen times, it loses some of the excitement.

I am looking forward to meeting some more people this summer. Just have to decide what to do!”

“The health is getting better every day. They still check my blood once a month, but hopefully by spring-time, I'll be ready to hit the trails. Thanks for asking.”

“The current collection of misfits do not seem to appreciate the bitter sarcasm, cutting insults, and egotistical boasts that the old timers enjoyed. They are political cowards as well.

I am glad to see we still have tehipite to kick around. Are you studying to be a movie star on IMDb?”

“It's good to see you all back. I always enjoyed the trip reports, and photos they the "originals" post.”

“Ah, bacpac and tehipite posting on the same thread. Now I feel all fuzzy warm inside.

But apparently not nearly as fuzzy warm as the love smitten Sunshine. No wonder the winter has been so mild here in the Upper Great Lakes. Sunshine is generating extra heat.”

“Dunadan had not just ONE but TWO OTHER NAMES?!?? Shame on me, I didn't know that!! (we'll see if I know them if he 'fesses up) Was Gentle Ben one? hehee... finish the damn story then!!!”

“Didn't a lot of the "old time" regulars start disappearing about the time Ice Tea started posting?

Maybe he is an FBI agent.”

“How about the TT irregulars? What about them? Don't they count for something?”

“Prunes help the irregulars”

“Maybe some the old regulars have migrated to another board. Have you checked?”

“yes.”

“Yeah, Lizzy, in a moment of magnanimity, I gave up my first name because of Ranger. Then, Mel started calling me "Oddy" and everyone else followed suit. I couldn't take the humiliation of that second name. So, I asked the TT population to suggest a name for the greatest hiker to ever don a backpack and Rad and tommy, (remember him?), came up with Dunadan. Come see my movie sometime.”

“The City isn't what it used to be, Dunadan...but then it never was what it used to be. ;-)

Not a movie star, bacpac--just a watcher. My interests tend to migrate indoors when it gets cold and wet out. ;-)”

“I still think Radagast is Ice Tea.”

“WHo cares. Ya'll are boring!”

“I'm still lurking in the back of the theater.

Unfortunately, the theater has "evolved" to such a degree that the trendy pointless little thread icons, flashing advertisments, drop-down barf-ads, billions of posters, mostly uninspired conversation, tiny print, excessive number of appearing threads, the inability to reduce the number of appearing threads -even IF you do manage to change how many days you want to see - only to have that apply for 30 seconds before it changes back again, the unfriendly lack of page color, the length of necessary load time, and then the subsequent disappearance of many of the "determined-to-participate-depite-the-changes", long-time regulars, due, I believe to many of the above mentioned - "improvements" - which I assume have driven many of us off.

Phils page is the only human part left of this place.

Thank you Phil.

Matter of fact, several of the "old regulars" have e-mailed me (we continue off-stage correspondance) to express their disappointment with this place, and that they, too, have turned into infrequent lurkers instead of posters, OR frequent lurkers.

Guess it isn't entirely my imagination.

This isn't a family anymore, it's a backpacking website laundry list.

With suitable new-age commercial adornments.

All the personality of the site, which originally made it the home away from home it was, has disappeared in a blizzard of techie tuning and repeat babble.

I don't go to ANY backpacking sites anymore.

None of them are even close to being what this place WAS as recently as six months ago.

It has, sadly, turned out to be that we are, after all, really nothing but numbers.

I've been here for four and a half years.

The new changes have made it nearly impossible for me to sit here long enough to wait for the thing to load.

To give you a concrete example of how much time I can bother to invest diddling myself while I mess with this site - I will post this mindless, useless, subject to harsh critisisim personal complaint, and never visit this thread again - simply because I do no have the time to wait to see the whole thing as it gradually begins to appear on it's journey to cosmic history.

I ain't got TIME for this.

I have a seasonal income I'm trying to augment by sitting here at home, at my own second-hand desk, in my own cramped inadequate office - a 10 X 10 corner of my 700 sq. ft house where half of the 700 sq. feet are the upstairs attic bedroom.

I'm not on an antiquated system, relatively speaking.

I'm about average in the system I own.

I doubt many of us go out and buy new systems every year just so we can speed up our connection speed to a particular website which has "improved" to the point we can't even invest the time to wait for it to load so we can even look at it.

It's become an unaffordable luxury for me.
I have more productive things to do with my time - what little there is of it.

I'm trying to make a buck.

TONS of people still have Windows 98, and 8 G's of RAM.

My system was brand-ass-spanking new when I got here.

I don't seem to have any problems loading other websites.

Load time for other COMMERCIAL websites with all the bells and whistles is still significantly less than here.

Maybe it's just me.
Perhaps I'm irrational and paranoid.

Part of it is the fact that I am not working in an office doing busy work, am bored, and have the time to sit watching threads materialize - participate in the tread - submit the answer, wait for the thread to dematerialize, and rematerialize.

Repeat this process endlessly through the work day for what little time the actural tables show I have left of my normal life span.

I am also in a struggle with the US government to obtain a contract that will allow me to pack commercially with the idiot llamas in the Inyo National Forest.

Hours of time each day dedicated to jumping through the hoops the FS demands.
And this, despite the fact I don't even have a large business.

I don't even HAVE a business.

It's me, five llamas, and no employees.

All I'm trying to do is pay for my summer hiking trips by charging for my services.

I end up making less than what a 13 year old babysitter gets, and the work I do is backbreaking.

My problem is, I love the backcountry, I have no college degree and no retirement, and I'm 52 years old.

I got no time to sit at my desk, getting paid for my time as I surf - if I can get away with it- visiting a website that has no personal interest in me.

Well, it's a business, of course.
There I go being irrational again.

In the meantime, I'm also still trying to keep up with personal- friends and family responsibilities conducted entirely via the internet.

This is what goes on when you knowingly abandon the city to live in a rural area so you can worship the wilderness by living in the middle of it.

Yeah, whine, whine, whine.

I try to keep touch with those here who remember me, or even care that I was ever here.

Well, you asked where we've gone, and why....

This is one of the stories of the 12 billion people in the internet naked city.

You can sharpen your spears, but I will not return to this thread to see how good your aim is.

I will still drop in to check out if there are ANY of the 500 and gaining visible threads of miniscule font size that are of any interest to me.

I will also continue to organize trips, and invite my friends from here, and any interested new people here, on llama trips into the John Muir Wilderness, in the Range of Light.

I will still post these trips on this site.

You can still catch me at home via:

sierramel@qnet.com

Or visit my website - which even plays music - at:

WWW.qnet.com/~sierramel/

You don't have to pay.
We can just talk.

I'll be around.”

“ya gotta love melsie. ;o)

Hey Dunadan, RangerD, Oddyseus...glad ya all settled on one personality to share. ;p”

“Dang mel, your post makes me miss you all the more...but you're not gonna see this. Dirty, stinking hippie! :Þ”

“Eight G of RAM? You mean eight meg? No wonder she's fustrated. Woman you might as well be chiseling calculations out on stone. I can see now that we're all going to have to chip in and buy you a new computer. That or you're going to have to sell Bruce.
New (fast) is not that expensive. My "new" $700 computer brings this site up in less than 10 seconds.”

“And I only have a 56K modem.”

“I miss Mel sweetie too!

She`s right, I don`t lurk here like I once did. It`s just not the fun place it once was.”

“10 seconds?

who has time for that?”

“Yeah, when was the last time Snakelegs posted?”

“While I haven't left TT and probably never will, I don't find this site as intimate and fun as it once was.”

“It never was as good as it was. Nothing ever is.”

“Pretty much what Strider said, most of the stuff here is just not interesting or intriguing. Too many people trying to be comedians or trying to offend people to get a reaction. I've been visiting this site for over 5 years and in the last 2 years it's gone downhill for me. The only threads I find worth visiting are in regards to western locations or when friends post.”

“I really wish Mel was still posting. I miss her stuff a lot.

We all probably bond with the people who we got to know when we started here.

At least it is good to know a lot of old regulars still lurk about.”

“Thanks, Hobbit for the report on your health status. You sound like you're kickin' Graves.
Tehipite, we were back to visit the City last winter. Hadn't been back for about 2 years. Still one of the greatest cities in the world, but I think cities in general, aren't what they used to be. Been to Paris, lately?”

“I have had this experience or similar feeling many times, in a job, in a class, living somewhere. At first it seems perfect, all the stars are in alignment, but with time all things change, and it doesn't seem as good as it once did. I find myself wishing for the good ol' days, but there is no way of going back.

I've only been around TT for a year, and already miss those like Mel who have stopped posting. There are some who come by and make a huge splash in the pond, then disappear, but there are still some great people around, who love backpacking and related activities, whose ripples in the pond aren't as big or loud, but certainly last much longer, and are much more interesting in the long run. Those are the ones for which I come back.

TT is also like a river, it keeps moving even when you jump out for a while. When you climb back in, it takes a little while to get back into the current. Maybe in the long run, some of those who are missed will join us again. Maybe they will fall off of the face of the planet and we may never know what happened to them, but I still find good stuff going on here, even with all of the silliness (of which I am part!)”

“Hey, AmyG, did you get Tea, the CIA man, to look into my past? You win the dollar. Just stop by my house, any time, and I'll have it for you.
I think it's like this, folks....some days you are into posting on TT because of a certain topic or interaction with a certain group, and some days you just want to tell kleetn,arc,rad,lyra,skullcap,biz,liz, (heh heh, bizliz, that's funny),nigal,bacpac,buddur,twigeater,phil,tilt,fritz,allthegirls,and especiallyMatt, to take a hike!”

“Perhaps one of the reasons us old timers still lurk around is because of how fun it used to be...and maybe holding out some hope of that level of fun returning. I seriously doubt it though.
As Dunk stated, the site has really gone downhill in the last two years. I also look for threads of western topics and read the threads/posts of people I have met and hiked with.
Since the site has "improved" I do not login in the evenings for fear of the kids waking up from the bright white light.
Good to see we havn't lost all the old timers. Good to hear from you all.

People say I'm no good and crazy as a loon,
Flip”

“Hey, if you are doing it right, you are supposed to be going towards the White Light!”

“This is the first time I have stopped in in a year or so and won't be back in nearly the same span.

I spend my spare time (as little as there is) acting as an advocate for mtn. biking here in socal. As our rights to ride are severely threatened and could soon be gone, completely on NF land in all of Socal, other riders and I have joined forces to get the FS ear. I actually popped in to check the scuttle-butt here in that regard.

I have burned my Sierra Club membership as I feel they have gotten completely out of control in their continual cry of "mine" of the land and no longer represtent me or anyone I know. You can't enjoy the wilderness unless you enjoy it the way they deem fit. I digress.

I still backpack and just solo'ed the Muir this summer. I still pack Phil's Wilderness but with the water situation this year, I haven't been up but once this summer. Rode the Moab/Gooseberry/Brianhead trails this past year and have a seven day'er on the Colorado this summer already planned. Perhaps RAGBRI, the grand tour of Colorado and northern Mexico at some point as well.

I miss the guns n' underware threads, Gentle Ben, Mel-Phil-Free-10-et al, jellow (sic), Rolf's wisdom (pigs n' potatoes) and mostly Rastaman Johnny.

Damn, time flies...”

“To all you lurking oldtimers. You all bemoan the fact that TT has gone downhill and you dont post any more.
Stop whining and get your sorry asses back here. If you dont post, then you dont have a right to complain.”

“I consider myself a lurking old timer, and I resent your post. My complaints have to do with my missing Mel, Lipstick Hiker, Gentle Ben, Lipstick Hiker, Stork, Lipstick Hiker, Strider....... oh, and did I mention Lipstick Hiker?

I hope I don't complain too much without doing my part to contribute as well. You see, the great thing about a board such as this is it's completely voluntary. Contribute if you like, don't if you don't like. Lurk, read, enjoy, hopefully participate, but if you don't feel like participating, we're not gonna come to your houses and spank you. (except Lipstick Hiker)”

“Since I took a job that requires me to work, I've become an infrequent lurker. Maybe every week or two I check to see if there's anything interesting going on.”

“See how easy it was. Now if the rest of you old farts would just pop a few lines down, the problem will be fixed.”

“Hey, WW!!! Dang, good to hear from you! If you're coming to RAGBRAI, we gotta get in touch. I lost your address/ICQ on my old computer!!!!

fauxpax@hotmail.com for me (well, one addy of many! lol)”

“Not being one for nostalgia I hadn't even noticed these folks were gone. I didn't notice some of them when they were here. I say good riddance to the dead wood. Living in the past limits your future.

On down the trail...”

“I`m not one of the "old-timmers" of Trail Talks, but I wish I was. I only wish I had found this play-house sooner, "back in the days" when it was a much funner place to hang out. I just got in on the tail end of it and for a time there I rode it for all it was worth.

I miss some of the ones that made this place so special and funny. I haven`t spewed coffee into the keyboards, or coughed a coke out of my nose laughing in a spell now, well,.. not like I once did!LOL

It got so bad for a time there I wasn`t allowed anything to drink while reading TT. My ribs were all broke, but one, ear-drums were burst and other things were still a mess because of the wreck I`d been in and the last thing I needed to be doing was setting up reading TT and laughing till tears ran down my cheeks, but I loved it.

I hurt so bad, but this place and YOU made me forget my problems for a spell and I wouldn`t take for that. I got away from myself and my pain reading about your trips and I found myself falling in love with the wild things and places again through your pictures. My sad times didn`t seem like much compared to the fun I was reading about and I got lost in it all.

Next thing I know I start telling about some of my good times that you caused me to remember and I loved having something to share with you, YOU that had without knowing it shared with me what I needed most,...Laughter!

I went back as far as I could go in the threads and read every line. I read your thoughts, saw your lighter side, felt your pain and happiness and I came to know some real thinkers and a few stinkers.

I miss reading the thoughts of some of the ones that made this place special, they were/are what`s special about TT.

Thanks for sharing your wisdome, warmth, sad times, hopes, dreams, fears and most of all your laughter!

Thank YOU for the good times!”

“Ban Dunadan!”