Backpacker

BACKPACKER.COM 67chance to join a family or just score free booze.Superman is wondering the same thing. “At first,”he’ll tell me a month later, “I thought he’d be moochingoff us all week. But no, he showed initiative. He helpedus drag firewood out of the forest. And he was pleasant.He had a nice smile, and he never caused anyone anygrief.” As such, Superman says, he’s a perfect recruit.Almost. “He’s pretty quiet, and I don’t know if everyonewould remember him. I’d need him to come back nextyear before we shirt him.”Despite what I’ve seen and heard, drinking is notwhat Riff Raff purports to be about. Relying on fundsfrom Disney, Superman, and other Riff Raff leaders, thegroup serves an estimated 500 free meals at Pre Dayseach year, and during the 51 weeks a year they’re notat Trail Days, Riff Raffers hike the trail to spread theethic of trail magic, acting independently, or in pairs,like Mormon missionaries.To Superman, trail magic is the group’s signatureact and he practices it often himself. Once, in Tahoe,California, he and his girlfriend ran an impromptuhostel out of a rental home and routinely took PacificCrest Trail hikers to nearby casinos. He revels in thecreative forms that his friends’ magic can take. OneMaine-based Riff Raffer, he tells me, likes to appointtree branches overhanging the AT with “little baggies,each one carrying a joint and a bunch of Q-tips.”Hikers need Q-tips, I’m told by way of explanation.The joint speaks for itself. They may not be the RedCross, but they know their audience. (Pot notwith-standing, trail magic is generally considered good, butthe Appalachian Trail Conference recently posted newguidelines discouraging large-scale hiker feeds thatmay impact the trail by causing hiker bottlenecks, and“I was bullied mercilessly in school,” he says, describing his childhood in anaffluent Michigan suburb. “I guess I was an annoying know-it-all. In high school,the whole hockey team would shoot pucks at me during practice. The AT erasedthe part of me that got bullied,” says Superman, who now lives in Florida. Thetrail also changed his approach to life. In 2006, after he rushed through one11-mile section, he caught a ride from Miss Janet. She asked: “What the hell areyou doing? If you hike that fast, you’ll burn out long before Maine. Why not enjoythe journey?” Superman took the advice to heart, and soon made it his missionto slow other hikers down, too. He likes to “Shanghai” them. That is, convincethem to drink all day with him, or to let him take them to a nearby swimminghole—whatever it takes to stop them from slogging their way through yet another25-mile death march.Like a college’s fraternity rush, the practice is controversial. An online journalcalled Deep South Mountaineering alleges that at Pre Days, Riff Raffers areselective Shanghai artists: “They single out mostly females to join and welcomethem to hang around.” Meanwhile, on Tr a i l Jo u r n a l s, one male hiker writes thatat Pre Days he wa s “semi-k id napped” before descr ibing how he “snuck out ” whileRiff Raff was welcoming new arrivals to “their spiderweb.”Superman admits to being gung ho about recruitment. “The only way we cankeep going is by getting new hikers—fresh blood—every year,” he says. Withinfive years, he hopes to grow the group to 150 members, all of whom should lovea good party and the AT, though being an active long-haul hiker is less criticalthan commitment to the camp.And at Trail Days, prospective pledges abound. The AT is awash in youngpeople on soul-searching journeys. I catch sight of one such guy trying to insinu-ate himself into the group. Ty Malcom is 21 and sports, on his forehead, a freshtattoo with green cursive letters that spell out “Lawless.” He’s an updated arche-type—think Neal Cassady with a smartphone—and I wonder if Riff Raff is hisClockwise fromabove: Disney andIrish Charm deliverSuperman’s chilito the judges atBillville; the differentcamps mix andmingle during thefour-day celebrationin Virginia; drinkinggames abound; aTrail Days attendeeswaps a backpackfor a pair of cases.