[at-l] Future AT hiker...

[cballs@mindspring.com (Curtis Balls)]

This is some of the best advice you will ever hear about hiking the Trail.
Excellent, sane advice, every word of it.

Curtis


----- Original Message -----
From: "rick boudrie" <rickboudrie@hotmail.com>
To: <at-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
Cc: <bmcgarrahan@sc.rr.com>
Sent: Monday, May 13, 2002 5:20 PM
Subject: Re: [at-l] Future AT hiker...


> 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
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at
http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp.
>
> _______________________________________________
> From the AT-L mailing list         est. 1995
> Need help?  http://www.at-l.org
> Archives: http://www.backcountry.net/arch/at/
> Change your options or unsubscribe:
> http://mailman.backcountry.net/mailman/listinfo/at-l
>
> Stay on topic!
>