[at-l] Leave of Absence

[datto_atl2@xxxxxxxxx (Datto)]

> request?  Did you go into an explanation of the benefits
> you percieve the company reeping from your walking for 6
> months?

I actually tried to get a leave of absense but my
co-workers  and the higher-ups didn't believe me when I
gave 30 days notice before I started my thru-hike. I was
still being scheduled for company projects over the
upcoming summer. I emailed the project planner reiterating
that I wasn't going to be there in the summer...that I'd be
thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail.

His response was, "I thought you were kidding! You really
aren't going to do that are you?" I guess they'd somehow
gotten the idea I was a kidder.

Well then people soon started believing me -- I put
together a FAQ for the Appalachian Trail and put it on the
company website so I could point people to it who had the
usual 20 questions about thru-hiking.

That's about the time I started getting advice from my
co-workers about which gun I should carry. Pistols mostly.
Ha. Every single one of them was amazed I wasn't going to
be taking a gun along on the Appalachian Trail. "What are
you gonna do about bears??" Well at least it wasn't
questions about running from tigers and wildebeast -- some
of these people had never ever been in the woods before --
the thought of spending even one dark night in the woods
frightened the daylights out of them.

Then, about a week before I left the company to start my AT
thru-hike, I sat down with the Director of Human Resources.
A big snow had recently occurred and he said to me, "So, I
hear you're going to be skiing the Appalachian Trail."
Smiling, I told him no, I was going to be thru-hiking it
with a backpack. He said to me, "Have you seen those skis
in such and such magazine." At this point, I started
smiling and --  well some of you know me -- I told him I'd
like to know how much they weighed and how fast he thought
I'd be able to go. He went on and on about the ski
equipment I should consider taking on my ski trip, the
right stylish garments to wear, all the goggle choices. I
egged him on so much I was in the meeting with him talking
about skis for almost two hours.

During my last week of employment at the company I spent
valuable company time painstakingly constructing a purple
Katahdin Ski Lift Pass. I'd intended to attach it to my
backpack at Springer Mountain, Georgia and carry the ski
pass from Springer to Katahdin. But with the rush of
getting my "stuff' packed  up before leavlng, I forget to
take it with me.

No worries. Somewhere about AT mile 25 north of Springer
Mountain after starting north on my thru-hike, I sat at a
shelter and opened a pack of Planters Gorp. While reading
the contents and ingredients I looked at the top right
corner of the Planters package. It said, "Win a ski trip
instantly!"

God did that crack me up! It still does!

There was a hiker named RocksNRoots who was in the shelter
with me and I think he might have thought I'd gone over the
edge with all the falling down laughing I was doing by
myself.

Here's a photo of me just getting off the ski lift at
Katahdin Slopes, ready to go inside for some hot
toddy...right at the cozy lodge they keep up on top of
Baxter Peak for AT Thru-Skiers:

http://friends.backcountry.net/datto/pic/katahdin3.jpg

That's me in the middle. Right before I went up Katahdin
with Bear and Frogger (the other two in the photo) we saw
alongside the Trail some kind of wooden sign about skiing.
Bear, who knew of my thoughts on Thru-Skiing the AT, took a
photo of me standing next to the ski sign holding my hiking
poles in a devil make care ski chalet look. The photo is in
slide format so I haven't yet gotten it scanned but the
whole thing with skiing the Appalachian Trail seemed to
follow me the entire 2167 miles.

Datto


__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
New DSL Internet Access from SBC & Yahoo!
http://sbc.yahoo.com