Evening star., 1928-06-10

A SMALL group of Washington
~ business and profeSSioned mei
"A for the past six months ha
\ been spending week end
among the floating. tumbling
scarlet palaces of sunrises and sunsets
They are engaged in blazing abou
100 miles of trail along the crest o
the Blue Ridge Mountains as theil
contribution to a hiking trail wnlcr
VIII eNteno ;rom Mount Ketahdin, Me
To Stone Mountain. Ga.
Starting last fall. they already hav,
explored and marked stretch o.
ABOUT 80 miles from Harpers Ferry tc
the Bull Run Mountains in Virginia
Now they are pushing their way from
crag to crag into the area of the pro.
posed Shenandoah National Park.
In doing this they have discovered
new world Only a little more thar
SO miles from Washington, the Blue
Ricge crest is almost as unknown tc
tfls average city dweller as Centra
Africa. Even the people dwelling ir
the villages at the foot and on the
slopes OF the mountains know very lit
ue OF the cloud-shrouded peaks above
thsm. They are the altars of blue
Velled forever beyond. prieStess of mys-
tety. the bee zoning god.
The enerVating hand of civilization
mas hardly touched the crags and can
yons. There are no Sunday supple
ments strewn about the waterfalls or
empty tin cans littering the cave
mouths, where rattlesnakes still find
haven. There are no tracks. wires OF
roads. The wilderness is almost prim-
evaI. The flowers and the birds are
different from those of the valleys
snow lies in some of the shaded cam
yons through the hot Summers 1t is
3 Ianc OF sublimitics, of organ-like
echoes intimate embraces of clouds.
Punsen like cathedral windows with
pictures Of saints in them
Aaie Washington explorers are MAX
n'g very few changes. They simply are
anolng out the objects of greatest
natural beauty, indicating how to reach
them, and determining the path which
can be followed with the least delay
They don't want to make travelling
much easier. The very difficulty of
mixing from Linden, Va, TO Harpers
Ferry pack on back. is what makes the
trail worth while. Here and there they
.'at narrow bath through blackberry
nramble or remove a fallen tree. but
they are not building either a road or
q foot path.
The membership of the Potomac -Ap-
1'd4oCliAdn CluD mas increased during the
past six months from or 8 to 70-all
washington people interested in the
kino OF hiking that is real hiking, with
none of the embellishments of civiliza-
tlon about 1t. They want to give a
sense OF reality to the exploring urge
OF those who follow the trail. They are
giving to the public an opportunity for
the same sort of experiences as those
Of the early explorers.
Their work is established on a fun
camental basis Of psychology and So
ciology. They seek to baptize civiliza-
llcn IN mountain haze, that it may be
born again. They are going to the
roots OF human nature.
X \ X
He day-dreaming schoolboy is an
explorer, pirate, an Indian fighter
er-particularly since the epochal flight
Of Col Lindbergh-a transatlantic
aviator. He Is Stanley plunging into
the jungles OF the dark continent. he
Is Peary on his tortuous way to the
North Pole. he is Capt. Kidd forcing
prisoners to walk the plank. he is Kit
Carson throwing pursuing redskins off
ms iran bv swinging on a grapevine.
he identifies himself with these heroes
Life Tor the child would be an almost
unendurable thing. unless he could
escape by some such means from the
narTowness and pettiness of his actual
surroundings INTO dream world which
approaches close 10 reality.