Date: 2006-04-17
To: philanthropic rampage 
Miles today: 0.0

I went on a philanthropic rampage this weekend. On Saturday, I did a little homework in the Peekskill area for a trail guide. And, on Sunday, I did trail maintenance near Cold Spring. While the two towns are about 12 miles apart via highway, I opted to take some side trips on trails to give my feet a rest, enjoy the views, and to find a place to camp for the night. During the weekend, I managed to log an absurd amount of road miles. Who knew that philanthropy equaled so many footsteps on pavement? Peekskill, NY.: "With a population close to 20,000, it is the largest town listed in the A.T. Data book (Waynesboro, Va., runs a close second)." --excerpt from the Appalachian Trail Thru-Hikers Companion¢2006I'm a volunteer field editor for the ALDHA A.T. Companion and am responsible for updating the information between Bear Mountain Bridge and Ten Mile shelter in CT. This is a task which obligates me to hike through and sample ice cream in various towns along the A.T. in upstate NY¢¦including the bustling metropolis of Peekskill. When I explain to non-hiking folks what the A.T. Companion is, I describe it as "the Zagat¢s guide" to the trail. For those of you not familiar with Zagat¢s, it¢s the final word on restaurants, nightlife, hotels, etc. Here in the city, if your business doesn¢t end up in the Zagat¢s guide, you¢re nothing. That said, I give Peekskill four stars¢¦you can¢t do much better than hot sandwiches AND free internet. Nothing much had changed in Peekskill since last year¢s update, making my job fairly simple (so far, my only major contribution to this guide has been the addition of information on a hot dog vending truck regularly parked on route 22, a couple hundred yards away from the A.T. crossing -- a pretty major bit of information, considering how welcoming that truck looks when I gallop down the hill, drooling, after being out for a few days. I can only imagine how nice it is after being out for months).As a member of the NY/NJ Trail Conference, I do trail maintenance work on the Cornish Trail in the Hudson Highlands. It¢s a sweet little trail (I call it the ¢gateway drug¢ of trails because it¢s well-graded and easy to walk on, making it an inviting entry into hiking. This leads one to walk tougher and longer trails, and, before you know it, you¢re signing up to thru-hike.). The fact that the Cornish Trail is easy on the feet and close to the road makes it fall victim to outdoorsy keg parties and part of my job is to clean up the beer bottles (making me feel like a fraternity sweetheart¢¦sheesh). This past weekend, after cleaning up after the most recent beer bash, I left a not-so-menacing warning to the revelers written in sticks on the ground. I feel torn about people who party in the woods. I¢m glad they¢re outdoors and all, but I get upset that they¢re out there boozing it up and breaking rules by building bonfires and littering. I wonder if they¢d venture outdoors if there wasn¢t illegal fire and liquor involved? Maybe it¢s bad to have a preconceived notion of how people should enjoy the outdoors but I¢d be a lot more accepting of their idea of fun if they didn¢t cause so much damage to the land. This makes me think of the concept of ¢hike your own hike¢ (a.k.a. HYOH). This is a philosophy of the trail which states that everyone¢s unique ways of hiking should be respected. And I think it¢s a good philosophy to an extent (though it does open a lot of loopholes for forgiving bad behavior). I guess what it boils down to for me is doing what you need to do while having respect for the environment and others who want to enjoy it. And beer/bonfire parties don¢t fall within those parameters.