[at-l] Fwd: Young men's stamina; CHAINSAW; Re: Hoplite's recovery time..

[sloetoe at yahoo.com (Sloetoe)]

### Having little in the way of huge hiking stories to share
this year, I figured I'd reach into the personal arc-hive and
share a story of one of our list members and their on-trail
kindness. Dang, that was great...

--- Sloetoe <sloetoe@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2004 10:15:46 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Sloetoe <sloetoe@yahoo.com>
 
> --- Mark Hudson <hudsom@us.ibm.com> wrote:
> > <<I needed no "recovery" when I finished my throughhike in
> > '79, nor do I need recovery now, post-6 weeks' worth, nor on
> *any* hike I've done.>>
> > 
> > We're all waiting for the Gathering so we can pump a couple
> of 10 year-olds about how they hiked their old man into the
> ground <vbg>
> 
> ### "Pump"? Ha! Just give 'em a second, and they'll let you
> know. To be honest, though, I did pretty well. What I noticed
> was that I was a better "starter" then they -- whether first
> thing in the morning or simply getting up from a break anytime
> during the day, and that *sometimes* I was better at the end
> of the day. But boyyyyyy, during most of the day, they'd look
> back and say "Dad? You there?" or, on a couple of occasions
> (especially if the destination involved a swimming hole[!!!]),
> they'd just light out and were gone, and there was little I
> could do to catch 'em short of running.
> 
> And they always had this evil grin when I got into camp, as if
I hadn't noticed that they'd just smoked my butt. Ha! Nothing
like carrying dinner to insure young men's affections remain
rightly placed.
> 
> One long, hard, wet day that I directly recall having a shred
> more energy at the end than the boys was somewhere in western
> Maine; we'd done some big(ger) amount of miles over tough(er)
> terrain, in plenty of mud (maybe, we wuz beat, most of the day
> was a fogg). We had had our tarp ripped off leaving Gorham
> (two stories for another day) and the boys had no shelter
except for their badly leaking bivy sacs (yet another story for
another day); so we needed shelter space until the replacement
tarp reached us. (Feeling vulnerable? Self-*in*sufficient? Ugh.)
> So, tired and bedraggled, we pull into this western Maine
leanto round about sunset, and find it well occupied.
> 
> Asked hopefully "Is the leanto full"? and rather than a "Come
on in!" or a "Pretty well full!" or something somewhat
conclusive, we got instead some lame-oh answer about "Yeah, it
kinda/sorta/maybe is, maybe."

Now, it's getting on toward dark, and nobody in the leanto was
moving, and the area around seemed pretty packed, and I muttered
to the boys as we passed in back to look for a sheltered bed
space in the thick vegetation "Sheesh, not that hard of a
question. It (the leanto) *is* or it *isn't* full." Grumble moan
grumble.
> 
> Finding little attractive un-occuppied sleep-space, I said
> "Guys, we need to get water, make dinner, and move on after
dark."
> So, in a moment, we're down at the water source getting ready
to make/inhale dinner, when a voice calls down from the
direction of the shelter "Sloetoe! That you??"
> "Why, yes it is. Who's that?" I call back.
> "Chainsaw!"
> 
> After we'd passed by, he'd put two and two together and
> realized
> "Hey, I know that guy!" and came down to say hello AND TO
> FORMALLY INVITE US BACK TO THE SHELTER -- that they'd all
"make
> do" as needed. What to do? As my bivy was watertight, maybe we
> could squeeze just the boys in..., but then it looked like it
> wasn't going to rain (maybe), so we could just move on and
> avoid the whole leanto-crush scene....
> 
> As I'm weighing these things, acutely aware of the boys'
> frozen motions (this being one of those occasions where we wuz
*all* beat, but they wuz more beat than me, hence their frozen
motions...) , their ears straining to hear right in back of me,
Chainsaw comes out with
> "Or, you could just borrow my tent -- probably sleep all three
> of you -- the Wanderlust 2for2."
> I looked quickly at the boys, wondering if they'd heard, and
> their hopeful eyes made plain that not only had they heard,
> but what their clear preference was. ("Stop! Now! Tent!") As
the one with the most energy, I knew *I* was running on reserve.
> 
> So, that was that. It didn't rain, but with Chainsaw's help,
> the boys spent a dry and even *relaxed* night in a secure
shelter, worry free.
> 
> THANKS Chainsaw.

### Thanks again, Chainsaw!

Spatior! Nitor! Nitor! Tempero!
   Pro Pondera Et Meliora.