[at-l] Hike

[wb4pan at mindspring.com (Charles W. Davidson)]

Hi Gang,

                The Gathering was great as usual. One highlight sticks 
to mind. The Centennial Trail. 111 miles, hike with buffaloes and take a 
one mile side trip to Mount Rushmore. Got to do that one.
                 I got dropped at Front Royal, VA after the Gathering 
and just finished up a 23 day hike ending at Atkins, Va. A great journey 
even with 5 days of rain in the Shenandoah. The rain and fog blocked 
most of the great views but it let me observe things closer by.  Deer 
surrounded my tent each night, my noisy watch dogs! Most nights coyotes 
could be heard and I enjoyed quite a few Owls too. I only saw one bear 
which was near my camp one evening. We had a dusting of snow last week. 
Mostly just great hiking weather making the miles come easy. I needed 
the long nights of rest and was in bed by sundown most nights. I stayed 
in shelters 2 nights, tented near shelters a few times. But my best 
camps were the more remote ones. Got to say tenting in Rice Field was 
spectacular. I enjoyed different varietys of apples as I passed through 
old habitats.
              I passed some south bounders that were really enjoying 
their hike. The Sobo Hobo's have a web site. Sobo's typically don't get 
near as much trail magic. Towns that feed hikers (Bland) in the spring 
and angels with coolers at road crossing are gone. Much too often I 
found coolers stuffed with rotting trash and or piles of soda cans 
thrown down the hillside. I expect this was done by the unlearned hike 
once a year bunch.. I call it October slob month. Shelters get trashed, 
fireplaces are full of plastic and paper burnt to different degrees, cig 
butts everywhere. Most registers are gone. No doubt used by greenhorns 
that do not know how to start a fire. I shouldn't complain, I have been 
there myself, done that, there should just be some way to speed up the 
LNT learning curve. I am still working on mine. Strive for steady 
improvement. 
    Anyway I had sodas from two creeks that I had put out myself :-) and 
others enjoyed them too. I got a ride into and a ride out of Bland. A 
big plate of food and a sandwich too go. In Atkins I got a ride to 
Marion Greyhound Buss station.

So far it's been a great year. I have spent record time in the woods.
First time ever breaking 1000 miles hiked in one year. Yahoo
I think I would like retirement.

chase