[at-l] final pieces of gear

[lwbooher@halifax.com (Leslie Booher)]

What my first hiking partner told me, and I still do it, is to take the
things along that well-meaning people give you or insist that you take, then
leave them in the car.  You've technically "taken" them, you just don't have
the weight to worry about.  On the way home, you stick it back in you pack.
In Kajsa's case, maybe someone can mail it to her saying that she'd dropped
it along the trail.  Still not technically untrue.  Ooohhhh, and me a clergy
wife!  <G>  Leslie (anklebear)

-----Original Message-----
From: Tim Hewitt <Tim.Hewitt@fairchildsemi.com>
To: at-l@mailman.backcountry.net <at-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
Date: Friday, February 23, 2001 2:56 PM
Subject: Re: [at-l] final pieces of gear


>In a reply to "Kajsa van Overbeek" <k.vanoverbeek@lr.tudelft.nl> ,
>OrangeBug wrote in part:
>>
>> Keep the compass, at the very worst, the mirror can help as a signal and
>> for grooming. Occasionally, the compass can help you figure where you are
>> in areas of North Carolina and Tennessee where the trail really twists
and
>> turns.
>
>Dump the compass - you can even leave on the plane. Unless you have maps
>that are made to be used with a compass, and are knowledgeable in it's use,
>it's of marginal use at best in the AT corridor. If you want to have a
>mirror, bring a small metal mirror - don't rationalize bringing the compass
>in order to use it's mirror.
>
>If you are in the parts of the trail in NC and TN where it winds around,
you
>may indeed need to go South to go towards Katahdin on the AT. Unless you
are
>absolutely positive you know where you are, your compass will only turn you
>around and head you in the wrong direction. In 1999 I passed a young female
>hiker using her compass to "get back on the AT." She had been "lost" since
>she stopped for lunch and got turned around leaving a shelter. She was
quite
>sure that now she was on the trail and headed North. We stopped and talked
>for a bit when I passed her - she was headed South, compass in hand,
>following the needle. I asked her where she was going and she said "only as
>far as Damascus." I suggested she turn around and come with me, as she was
>headed toward Erwin. She insisted that she was headed in the right
direction
>and marched off. I never did see her again. Not anecdotal, a true story of
>how useful a compass is on the AT in the hands of a neophyte.
>
>I know some people carry them as a "security blanket," however the AT is
>really not a trail you need a compass on. If you stay on the trail, you
will
>not get lost enough to where you need a compass to get back. If you should
>stray off the trail, you will not be able to locate yourself on the AT
>corridor maps using your compass - the maps do not have that kind of
detail,
>and are not wide enough to allow you to get a sighting on enough
interesting
>points to triangulate your position.
>
>Tell Mom thanks, put it in your pack, and lose it before Springer.
>
>-Paddler
>
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