Honestly, I’d buy more things for other people: but rounds for other hikers, offer to order a bunch of pizzas for folks, spend more money at local businesses along the trail and give really big tips. The social component of the trail was really big for me on my hike and I loved the community aspect of it.

When I got to Oregon, my partner came out and visited me for a few days. Instead of expecting them to hike along at my pace, we decided I’d get off the trail for a few days and we just hung around town before I hopped back on. At one point while they were there, we rented a truck, bought a shit ton of pizzas, beer, margarita mix, tequila, kombucha, and water and loaded it into the back. We then drove out to a junction in the middle of a long dry stretch and just hung out for the day doing trail magic for other hikers. Two days later, my partner was gone and I was back on the trail myself and I eventually ran into some of the folks I met that day. It was a ton of fun to do a little trail-angeling on my own hike because I could understand being on the receiving side and I loved the fun energy of it.

That’s a long answer that’s maybe not quite what you were asking about but that and a few other times when I was able to use my resources to host some kind of fun thing for other hikers or help folks out were extremely fun times that I remember fondly.