Hiking Matt

and boy does it look much more different in July than in March.

None of those are my packs… but next year they will & I’ll have a bigger beard!

First off, the ATC (Appalachian Trail Conservancy) was actually open, which meant there were hikers and many people in the park (Harpers Ferry is considered park land.) Unfortunately, Tara and I got a late start from Springfield to be able to enjoy the town in all it’s summerness. We also noticed people tubing and kayaking down the Potomac, it looked like fun. Hopefully we can go back and do that on a nice hot day. After getting my National Parks Passport stamped, we headed north to Washington Monument State Park in Maryland. The AT crosses here and I thought we may be able to run into some hikers. Just as we pulled in we noticed two backpackers finishing up from refilling their water bottles from a park spigot. Instead of the “are you AT hikers” I asked how long it’d taken them to get here from Harpers Ferry. They said “a day” and I knew they were thru hikers. So Tara and I chatted with them by the spigot for about 30 minutes before I inquired if they were going up to see the monument. They said “sure.” I asked them to wait a moment while I go to my car and get some goodies for them to eat on the way up. They were more than happy to wait the extra two minutes. Their names are “Scooter” and “Shine” or “The Canadians” as they are both referred to by most hikers. They were a very nice and cordial and Tara was finally able to witness how pleasant thru-hikers really are. We talked about a myriad of things from gear, food, the trail, interactions with other people, and of course, the World Cup. They truly are a class act. We snapped a few photos and walked back down the trail with them. At the trail crossing, we proceeded to talk for about ten more minutes before salutations started going round and inevitably, led to another conversation, some twenty to twenty-five minutes later, Tara and I bidded adieu and headed back down to the car. The hikers we ran across in Harpers didn’t seem warm or considerate really. Yeah, there were normal pleasantries and all, but they didn’t seem terribly open (like I knew most to be). I rationalized it to Tara that this is a ‘town day’ and that their focus is elsewhere and that most hikers form a strange kind of bond (after 1000 miles) that is hard to break into. “The Canadians” only agenda however, consisted of finding somewhere tomorrow to watch the World Cup Finals. GOOD LUCK!!

Tara, Myself, “Scooter,” and “Shine” who together are known as “The Canadians” – Washington Monument, MD

Our intentions were to leave some trail magic further up the path (another day or so), but due to time constraints, we were not able.. but that’s okay.. these snacks don’t start going bad until 2008. I’ll give it another go and try to make it up to Pennsylvania sometime to drop these off. I’d like to see how Laura (from Trail Days in Damascus) is doing, she better not have quit! I went to the ATC to check to see if she’d made it yet and her picture was nowhere to be seen. Sigh.

mattbob

except, i did it in a car.

Since I learned that I was not going to be able to hike the Appalachian Trail this year, I decided that I would go to the ATC (Appalachian Trail Conference Conservancy) HQ in Harpers Ferry to pick up additional information. Plus, I was in a real need of a road trip. So I grabbed my friend Tara and we checked out the town.

First things learned first. The ATC is NOT opened on the weekends.. not until mid-May. WTF? Grr. Oh, speaking of personal frustrations.. I also forgot my National Park passport, D’OH! So, now, when I go back, I have to back to the visitors center and do some back dating… hopefully I won’t forget.

Since we went at the beginning of March, we practically owned the place.. there were only a handful of people. It’ll be interesting to visit in the summer. Also, in March, the place is FRIGID!!!!! The wind is very similar to that along the Potomac River in Washington DC, right along the mall..

Tara and I walked around the town, jumping in and out of various shops and, as one may have guessed, I had to check out the local outfitters, aptley named, The Outfitters at Harpers Ferry. I chatted with the lone employee about AT stuffs and this and that, he said that he’d hiked sections of the trail and that would maybe hike the whole thing one day. As Tara and I wondered around, sifting through the bargin bins (best get em before thru hikers eh?), I educated her on the various gear and purposes. While checking out, I learned that this was the employee’s third day! I have to admit, I felt a bit cheated. He’d spoke as tho’ he’d been there for some considerable amount of time. Very disheartening. Moving on.

Of course, I had to get some shots on the trail..

Then we found this wicked old church that people seem to like to climb on.

Here’s Tara hanging out in the archway (presumably at the front of the church)

me just chillin’

and finally, here’s an ad posted in the General Store.. wish prices were still the same!

$4.00 for a gallon of Whiskey… sweet.

mattbob

Let me catch you up. 

Here at work, when someone retires or resigns, that office will normally take them out for a nice lunch.  Since I’d been
working here for a long time (1999), I figured that a really good place was in order.. something unlike what everyone
else does.� I chose Cafe Asia in the city as my go to place… it’s trendy, the food is good and the sushi even better.
I went around the office and everyone thought it was a great idea, except for the fact that it would be a 2 hour lunch…
something not well recieved.� I’ve never cared for the word “no,” so I proceeded to ask my boss’s boss to clear us for
the mid-afternoon festivities.

Me: “Hey Scott, I was wondering what the possibilities would be for us to be able to travel a little for my going away
lunch”

Boss: “You’re not going anywhere.”

Me: “No, I meant at the end of the month, for my going away lunch.”

Boss: “You’re not going anywhere.”

Me: “I’d worked all the April hours and worked it out with Lukas so that I could leave at the end of March.”

Boss: “I know, you’re not going anywhere.”

By this time, I was having a hard time ‘reading’ him, so I bluntly asked, “Are you fucking with me????” He gaffawed and
proceeded to tell me that my contract was going to be renewed for another year.  The expression on my face MUST have been
priceless, to say the least.  Here I am, planning to leave the working world in less than a month, to travel up a
mountain range, open ended afterwards.. the best way (for now) to explain it would be to envision stacks of photo albums
stacked on a coffee table, imagine how nice they look stacked up, seven and eight high, probably totaling somewhere in
the 20s.. ready to be flipped through, a story for each of photos inside, ones with sorrow, ones with glee and others
vainfully trying to capture bliss in it’s purest form.  Stories of friends met, knowing what’s up with them now, stories
of places visited, wildlife encounters, and more shots that can hardly be explained, but more to be experienced.  Got it,
have that concept, that image?

Now throw it all away!!  It doesn’t exist!  Gone, in an instant!  I call it my dream ’stroke.’

I ended up deciding that now was not the time to be “burning bridges,” so I acknowledged the contract renewal.  Sigh.

“Just when I thought that I was out they pull me back in.”  – Michael Corleone, Godfather 3

mattbob

I FINALLY recieved my pocketmail device the other day and was excited to get it up and running so that I could get all the info I needed entered into it asap. To my dismay, this is what I was sent.

What is that line on the bottom????? ARGH! No luck for me. Looks like I am going to have to send it back to Pocketmail before I can use it. Wonderful.

PS Those are actually missing or burned out crystals in the screen, a completely defective display.

mattbob

.. and so it has begun.

On Tuesday morning, I had my first dream about the AT (Appalachian Trail). Now, I’m not one who likes to just to rationalize or interpret dreams, but I think that my subconscious is really trying to get a message to me. Here’s why.

My dream begins with me sitting inside a lodge in Amicalola Falls State Park in GA, with numerous people sitting about a long table eating breakfast. Seemingly the same breakfast that everyone will be eating for months to come. While sitting there, I noticed a guy at my 2 o’clock that looked rather familiar. It took a second and I finally realized that he was one of the hikers in the AT movie, TREK. I asked if he was the guy and he said ‘yes.’

What impressed me in this dream, was that I was able to age him appropriately.. interesting.. story continues.

I pointed him out to my family and said that he was the guy from the third AT movie. They disappeared as fast as they appeared. Everyone was beginning to mosey out to make their way up Springer Mountain to the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail, some eight miles from where we stood.

As I was grabbing my bag, which is my LowePro Camera Backpack (don’t ask, that’s what I was thru-hiking with) and was about to step outside, I saw it was raining. It occurred to me at this moment that, i didn’t have any rain gear what-so-ever!! As I sat there and contemplated whether I could continue on, I decided that I would wait the rain out. Some time later (who knows, it was sandman time) I looked out the window and saw a clearing with a creek and the sun just lighting up the darkest shadows along the banks. As I was heading out once again, I realized that I didn’t have a sleeping bag… that’s okay because… oh shit, I don’t have a tent either! I look around in the the ‘lobby’ like area and find an old tent that I used as a boy scout. These are the heavy, long, and awkward. I also had no where to put it, so I had to carry it in my hand because, apparently, I didn’t bring my Lekis either!! I knew that without a sleeping bag, it would be a very uncomfortable trekking experience, so, I thought that my best option would be to hike directly to Neels Gap and the Walasi-Yi Center to purchase what i didn’t have. As this dilemma played out, my brother, Jeremiah, who was filming the beginning part of my hike was talking to people all around saying, ‘I was betting that he would go the whole way.’ While reflecting back to my x-hike this summer (24 hr continuous hike) and whether or not I could make it, without knowing he terrain…..

I woke up.

I actually woke up in a panic! This rarely happens to me. How weird.

This is a wake up call to me to get my act together, to be sure. There is exactly 45 days until I will be happily unemployed, sorta, and I have a ton of loose ends to wrap up. Only those who are trying to hide from the government or those who are going to let everything go before hiking the AT, know what needs to be done. This is a completely insane undertaking. I’ll post more about this process later. Lucky you.
There is so much that I want to do, but I have to do this one thing first,

Matt

mattbob