[at-l] Hiking Heroes?

[pmags at yahoo.com (Paul Magnanti)]

My own personal hiking hero is an anonymous thru-hiker
I met in 1996.

A little background. I did not go my first backpacking
trip until 1996. After a few weekends of backpacking
with my buddy, I started to go solo. In October of
that year, was on a solo trip in the Whites.

On my back to the car, going southbound on the AT near
Mt. Libery, saw a NOBO thru-hiker with his dog. He
said right off the bat he was not sure if he will make
it to Katahdin or not. I said "I'm envious, you get to
leave civilization for few months". He looked at me,
waved his hiking stick to nearby route three and said
"Out there is chaos"...then waving his stick towards
the trail "Over here is civilization".  He then called
for his dog and started his ascent up Liberty...

A lesson I took to heart. Here's hoping I get back to
civilization next year on the CDT.



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The true harvest of my life is intangible.... a little stardust caught, a portion of the rainbow I have clutched
--Thoreau

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