[at-l] Hiking together and 31 mail drops

[gbuffmd@bigfoot.com (Gary Buffington)]

Sweet Pea and I hiked together so close that EZ claims he could have put a
line between us and dried his laundry.  We mostly tented or stayed in a
room.  Wanchor claims we may have the new record for nights stayed in rooms;
however, we hiked every blaze of the trail and stayed in our tent about 180
nights.  We did walk to Maine, but it was certainly our own hike.  I hiked
too slowly and she waited.  She was in a hurry and I wasn't.  She needed her
hair done every month, so I dyed it a few times and she went to two salons
and our cosmetologist daughter did it two times, but mostly she wore a hat!
I needed to talk too much to many hikers, and she was anxious to get in the
mileage.  I loved breaks, and she never took off her pack from morning to
evening.  But we worked it out-mainly she put up with me!.  We looked at
solving these needs as part of the adventure and kept walking.  The only day
we actually took off because of a medical need (my rotten feet in
Manchester) we went to the movie.
I noticed early on that we always were with men hikers, until we were lucky
enough to find U-turn Shari, Dreamcatcher, Cheryl, and Candy Lady.  We
managed to do about 1500 miles with these wonderful women, and their company
was great for both of us.  Of course some old salts like EZ, Slyman, Hawk,
Navy Nomad, Lightning Bolt, Pa, Baltimore Jack, and Pirate coddled us and
taught us how to survive.
We used all those 31 drops Pittsburgh mentions, and added a few of our own.
We found the woods great and the towns great.  When in town we were anxious
to get back on the trail.  When on the trail we were anxious to get to town
(especially Sweet Pea thinking of hamburgers or breakfast).  We also liked
warm clean showers!  We were flexible, like the time after three days of
rain we came to Spivey Gap and a ride, so we rode into Erwin and came back
and slacked the 14 miles into Erwin the next day.  Then when we left Erwin
and got two days out we came to a ride again and presto, we were back to
Erwin.  We will never forget the great time we had at the Erwin Holiday Inn
and never missed a day of hiking!  None of this was planned but it was
necessary, and the flexibility kept us fresh and going.  It takes
flexibility, and allowing each other to make decisions, and of course space
is necessary; but we didn't want either of us out of each others sight (or
voice contact) in the woods and with few (if any) exceptions, we were not.
Bear Bag
Read about it at www.800WeSweat.com



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