[at-l] Raccoon, AT 2003?

[shane@theplacewithnoname.com (Shane Steinkamp)]

> Which leaves me in the position of suddenly having an
> unlimited amount of time on my hands right at the start
> of the northbound thru-hiker season.  And which makes me
> regret twice as much that I had to miss the Gathering,
> and can't make this weekend's shakedown hike.  I've
> barely even scratched the surface of the training hikes
> that I wanted to do to get ready for such an endeavor,
> and there are some major financial and other question
> marks that could just as easily turn this into a
> pleasant daydream that never materializes.
>
> Eep.  Someone talk me out of this....

(For the new folks who don't know me very well, this should be taken with a
grain of salt and not personally.  I tend to wax romantic and get all
charged up...)

How dare you!?  How dare you ask any one of us to talk YOU out of something
that we all dream, drool, and fantasize about?  This isn't Hiker's
Anonymous, after all.  This is where we come to feed our addictions and
revisit past glory.

SO, young lady, you must understand that our dreams are like our children.
The ones that thrive are the ones we feed.  Your dream to hike is, I am sure
all of us here would agree, one of your MOST precious children.  Will you
neglect this child with such weak excuses as not enough 'training hikes',
financial nonsense, or some other excuse to let that child starve and die?
Shame!  Shame!  Shame!

Any one of these excuses can be used to kill the child, but if you walk away
now, I want you to answer just one question:  If you peter away this chance
to do something glorious, and experience something joyous, and you live a
long life, finally to lay on your death bed, beset on all sides by the
ailments of your age; what would you give to come back here, now, and
resurrect that child, that wasted dream, and embrace it wholly, feed it,
nurture it, love it, and watch it grow?

Shane