[at-l] Half a Gathering

[spiriteagle99@hotmail.com (Jim and/or Ginny Owen)]

is better than none -

The weekend turned out different than planned, but still was a good one.  
Friday we did a lovely, short (but steep) hike in Ricketts Glen, a beautiful 
area in Pennsylvania I had never seen before with incredible waterfalls, 
especially lovely right now with the swirling golden leaves.  Saturday 
morning we went to Uncle Bill's funeral in Wilkes Barre, so Jim had the 
chance to say goodbye to his uncle and say hello to the remaining elders of 
the family.  There was no post service collation, so we decided to go ahead 
and join our other family at Dartmouth.  We had talked about going hiking 
instead of driving all that way, just for one day of Gathering, but knew 
that we would really regret it if we missed the Gathering entirely.  After 8 
years, it means too much to us to not even try.  We managed to make it to 
the Gathering in time for a few quick hellos before Walkin' Jim's concert.  
As usual, the pictures and the music was worth all the rush and fuss to get 
there.

The good thing about the Gathering is that there are so many good people, 
interesting activities and beautiful slide shows.  The bad thing is that 
there isn't nearly enough time to do them justice.  It seemed like I only 
spent five minutes with most people, at best, and many friends I never did 
get a chance to say hello to. At some points there were 10 workshops going 
simultaneously, at least three of which I really wanted to see.  Choices, 
choices! It is hard to do both -- talk to people and attemd workshops.  But 
I really like to learn about places and ideas and ways of doing things that 
are new to me.  And sometimes I like to just see pictures of places I have 
been so that I can remember. Still, I managed to add several new places to 
my someday hiking list (Canadian Rockies and the Camino de Santiago were 
already there, but they got moved up) and to get reinspired for our next 
long trek -- whatever that may turn out to be.

Listening to Brian field questions from the group was a lot of fun, though 
probably not for him.  Having an audience that really understands may have 
been a mixed blessing.

At meals and the fire we had the chance to say a little more than hello to a 
few people - but as always the Gathering was just too short, especially 
since we missed Friday and Saturday.  Trying to fit three days of experience 
into just one day was fun, but so much was missed.

At the same time that I was being inspired to take off and go hiking as soon 
as possible, Jim decided that since we are stationary for a few years, we 
might as well do a few things that were impossible while we were intent on 
preparing for our long hikes - like serve on the ALDHA board and adopt a 
section of trail (Midstate, not AT).  Gotta watch that man - the minute I 
turn my back, he starts volunteering.  There are different kinds of 
inspiration.  Leaving the work to others has never been his way - seeing a 
need and stepping in are a lot more his style.  So guess who ended up as 
Program Coordinator for next year?  Jim of course.  We know where we'll be 
next Columbus Day.  But then, that was pretty much a surety in any case.

Anyhow -- I'm really glad we went.  1200 miles is a long way to drive just 
to spend one day (but two evenings) with folks, but it was worth it.  And a 
few listers came a lot further and then had to turn around and miss Sunday.  
So I can't complain (though my back and backside have had a few things to 
say about spending so much time sitting on such a gorgeous weekend!) To 
those I missed and to those I spent way too little time with - I'm sorry. I 
hope we'll meet at the Ruck or out on the trail, when there's more time to 
talk and we're not so distracted by events.  Or we'll just continue to talk 
on-line.  Seems sometimes we talk more easily with our fingers.  And next 
year we'll meet you at Pipestem.

Ginny



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