[at-l] More hiking...

[camojack at comcast.net (camojack@comcast.net)]

The only hiking I did over Thanksgiving weekend was to and from some caves in Tennessee and Kentucky...unless you count the walking in cave, which was interspersed with stooping and various types of crawling.

I did pass through Hancock, MD on the way back though...
(Good starting point for the C & O Canal Towpath)

-"Camo"
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2004 14:18:17 -0500
From: Mark Hudson <hudsom@us.ibm.com>
Subject: [at-l] More hiking...
To: at-l@backcountry.net
Spent the weekend with my sister's family down in Hancock Md. Did a dayhike at the Green Ridge State Forest on Friday and found that contrary to the KTA on-line map the Mid-State Trail runs south to the Mason Dixon line there. Since this is all of about 20 miles from where my sister lives I see another very convient shuttle hike coming along some time <g>...
skeeterFrom camojack at comcast.net  Wed Dec  1 02:52:35 2004
From: camojack at comcast.net (camojack@comcast.net)
Date: Wed Dec  1 03:02:34 2004
Subject: [at-l] New Hydrogen Process (OT)
Message-ID: <120120040852.16937.41AD865300024F29000042292200761438050C0E0601030E0C@comcast.net>

As much as I hate to get into one o' these scientific debates, I feel strangely compelled to point out that things undreamt of in some posters' lifetimes are currently FACTS of modern life. Mathematics, probability and statistics aside...look at all the advances in the size of the devices upon which we are utilizing this venue. Why then, is it INCONCEIVABLE that solar power can be harvested efficiently enough someday to be a viable resource on a grand scale?

Until then, let's just drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge...

-"Camo" (Ducking and running)
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2004 21:12:56 -0500
From: Jim Bullard <jbullar1@twcny.rr.com>
Subject: RE: [at-l] New Hydrogen Process (OT)
To: J Bryan Kramer <jbryankramer@msn.com>, RoksnRoots@aol.com,
 AT-L@backcountry.net
As much as I hate to agree with Bryan, no energy source (or almost any 
manufacturing for that matter) is without pollutants, whether particulate, 
noise, visual or whatever. I love the irony of advocates' of electric cars 
claims that they are totally non-polluting. Yeah, right. They don't pollute 
in the city where they are used to run around town but what about out where 
the electricity is generated? It just transfers the pollution from the city 
to the country. Even hydro and wind power aren't without environmental cost 
and solar just isn't there yet (if it ever will be).
To get back to the article I posted, the pebble bed technology seems (to my 
non-engineer reasoning) to present a safer alternative than the current 
fuel rod plants. Storage of spent balls on-site is preferable to shipping 
dangerous materials across country. A technology that is not prone to 
catastrophic meltdown is preferable to one that is. It's not the perfect 
no-cost-to-the-environment solution we'd all like to find but it is better 
than building more Three Mile Islands.
Ideally we would reduce our consumption and conserve while we explore 
alternatives but that doesn't seem to sell very well in 'I want it all and 
I want it now' America. Unfortunately we have to deal with reality.
At 06:32 PM 11/29/2004 -0500, J Bryan Kramer wrote:
>This still doesn't address the other major problem with H2, the low storage
>density. Hydrogen is just hard to store in reasonable quantities.
>
>As for nuke power, the usual irrationality still rules, how can you think
>it's better to dump megatons of pollutants into the air rather than
>producing a easily storable small quantity of solid waste.
>
>Look at this MIT article:
>
>http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/04/12/wald1204.asp?p=1
>
>Only the math deprived think terrestrial solar has any future.
>
>BK
>-------Original Message-----
>--*
>--The article strikes me as a theoretical economics, business-sided
>--promotion of nuclear power. It gives one line to the waste
>--disposal problem -
>--"and the balls can then be stored in a lead-lined container
>--on the premises."
>--Sort of like "Thalidomide, available in easily-swallowed
>--capsules." Nowhere
>--does the article mention the huge amounts of waste that will
>--accumulate from
>--this new surge in nuclear power development. It's a sprawl brochure.
>--
>--Ironic that the American engineer who originally
>--conceived this type of
>--nuclear reactor was ignored and then went on to support solar
>--power - which is now being ignored as well.
>--
>--Nothing in there at all about the environmental impact of using
>--industry to convert China. I often wonder if some forces see
>--communization of the
>--masses on the public level as OK as long as a controlling
>--aloof business
>--class enjoys a separate free system. An ideal China is moving
>--towards from one
>--side and the west the other. Sounds like a great subject for
>--a movie...From thornel at attglobal.net  Wed Dec  1 06:59:42 2004
From: thornel at attglobal.net (W F Thorneloe)
Date: Wed Dec  1 07:09:10 2004
Subject: [at-l] Sam's Gap -> Damascus 11/19 Day 5
Message-ID: <6.1.2.0.2.20041201075832.048f4150@pop3.attglobal.net>

11/19 Friday written from the Roan Mtn High Point Shelter. About 28,404 
steps, 7 trail miles but 9-10 total including some explorations.

The trip up the hill from Greasy Creek Friendly was much quicker than I 
expected. Perhaps it was the signage by the crazy man that helped motivate 
me uphill with wings on my feet. I had a short day planned in order to 
"bag" this high point, the highest shelter on the AT.

I enjoyed the cliffs on Little Rock Knob and views into the pastures of 
Tennessee. I met a hunter trying to carry all of his gear on his back and a 
small cart out of Hughes Gap. He said he planned to hunt well off the 
trail, but was all in camo and no blaze orange. Closer to Hughes Gap, I met 
an older couple on a day hike to the cliffs. We exchanged photo opps. In 
Hughes Gap, the hunter's truck offered me some trail magic as he had left 
an apple by the truck.

My legs felt good as I was able to dawdle and rest frequently on this last 
climb above 6000 feet until I get into New England. The rate of climb is 
about 2300 feet over 2.5 miles. Once on top of Roan, I found I had the 
summit to myself, the site of the Cloudland Hotel. Folks would come by 
train to Roan Mtn. TN, take a stage coach to Carver's Gap, and then "hike" 
by cart and foot to stay above the clouds, among the rhododendrons and live 
for weeks in style. I suspect this was to help protect children from polio 
as well as avoid yellow fever in those days of the late 19th century. Even 
it's foundations have been removed as its fine furnishings were spread 
across the South when it closed. It is now a Federal Park with locked up 
toll booth, empty parking lot, locked toilet house and scattered signage 
and graveled pathways. One sign informs that the ballroom was divided by a 
line marking the state border. Legal to drink in Tennessee, not so legal in 
NC. A sheriff would occasionally lurk to collect fines from those who 
strayed across that line.

I found the trail to the shelter, and heard the raucous laughter and yells 
of a kid and her attached touron parents. (Touron = Tourist + Moron). They 
were up on a day trip from Carvers Gap, staying in a nearby state park. 
They were trying to figure out their cameras, taking photos of the 
surveyor's high point marker, carrying the 8 year old daughter as she 
dropped candy bar wrappers while asking me the usual questions of why a 
person would want to hike alone. The father had that twinkle in his eye, 
but the shackles of "I'd do it if I had the time" keeping him from really 
considering his options. I managed to Yogi some candy bars when the couple 
saw me picking up the litter. (Yogi = receive food and treats without 
really trying).

As the tourons left, SOBO hikers appeared at the shelter - Kodak and Jolly 
Rancher. She is a photographer trained at Western Carolina, and estimated 
she had taken over 5000 photos on their trip. She was keen to hear of my 
daughter's experiences, and to gather what she planned to do once out of 
school. Kodak was quite undecided for herself. They live in Cary, NC, hope 
to meet their parents on Springer prior to Christmas, and hope to move to 
Asheville after their walk ends. A couple of other SOBO's came by, but were 
keen to go 5 more miles to the Clyde Smith Shelter, even if they walked in 
the dark through the cliffs. SOBOs are a strange lot.

We did our cooking routines and began to prepare for the night. I had 
elected to stay in the attic (the shelter is a former fire ranger's 2 story 
cabin), but was a bit concerned with the amount of food and garbage I found 
up there. Quickly, the mice joined me and I fled with my gear to the first 
floor with the couple. The mice remained aggressive, with one biting my 
finger in the dark. Jolly Rancher decided to sleep on the cook table 
outside the shelter. I considered setting up my hammock, but didn't like 
the dark and the word of likely rain. I was bothered the entire night by 
episodes or loud pattering of mice feet about the cabin - and even more 
embarrassed when I learned it was hemlock branches hitting the tin roof in 
the rain. Section hikers are a dumb lot.

I hope to make it to Apple House Shelter, near US 19E, tomorrow as I've had 
two short days and about 90 miles to complete.

OrangeBug