Re[3]: [at-l] Good News...

[bullard@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Jim Bullard)]

At 09:13 AM 3/5/2003 -0500, Weary wrote:
> >"... Beyond escape, I was never seeking a social experience.  I'm not a very
> >social person.  My desire was to see and photograph 'the trail'," reports
> >Saunterer.
>
>Which pretty much describes my attitude and plans when I went to Georgia 10
>years ago. Because I was both slow and into exploring a bit of the southern
>Appalachians, I rarely was with the same cluster of hikers for very long.
>
>  Regardless, though I've forgotten many of their names, I remember vividly
>scores of hikers that I met during those first weeks -- their mannerisms,
>their
>tales of past lives, their varied personalities. I found it most fascinating.
>
>  A couple of years ago I was at a conference at the  Sunday River Ski area in
>Maine. The kid at the front entrance was one of the  hundreds of hikers I had
>met during those early weeks in Georgia and North  Carolina. We had spent at
>most a couple of nights together in crowded lean-tos.  Though we were
>separated
>by 50 years in age, and totally different life styles,  and experiences, we
>recognized each other immediately.
>
>  Weary

And I'm sure the same will apply to a section hike. I still remember the
Japanese hiker with the bear bell on his pack climbing Basin Mt. and the
Scottish Father/Son team I met on Dial when climbing the 46 High Peaks.
There were special moments in almost all my hikes (even the day hikes and
those where I turned back from my original goal for one reason or another)
that are engraved on my memory.