sean_johnson16•29d agoProlific Poster

That moment a random hiker saved my bacon on the JMT

I was about 15 miles south of Reds Meadow on the John Muir Trail last August, and my water filter totally clogged up on me. Some guy named Dave came up from behind, saw me swearing at it, and just handed me a spare filter cartridge he had in his pack. He said he'd been hiking the PCT and always carried extras for situations like this. I offered to Venmo him $20 but he just laughed and said to pay it forward to the next person. Has anyone else had a stranger bail them out with gear on a long trail?

2 comments

2 Comments

elizabethg1829d ago

Last June on the PCT near Etna, my tent pole busted in a wind gust and this retired guy from Oregon gave me his spare pole segment and some duct tape. He said he always carried a repair kit for thru-hikers since someone helped him out years ago. I ended up mailing him a care package with snacks and a thank you note.

parker_park829d ago

Man that's exactly the kind of thing that makes you realize most people are basically good if you give them a chance. I've noticed this pattern where people who get helped out on the trail almost always pay it forward somewhere down the line. Like last month I saw a guy at the grocery store drop his whole bag of oranges and a mom with two kids stopped to help him pick them up without even thinking about it. It's just little stuff like that that adds up. We don't talk about it much but this kind of stuff happens all the time if you're paying attention.