[at-l] 'Nother Newbie

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

Kurt Bodling wrote:
>I've been lurking for a few days, wondering whether I'd stumbled into
>the right list, or not.  But seeing Denise's self-intro and the
>responses, I figure maybe it's not always full of arguments about
>semi-obscure Trail politics and so on.

Kurt - and Denise -
Welcome to the zoo.  And it has become just that over the last year.  But so 
far it's still a hiker-friendly place - if you can stand the volume of 
posts.  I have limited time to read/post so I've had to start "screening" 
what I read.  Once you figure out what you want out of the list, you might 
want to find out the different ways to access the list and develop a 
"system" to find the information/nonsense/whatever that you're interested 
in.  As I recently said to someone - it's kinda like mining diamonds 
(there's a lot of mud and a few diamonds).  But the diamonds are worth it.

>(And probably some
>betting I'll be eaten by a moose before I finish.)

Hmm - you're more likely to be eaten by a mouse if you stay in shelters.

>Brings both
>external motivation and a couple of un-wanted burdens.  (Like, the
>first question most people ask is "You ARE bringing a cell phone,
>aren't you?")

How'd you do that?  The first question I got was whether I was taking a gun. 
  And several offers with varied weights and calibers - including one from 
the local police chief.  If people offered me guns,  surely they'd offer you 
a cell phone  :-))


>So here I am.  Will be asking for a couple gear suggestions and so
>on in the next month or so.  For now, what's the deal with the cell
>phones?  I've never used one; the college's development officer
>would provide one so they can track my progress on a map on their
>wall; would there be any reception in the Green Mountains anyway;
>should I just refuse it, or "accidentally" lose it?

You've had several good suggestions - the question is - "What do YOU want to 
do?"

Just for reference - Earl Shaffer's family insisted that he carry one for 
his 50th Anniversary thruhike.  He carried it for a while but then ditched 
it cause it was "too heavy"  :-))

For those who do carry them, the best suggestion I've heard is to use it 
like you'd use toilet paper - in private.

Y'know - as rowdy as this list gets sometimes - we usually don't take 3000 
posts to get to that simple a conclusion.  But that's what it took on 
another list to filter all the arguments down to that one bit of advice.

Anyway - welcome - and don't be afraid to ask questions or to get involved.

Walk softly,
Jim



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