[at-l] "In 1997 when I hiked the A.T. with my friend Maureen"

[Snodrog5@xxxxxxx (Snodrog5@xxxxxxx)]

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Anybody know Karen Land? She wrote this:
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/news/stories/20030116/localnews/788054.html
 <A HREF="http://www.greatfallstribune.com/news/stories/20030116/localnews/788054.html";>Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow! - Local News - GreatFallsTribune.com</A>
There's a pic of her at the link.
 Thursday, January 16, 2003
"In 1997 when I hiked the Appalachian Trail with my friend Maureen, the sky
dumped rain every day, all day for weeks straight. The Grayson Highlands of
Virginia resembled photos of the foggy, wet and green Irish countryside. It
was hard to admire the beauty of the area when we were soaked straight
through our Gore-Tex gear. I would have traded my $200 rain suit for an
over-sized trash bag. I never thought I would be dry again. Ever. So at the
next road crossing Maureen and I thumbed a ride into the nearest town and
rented a room. We took hot showers, dried our clothes, ate fast food and
stared dumbly at the map of the United States on the Weather Channel. The
entire country appeared to be free of any "weather" except for the giant blue
raindrops and flashing lightning bolts directly over the entire state of
Virginia. We stared at the TV for two days but the giant blue raindrops would
not disappear. The Weather Channel was right. We couldn't stay at the motel
for weeks waiting for the rain to stop so the next day we filled our packs, sl
ipped on our worthless rain gear and marched out into the giant raindrops."
Land's column appears twice a month in Outdoors. She welcomes mail at P.O.
Box 5468, Great Falls, MT 59403 or she can be reached at <A HREF="mailto:dogland@3rivers.net";>dogland@3rivers.net.</A>