Could happen any time.... was Re: [at-l] update on Blister Sisters

[Sloetoe <sloetoe@yahoo.com>]

--- BGramsbjs@aol.com wrote:
> Well, we're off the trail again.  We made it all the way to Wilson Stream 
> Shelter, past Monson before I fell off a rock onto my tailbone
> Maybe we're getting too old for all this???              B.J.Blister

### You got PAST Monson, had a no-warning fall, and NOW you offer "Maybe
we're getting too old for all this???
You're nuts.

On our little Long Trail hike two weeks back, and during our third straight
day of rain, on top of Mt. Mansfield (or to pronounce it as the boysenberries
do: MOUNT *MANNNNNNS*Field), we yelled oaths into the wind, asking the
mountain tame questions like "Is this the best you got?!" A 2800 foot climb
in 2.3 miles, finishing above tree line, 40mph wind with some good gusts,
temps sitting around 40*F, visibility around 30-50 feet, and we're yelling
into the wind. (BTW, I just posted JT/Ezra'a "I am HERE" poem in my cube.)

Now, remembering they were six years old, I cautioned them too to not get
cocky, and relayed to them a story from my own throughhike. Here's the quick
version: (Is there a leanto on a minor ridge above the Potaywadjo Spring and
near to a BigMutha Lake in Maine? (Things kinda meld together... )) I
remember it like this -- woke before dawn on a hemlock-covered little
north-south ridge, marched off a daybreak, hit the famous spring, knew my
first view of Katahdin was at the coming shoreline (it'd been raining for
daysNdaysNdays). Slipped on a minor log thing, put my hands out, and sunk my
bright blue fleecy into thick black molasses and oatmeal whilst doing a face
plant. Got up thinking ferocious black angry thoughts.

Made the Lakeshore (again, maybe a different morning, but this is MY fog --
you go make your own...) and read in the leanto register a horrible story.
3-4 wyminses, who'd been hiking together since forever, who'd I not yet met
(remember, I suffered lots of delays down south, and fairly flew for the
north half of my hike, so I was catching many personages for the very first
time) had been staying at the shelter a week before me, celebrating their
fine hike, the view (STUNNING!!!) of Katahdin, the fact that their perfect
hike would soon be over, and that NOTHING COULD STOP THEM NOWWWWW.

One gal slipped on a shoreline rock and broke her patella. (This was back
when the "Hundred Mile Wilderness" lived up to it's name a little more than
it apparently does now...) As bad luck would have it, along comes a guy to
the shoreline on an enduro motorcycle -- a single seater. He rides her 25
unpaved, unimproved bouncing miles to a telephone, where she gets an
ambulance ride to Bango-wah (see what happens when you drop the "r"?), where
she gets a heliocopter ride to Bah-ston or some such. And naturally, her
hikie was OVER.

The morning I read that register entry was a perfect one: low humidity,
perfect temps, blue blue blue skies..... and I'm all pissed off about a dirty
sleeve? Not for long. And the warning to me was palpable: do NOT take your
hike for granted. Having hiked successfully for 2100 miles is NO guarantee
that the last 40-60 some will go your way. It really scared me as an
almost-done 2000 miler, and I was actually extra vigilant for the last 4-5
days.

Sooo.....my point to the Little Boys was "Don't get cocky, 'cause you think
the 'hard part' is over."
Annnddddd maybe my point to you, Miss Sis O'Bliss, is to not think *your*
hiking is *over*. It could've happened to ANY of us, even in our prime and
2100 miles up, without any more warning than you had.

Hope you are convalescing well, and I look forward to your pictures at the
next Ruck.


Wizenedly,
Sloeeeeeetoeeeeeeee


=====
"A man who is not a liberal in his youth has no heart.
     And  a man who is not a conservative in his maturity
   has no brain."         W.Churchill


Call me 'middle-aged.'    T.McGinnis

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