[at-l] Heartwarming Leki Story, part 2

[infpeace@yahoo.com (Nina Baxley)]

Sorry about the cliffhanger, y'all ... no, I'm not
sorry ... I love the drama! :) Anyway, here's part 2
...

> > 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
> > letters N, I, N, A written in a circle.  ET
> thought
> > they were a foreign compass notation, but I told
> him
> > they could be the name of a person: Nina.  I knew
> > only
> > one Nina and she was off hiking the AT, not the
> > Pinhoti.  I didn't know her very well, as we were
> > just
> > email penpals for a bit but I was pretty sure she
> > was
> > from Louisiana, not Alabama.  So, the poles
> couldn't
> > be hers.  Must be foreign compass notations.
> > 
> > So, I dismissed any thought that the poles could
> > belong to the Nina I knew from email and
> Trailplace.
> > 
> > We went onwards and hiked up into northern
> Vermont. 
> > A
> > bad week-long ice and snow storm hit us and money
> > began to run low.  So, we headed home and back to
> > "real life."  
> > 
> > When I got home in November I was searching for a
> > friend's PCT journal and found yours instead on
> > Gorp. 
> > I only had time that day to look at one entry, so
> I
> > selected a random choice.  That week you described
> > an
> > incident where you met an old hiking friend on the
> > AT
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