Trail Angels
Before I took my first long distance hike on the Pacific Crest Trail in 2003, I read all sorts of books and made all sorts of plans. Many books said I should clean up and be extra polite in towns because sometimes hikers weren't really welcome. Locals would be suspicious, and the money hikers spend in towns just wasn't enough to make up for the problems hikers cause...
Bull!
In 28,000 miles of hiking, I've never been treated poorly. Occasionally, the enthusiasm and kindness with which I was treated was astounding!
Friendly Locals
Sometimes a ride is much more than a ride. Fairly often, when someone picks me up while hitching, they tell me that they are only driving part way to town. But then, after a little conversation, they announce that they are taking me all the way. And once, a guy gave me a ride 120 miles out of his way because he enjoyed the conversation. Many times, the ride gives me all kinds of useful information, like which businesses in town are the best to deal with, or explaining local lore or natural history.
And locals may approach me in towns for conversations. An exchange of my stories and information for theirs takes place, and I learn a great deal about the area.
Trail Angels
Occasionally, one of the locals starts to seek out hikers to help them. At one end of the scale, perhaps a guy who drive a certain stretch of road daily starts to recognize hikers and pick them up. It won't take too many rides until he knows they want groceries, motel, wifi, etcetera, and he'll offer the information even before the hiker asks. At the other extreme, there are those who open their houses to hikers, offering shelter, showers, laundry, food, etcetera. Or they may drive weekly out to some dry stretch and maintain one or more water caches. They may maintain a hiker box, or a cache of snacks along the trail somewhere. Anything someone purposely does to help hikers makes them a trail angel.
And thank God for trail angels. Sometimes a friendly face or a shower, snack, or whatever goes a long way towards cheering hikers up after long, hard stretches.
Please Don't Mooch
Sometimes, another hiker tells me a town was unfriendly to them, and since that's so different from my experience, I wonder why. Maybe they ran into one guy in a bad mood. Perhaps they were rude and triggered the bad reaction. Did they loiter or camp someplace where they were in someone's way? I suspect that if people had a bad experience in a town, in many cases the hiker created the bad experience. I suggest that if someone seems to be offensive, the hiker should politely ask what the problem is. And then solve the problem my leaving or by not doing whatever was causing problems for the locals. Please understand that running ranches, operating stores and restaurants in tiny towns, and etcetera are financially marginal occupations. If something you are doing is losing money for the proprietor, they may not make enough to live, so please accomodate them.
A handful of times, a group of hikers has told me a story something like this: 'We were in a small restaurant, and we had plugged in all of our rechargeable stuff. We were using the free internet. We had only one meal but stayed over four hours. Eventually the owner asked us to leave, or turned off the outlets and wifi server...' The way I see it, it's the hikers who were mooching to the point of being rude. The owner is then forced to deal with the situation, and asking someone to leave is not pleasant. Small town restaurants don't make a huge amount of money, and anyone taking up tables without buying anything is slowly putting them out of business. Internet and electricity cost something. So if you need to charge things, or if you need to use wifi for a long time, why not ask first, and offer to pay a little bit?
But for most hikers, I think that unfriendly locals will rarely be a problem. In fact, what's surprising and worth discussing is the kindness that's been shown me throughout my hiking career.
What I ask of the locals is, I think, fairly little. Hitchhiking is asking for a ride, and long distance hiking often involves hitching to a town and back for supplies, a night in a hotel with shower and laundry, and checking emails and internet in a library or restaurant. But using a post office, grocer, motel, library, restaurant, or etcetera is their normal business, not some extraordinary favor. The hitches are free, but I try not to be a mooch for anything else. If it seems like someone feels like I'm taking advantage, I apologize and leave right away.
When someone offers me something extraordinary, I try to tell them I don't really need it and would want them to go out of their way. Usually they are happy to hear I'm and honest guy and want to help anyway.