[at-l] RE: What about Bob?

[shane at theplacewithnoname.com (Shane Steinkamp)]

> I don't recall hearing about Bob's hike.  I probably missed
> something.  What is going (has gone) on with him?

I thought I had posted a final update, but maybe I didn't...

Anyway, Bob fell out.  The reasons for this are many and varied.  If you ask
him, he will blame his series of minor accidents and injuries.  The truth of
it is, though, that he just couldn't take the solitude and not being near
his family.

I suppose, in a way, it was a foregone conclusion, and maybe I should have
recognized it in him earlier.  Part of his 'failure' to thru-hike is
partially my 'failure' to 'train' him in the way that he needed to be
trained.  I tended to drag him around, make him jump naked into the river,
and otherwise try to awaken in him something that is terribly difficult to
awaken in a mind as set as his was.  Had we taken a different method - a
goal oriented method - perhaps his outcome would have been different.  I
have just never been a very goal oriented person...

Really, though, his experience was very good for him, and it really did
change his life in some ways.  He spends a lot more time outdoors now, and
has started to recognize and notice things that he otherwise would not have.
As OB said a long time ago, "Your experience IS your success."

When I hike the AT in 2006 or 2007, I may try to take him along for a
section or two and see if it's still in him.  That way he won't be lonely,
and maybe he'll still wake up...

Shane