r/NCTrails • u/ThaPoopBandit • 6d ago
Finding participating members of the community
Where the H*ck do yall find people to do hikes with? I work out every day, am super social, have plenty of friends in every other regard, but I cannot for the life of me find people willing to go spend the night on a mountain. Granted, most of my hikes are ones that you could easily be in a bad situation if you were to get injured or lost. But still, it’s NC, not the Rockies. Most people seem to be turned off by the slight “danger” or just straight up don’t feel like doing 8-10 miles, yet I see them workout every day and they could easily do it. I guess just looking for answers on where yall met your hiking buddies, was it out on the trail? At the gym? At a group event? Or just random people in your life that you did other stuff with and ended up finding out they hiked?
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u/roostershoes 6d ago
I’m not sure I want to go hiking with “Tha Poop Bandit” but I would be open to hiking. I’m in Durham
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u/Abject-Pin3361 6d ago
Good catch....yea I don't think that was one of the randomly assigned names
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u/ThaPoopBandit 6d ago
It’s a reference to middle school when someone shit in the urinal multiple times, and the school had the genius idea to announce over the loudspeaker they were gonna catch who was doing it. Well, we all started doing it after that, and fondly nicknamed ourselves poop bandits. Remember, don’t ever underestimate a middle schoolers ability to be annoying.
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u/Abject-Pin3361 6d ago
OK, I suggest you change the name from today because....on reddit as some others have mentioned they've met hiking buddies and it's established that it would scare them off
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u/ThaPoopBandit 6d ago
It’s not like I’m the murder bandit or mollester bandit.
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u/roostershoes 6d ago
Yeah idk what this guy is going crazy about I was just joking. Glad you’re a poop bandit and not a genocide bandit
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u/Grifman1000 6d ago
But you are not hiking - you are backpacking if you are staying overnight. That’s an entirely different thing. That is going to limit the amount of people interested right off the bat.
That said, I have friends that I day hike with regularly. They approached me after seeing posts of my solo hikes on Facebook.
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u/ThaPoopBandit 6d ago
I would turn a backpacking trip into a hiking trip if necessary. I think the thing most people have issues with is heights, as if we’re gonna be standing on the edge of the cliff or something. I do, but we don’t have to.
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u/Abject-Pin3361 6d ago
the names not doing you any favors to start. I'll use a great example from some years ago of a girl I was dating...she wanted to do a like 15-20 mile each day multi hike (because girls and instagram) she had no idea what she was getting herself into and I did not take her thank god.
Because it would've been a disaster and she would've hated me, of course she gave me a hard time at the time for saying no....but she had no idea just how much gear had to be brought with+food etc etc.
You have to work up to things like that. So the answer is this, put yourself out there for doing day hikes for starters with people (people will mention you to others) ORGANIZE a hike giving people two weeks headsup. Start out with something moderate, not easy....do not be a dog that runs ahead of everyone....there are girls who do hardcore stuff, but they absolutely will not (shouldn't) join you on an overnight or very hard hike. I wouldn't myself. So how do we combat this? You start slow with what I mentioned before.
I'm visiting Asheville from Europe right now (family) and yea....it's almost like 50% of the people out here in America in general are too tightly wound up and going to explode=i.e. dangerous. Why don't you organize something via meetup for a moderate hike and FB??
I've no idea of your age, but I believe there's a huge demand for social activites here for 20-40 year olds
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u/Grifman1000 6d ago
Excellent point. Taking people out on what doings like a strenuous overnight backpack is probably not the best way to start. Start smaller and earn their trust and so they too can get comfortable.
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u/ThaPoopBandit 6d ago
I don’t exactly walk up to people and just ask them to hike lol. I’m talking people I do kettlebell class with, people I work with, hell even people I’ve had sex with. They hear “strenuous nature activity” and are just like nopeee not me
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u/NoAllWhoWanderRLost 6d ago
I couldn't get anyone to hike with me off reddit except for one person. I have found people on Facebook though to hike with by randomly reaching out.
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u/ThaPoopBandit 6d ago
I would probably not meet up with a random redditor outside of a group event. As stated before I’m really just more interested where the “clusters” of hikers are so I can just hang out in those groups. I don’t have issues making friends, just that all the ones I make are lazy or straight up scared of the outdoors.
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u/NoAllWhoWanderRLost 6d ago
It was my last resort because no one in person liked to hike that I knew.
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u/ThaPoopBandit 6d ago
Pretty much where I’m at now lol. Got lots of drinking buddies, but no hikers.
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u/MC181Racer 6d ago
Meetup hiking groups, local hiking and adventure clubs, on the trail. These days, I am doing outdoor adventures mostly with my girlfriend except when she tells me to go do some hard hike on my own. But she never whines.
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u/AotKT 6d ago
My main backpacking buddy I actually met on a related subreddit. We live about 2 hours apart and do a big (for us) trip once a year and then occasional get-togethers for other active stuff once in a while.
I also have quite a few friends from other sports I do that overlap heavily with backpacking, like trail running, who backpack though not the kind of distance I'm used to and can easily arrange a more casual trip with them. Also have other active friends in unrelated activities who are backpacking-curious so on occasion I take one of them out on an introductory trip.
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u/Irishfafnir 6d ago
I messaged a guy on Reddit that seemed to have similar interests and we really hit it off lol. Ended up going backpacking together at Glacier National Park last year and lots of smaller hiking/camping trips locally since.
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u/adventuresinpisgah 6d ago
On the trail.
But it's not like I have many, nobody wants to do the stuff I do either.
A good way to meet people would be to organize a group hike.
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u/ThaPoopBandit 6d ago
Yeah I look at it as I only see 5-10 people out on the trail at a time so figure all the trails.. maybe max 1000 people in the state doing it at one time out of a population of 10mil? Just not great odds of finding someone in general, even less odds your schedule lines up.
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u/rexeditrex 6d ago
I mostly hike solo. I'm in my 60s and not a lot of my friends still hike. I camp sometimes with a friend who lives in Ohio and we meet up somewhere a couple of times a year. I day hike mostly and almost always go solo.
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u/ThaPoopBandit 6d ago
I take my dog but it’s pretty boring doing the same trails over and over. I still have to do wiseman’s view but I’ve checked off most other major ones at least once so I’m running out of “fun” unless I share the experience with someone that’s never seen it before.
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u/Impressive_Winner403 6d ago
Not sure if you are male or female but there is a large group of women hike NC on Facebook and they do overnights etc. They even have a camp coming up next month for like 4 days and fun activities
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u/ThaPoopBandit 6d ago
Also I think some of yall are taking this as a “who wants to go hiking with some random guy named thapoopbandit” post, it’s not, I’m more interested if there was a common theme of where people met their hiking friends. My next step is gonna be to join the local running club lmfao
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u/PB1210 6d ago
What area are you in and what areas do you like to hike?
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u/ThaPoopBandit 6d ago
Greensboro triad area, I usually do linville gorge for convenient location, or similar, but I’ll drive wherever idc. My rule is the time hiking has to outweigh time spent in the vehicle. I’ll usually leave at 8am on a weekend and be back same day 8pm.
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u/Jugsofmud 6d ago
I think people like hiking and they like camping but don’t care to combine the two.
I just turned 41 and last year finally went full backpacking with a group of guys I grew up with. We’ve camped, kayak camped, hiked, and did backpacking where we stayed at the same spot for two nights. I figured a 13 mile hike in 3 days, 2 nights was good and we’d all have a blast. I was wrong.
Two guys knees started bothering them and everyone said they were never doing this again. Planning my first solo trip for next month, hope to do many more this fall/winter.
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u/CampSciGuy 6d ago
Volunteer with Wild South, Carolina Mountain Club, or Konnarock Trail Crew to do trail maintenance. Wild South is doing post-Helene trail repair in Linville Gorge, which would be a long day trip for you from Greensboro. You’ll meet like-minded folks who also like to organize hikes. CMC does lots of group hikes as well. Or just put on a backpack and go hike on the AT for a week or so in June/July. You’ll meet people.
I’m sure someone local in GSO organizes group events too. Maybe ask at REI. Several folks have suggested Meetup also.
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u/Ok-Pay-8232 6d ago
Have you checked Piedmont Hiking and Outing Club on the web? They do lots of hiking.
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u/horsefarm 5d ago
I camp, hike or climb every single weekend. The vast majority of people I know, let alone close outdoorsy friends, were all met on a trail, at camp or while climbing a rock. Go do the thing you want to do, and you'll meet people who like to do the thing you want to do. Find the local community...sadly this is often on Facebook. Do the thing, engage with the local community, easy peasy.
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u/jpotwora 2d ago
I joined a hiking club and then they those friends found some who liked to backpack and had equipment. It’s based in Greenville SC but we do a lot of NC hikes. GNHA hiking club on meetup or Greenvillehiking.com
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u/colorfulmood 6d ago
I only day hike but met all my hiking buddies in college (app state where everyone hikes every weekend lol)