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[at-l] Wagtail withdraws from Class of 97

On Feb 9th the AT-L heard from Brian Miller  (Canberra, Australia)

"My son Ian (Wagtail) starts his through hike from Atlanta on 1 April and
my
wife is getting increasingly anxious about how we can keep in touch.  (In
my

[snip]".

I forwarded a posting from "Hopeful" about a hiker from Down Under,
thinking it was Brian's son, but got back word that Wagtail had to quit
before his start.  

I don't think I missed a posting here on the List but if I did, pardon
the wasted space.  Some who had responded to Brian's request for
communications originally may be interested in what happened.

Below is the responce from Brian.


Peter Lascell                                 Forest, VA                 
        w4wwq@juno.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 
Peter

Thanks for forwarding the post.  I don't know whether you know the awful
story but Ian (Wagtail) slipped on some steps on his way to the
trailhead.
He was carrying his pack and hurt his back badly enough that he wasn't
even
able to lift his pack.  This sort of ruled out any chance of continuing
and
also the option of spending time in the US.  He's back in Oz now, a VERY
disappointed guy.   The planning that went into the event, the training,
the
equipment, the expense has left us all devastated.  In fact Ian spent a
couple of days with us and has put his gear in his van and headed up to
the
north coast (I suspect to get away from people asking him what happened).
At least his injuries aren't as bad as they might have been but there was
no
chance of him doing the AT. Since he took his long service leave to do
this
trek, I don't know whether he'll get another opportunity.  I've
unsubscribed
from AT-list and don't look at the Trail pages anymore.  It's all too
distressing.  

That's life.

Brian


Brian Miller  (Canberra, Australia)
bmiller@pcug.org.au

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