Re: [at-l] hiking in new hampshire and maine...

["richard mann" <hike-usa@email.msn.com>]

The Wizard <tschamp@tiac.net> wrote:

>>   *** skipping kinsman notch to franconia notch
>
>>   *** skipping grafton notch to route 4
>
>Hmmm, don't know if this is the right thing to do, but I guess everybody's
>got their own reasons.  Wish I could come up with a snappy phrase, like:
>It's not Nice to fool Mother Nature.  But it's not nice to skip sections of
>the AT, especially ones that I liked...

wiz -

what i neglected to mention about our hike in new hampshire and maine was
that we are hiking the miles that TIMMY missed in '97.  when we are done,
she will be a 2000 miler.  this is a big deal for her, a dream realized.
soooo, we are not in essence "skipping" anything, rather we are finishing
the miles that were previously skipped...

TIMMY, by the way, has a tremendous fear of heights.  this is one of the
reasons that these miles (most of the miles above tree line)were skipped in
'97.  in pennsylvania, she stood atop the mountain overlooking lehigh valley
and froze, literally froze.  it took much inner strength for her to take
that first step down the mountain.  each additional step was agony.  there
are many places along the AT where she was fearful.  her hike in '97 taught
her many things.  she is diabetic, and she had much trouble with that.  she
also lost her way a good bit, hiking many extra miles...

these are some aspects of the trail that are not much talked about.  a
person that has fears, and brings those fears to the trail, is going to have
an ordeal.  she hiked the trail partly to face the fears that had plagued
her her whole life.  she was transformed...

speaking of mount moosilauke, TIMMY thought her life was over as she hiked
this mountain in '97.  it was above tree line, nasty cold, the winds were
whipping, and there was little visibility.  everyone was getting blown over.
her problem was that it was too cold to check her blood glucose level,
something she has to do quite often.  not knowing your levels is very
dangerous to a diabetic.  too high or too low can cause a myriad of
problems, not the least being reduced oxygen flow to the brain.  a bad
decision on top of that mountain on that day could have killed her.  it was
TIMMYs choice to start our upcoming hike by going over mount moosilauke.  i
think that she has some unfinished business to attend to up there...

pittsburgh




* From the Appalachian Trail Mailing List |  http://www.backcountry.net  *

==============================================================================