Re: [at-l] GQ hiker

[Sloetoe <sloetoe@yahoo.com>]

--- Landslides2@webtv.net wrote:  
> this tall, muscular guy strides up the access trail with this huge pack,
> matching clothes, and matching boots ... colour coordinated, GQ-like
> gear .
>  
> This reminds me of when ya see those guys riding a motorcycle, and
> dressed in a flashy zip up suit that matches the cycle. Of course
> there's always fancy flaring too. I always laugh when I see that and
> wonder if they had any idea they look like some toy you get free from
> the cereal box or happy meal.

### Sloetoe rambles in with:
For some number X years and many thousands of miles, I rode an unfaired
(Un"flared") BMW motorcycle in one of those funny looking suits, black with
gray trim, (wifie's was gray with black trim) with white full face helmets,
black gloves, and deerskin gauntlets. Late in the game (and *finally*)
acquired an electric vest -- who's cord would be strung out of a hip-pocket
zipper to connect up on the bike and make you toasty warm on nasty days --
you felt not unlike a TOP GUN pilot out to go burn up the twisties.....

The suit was GoreTex/Cordura/Ballistics cloth, and had the nickname of being
"the Swiss Army Knife of motorcycle apparel." It was 80% rainproof,
comfortable in a t-shirt and jeans from 95*F+ all the way down to 65* (and
less for shorter rides -- I rode in snow enough...) and, when you're sitting
there tooling through the mountains, smelling the rain and soil, *hearing*
the weather change around each mountain, and passing people in cars and
motorhomes so far removed from what they're passing though you wonder why
they came.........

People used to stare at us when we would "arrive" (that's what we called it)
and when we would do "the leaving" (that's what we called it). We did
"sport-touring" -- essentially backpacking "at speed" -- and had similar
habits to any backpackers you might see taking a rest stop on the trail. I
think we fascinated people -- how we did things.... Didn't bother us any. We
earned the right -- we were all business. But we knew we were a sight, too.

I see the same thing in hikers. By accident, a lot of equipment I have now is
some shade of Royal Blue. Dear Stitches noticed this (or was it Mrs. Gorp?
No, it was Mara...) and commented "You like blue, don't you." I couldn't get
out of it: the evidence was all there..... But I would prefer "stealth" ....
But I think hikers feel the same way when they (wearing shorts) come
strollllling into town with mighty swings of some gaitor-sheathed booted foot
eating long pieces of sidewalk. Little side-long glances at the "tourons" to
see who's watching....

Hmmmm. Maybe not. I'm MUCH more vain that way now... if I was watching anyone
during my throughhike, it would have been for food.....

I need a hike.

What did Thoreau say? "Beware of any enterprises which require new clothes,
rather than a new *wearer* of clothes"? Something like that...


Vanely yours,
Sloetoe'd-ude
BMWMOA #5409
MSF Instructor 82489


=====
"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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