[at-l] Leave of Absence

[icw@xxxxxxxxxxx (Clark Wright)]

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
what a great theme - skiing the AT!

for some reason this post made me recall the PBS special I saw a while
back about the two guys who rollerbladed up [and down] Mt.  Kilimanjaro

thru-thinker

Datto wrote:

>>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
>
>
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