[at-l] A heartwarming Leki story (kind of long)

[infpeace@yahoo.com (Nina Baxley)]

Gather 'round and get out your hankies, friends, for,
in the spirit of Leki love that so many of us share, I
have a heartwarming Leki story for you all ...

Once upon a time, long long ago--OK, so not THAT long
ago--I went hiking on the Pinhoti Trail in Alabammy
(spring 2000). On that trip, I got caught in a flash
flood and a bunch of bad things happened--my tent went
flying down a raging creek, I lost my glasses, I
nearly drowned, then I had to build a shelter using
trees and trash bags and keep vigil all night while it
rained and the temps dropped to somewhere in the 30s.
The worst thing that happened on that trip, though,
was that I LOST my beloved Leki poles (OK, so maybe
I'm being a little dramatic here ...)

I ended up buying new Lekis, which I used on my AT
thru-hike last year. I figgered my old Lekis had
drowned and gone to Leki heaven, or maybe they were at
the bottom of a lake somewhere.

Then I got this e-mail last week from Karen (Nocona)
Borski, who thru-hiked in '98. Read on ...

----Nocona wrote:
> Then, we were ready to
> go
> hiking before starting jobs again.  We decided on
> the
> Long Trail, since it would be low in elevation and
> lovely in fall foliage.  
> 
> Andy (aka Bald Eagle, my boyfriend) invited an AT
> friend of his (AT '95) named ET to hike the Long
> Trail
> with us.  ET is retired army colonel and about 60
> years old.  He hails from Arab, Alabama.  He and
> Andy
> have gone on several long section hikes following
> the
> AT, and -- aside from me -- ET is Andy's main hiking
> buddy.  ET has hiked the AT, the Colorado Trail and
> several other smaller trails.
> 
> So, we all met up in Vermont to start the Long Trail
> on September 17.  ET has always been set in his
> hiking
> ways and carries a small 7-ounce chair to set up in
> camp, as well as a giant shovel-handle made into a
> hiking pole that is another of his trademarks.  The
> day we met up to start the hike, ET immediately
> pulled
> out a set of Leki hiking poles and proceeded to tell
> us how he had been amazed to find them lying in a
> grassy ravine just off the Pinhoti Trail in Alabama
> on
> his thru-hike of that trail not long before.  He had
> put a "Leki Poles Found" add in the ATC magazine and
> online somewhere, as well as left a note on the
> Pinhoti Trail at trailheads, but no one had claimed
> them.
> 
> As he continued to tell us how wonderful he found
> the
> poles to be for his knees after he got used to using
> them and how he didn't think he could hike without
> them now....I picked one up and examined it.  I
> found
> four letters written in black magic marker on the
> top
> of the poles' cork handles.  At first, I wasn't sure
> if they were letters or numbers.  The longer I
> looked
> at them, the more sure I was that they were the
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