[at-l] Future AT hiker...

[rickboudrie@hotmail.com (rick boudrie)]

Regarding, charts and averages and seminars.  Regarding expert advise.  
Being told the things you need to know...

Some people may require this, but I suspect most don't.  Personally I would 
recommend reading something simple and straight forward like Jim Owen's 
"Through Hiking Papers".  They can be found on the Web.

Then I would resign myself to the reality that hiking is not brain surgery.  
Most people can figure things out pretty well without much effort.  In my 
case it took memories from a slide show some years earlier, a backpacking 
book, understanding the basics, and about two weeks hammering out the 
details in my spare time.  Since you need to learn the mechanics of 
thru-hiking, you tend to learn them pretty fast.

Where I screwed up was in not learning about the Trail itself.  Nor of the 
natural history along it.  If I had a year to prepare, thats where I would 
expend my energies.  I would know what a spruce grouse was before I stmbled 
upon one.  I would understand the history of Harper's Ferry before bypassing 
the town (It used to be on a blue blaze).  I would have read something about 
the CCC that built the Trails in Shenandoa National Park rather than just 
appreciating the grade.  I would read up on why all the helicopters buzz 
around that area rather than just guessing it had something to do with 
"governemnt stuff".  I would understand a bit about the geology I was 
walking on, and about the families whose abandoned homesteads I would pass.  
I would know why the hills in Palmerton didn't look right, and I would why 
some worms are special in GSNP.  I would know wich animal has shit that 
looks like maccaroni, and the this difference between a fax scat and dog 
crap.  I would know about Benedict Arnold (?) in Maine and about Civil War 
battles.  I would know which planets can be seen from earth. And the 
difference between trillium and indian pipes. I would know about how the 
Trail in the Whites came to be, and how our ancestors appreciated the beauty 
of those very same mountains.  I would know that dear snort at night.

I might as well have been hiking with blinders on.  Doing some reading on 
these kinds of things before a through hike would have been wonderful, and 
would have been far more valuable to me than a whole lot of stuff that some 
deem to be important.

Rick B

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