[at-l] Re: Loss of the AT thru-hiking "mystique"

[DTimm65344@aol.com (DTimm65344@aol.com)]

This actually covers numerous recent topics, including the subject topic, why 
we hike, LOTR, and windmills.

Living in the middle of the highly urbanized northeast I-95 corridor, my 
options for being miles from people and roads near home are extremely 
limited, but they do exist.

When I walk into the woods I am most aware that I was born into the wrong 
century (although I like the longevity these days better than the ages into 
which I believe I belong).

When I am walking in the woods, even near my house on the Mason Dixon trail 
which runs within 100 feet of my house, I am in a much simpler time where, as 
someone put it, one is reduced to our ancestral state of minimum essential 
survival type mode (food, water, shelter stuff).  I realize then that I was 
reincarnated the wrong place and I belong in the 1700s or 1800s or maybe even 
Middle Earth (I've always fancied myself a Bilbo/Frodo type but with the grey 
hair taking over, I'm shifting more into Gandalf mode (and my physique 
matches him better anyway), although I haven't figured out yet how to get 
those nifty cart fireworks to shoot out of my pack as I walk past children.

When I cross a road or pass other signs of civilization, I simply ignore them 
(except to avoid getting hit by a car or attacked by someone's dog) and get 
back into the woods as quickly as possible.

Point is, civilization is around and you can choose to focus on it and get 
frustrated or ignore it (including detours into towns to stay or load up on 
burgers).  It is highly unlikely that all the views all the way along the 
trail are going to disappear tomorrow so there is plenty to look at if you 
look in the proper direction.  So oppose the windmills (and other things) 
being built within view of the trail (I personally think the windmills aren't 
right thoughted?) but when they are built (as they will when the money is 
sprinkled in the appropriate places), ignore them or marvel at them if you 
prefer as you pass, or look the other direction, or learn to walk backwards 
and view the trail you have just passed until you are past them.  We're all 
there to look at trees and mountaintops, I think, and they are still there.

Peace.

Black&blue