Date: 2003-10-14
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Well, let me see if I can explain this.I mentioned that my last post-hike entry was an attempt to ¢bring closure¢ to my AT thru-hike experience. Since then, I have attended ALDHA¢s Gathering in Hanover; celebrated my thru-hike with some great people and talked with many Trailjournal followers and many of you in the hiking community. I have found that the AT thru-hike experience does not end with a gear review and summary statement¢¦especially for someone like me who just retired and made a major life change to hike the Trail. One of the most frequently asked questions is, ¢What are you going to do now?¢   An update from time to time here should give you some idea of that. I would also like to keep in touch with many of you in the hiking community, and Trailjournals is the most efficient way to do this. The great thing about Trailjournals is that no one has to read it¢¦unless you¢re in love with hiking like many of us are.The first thing I would like to do here is thank all of you who helped me celebrate at Sawmill. I believe I got to spend some time with each of you, but realized afterwards that I should have spoke to the group as a whole. Thanks again to Julia for arranging such a great get together.Thanks to my parents for making the trip from Lima. Thanks to my friends and former co-workers from Delphi who dropped by¢¦hope to see some of you at Fridays from time to time. Thanks also to Julia¢s friends and co-workers for spending the afternoon.Thanks to my neighbors from Westchester¢¦it is great to be home with all of you again and see you when I¢m out walking Casey.Thanks to Charlie and The Cleveland Hiking Club for coming all the way to Huron. (You should have hiked out on such a nice day) I plan to apply for membership sometime in November when I get back from a little hiking trip back to the AT.A special thanks to ¢02 AT Thru-Hiker Big Red for making the trip from Cincinnati. I was honored. It was also great to see you at The Gathering this past weekend and have the opportunity to talk with you there.A special thanks to my cousin Chuck and his wife Marilyn who drove up from Marietta to surprise me. It meant a lot to me since I hadn¢t seen them for around 10 years.A special thanks to our good friends and former neighbors Terry and Sondra for making the trip. It¢s always great to see you two.A special thanks to a friend who was the 4-H County Agent for Summit County when I lived in Stow¢¦Les Barnhart.   It was so great to see you after a good number of years. We will stay in touch.And I don¢t want to forget to thank all the spouse¢s and friends who came with the above folks¢¦hope you enjoyed the refreshments.And to those of you who wanted to be there but couldn¢t for a variety of reasons. Thanks. Hope I haven¢t left anyone out.A few words about The Gathering this past weekend. It was great to see those of you again who I had met on the Trail. Spent a lot of time with Liteshoe and B-Roc. Got to talk to Hamlet, Hotdog, Twofiddy, ATwanabe, Notes and Crash Test Dummy (who I tented next to at Abol Bridge). Congratulations to Liteshoe for being named the ¢Most Popular Person to Have Ever Hiked the AT.¢It was great to meet some of the other hikers from Trailjournals. Met Bluebearee, Leap Year, Mud Butt, Dimples and A-Train. I can tell A-Train is addicted to backpacking. He may need to get help at such a young age. I¢ve got to go back and read some of their journals that I have missed. Finally got to meet Blaze whose journal I followed last year¢¦and Radar who hosted a seminar on hiking in the digital age.I finally got to meet Footslogger who just completed his thru-hike the day before The Gathering. He rode back with me to Ohio as his mother lives only 20 minutes from Amherst. It was great having him along¢¦made the 12 hour drive go by quickly.Got to talk with Miss Janet whose outstanding hostel I stayed at on my hike.Then there are the guys responsible for my hiking addiction¢¦Zip Drive and Leif. I can¢t say enough good about these guys¢¦and it¢s not just because they talked to me and gave me a t-shirt. They are a ¢real class act.¢ I¢m not sure they know how much they¢ve contributed to the hiking community already. If any of you reading this has not done so, I would encourage you to make a donation to the Trailjournals website that they created and developed. It is where I, and many others, first realized the AT thru-hike was a possibility.On the way to The Gathering I stopped and visited with Driver and his wife, Karen. They have a beautiful farm near Syracuse and were so gracious to put me up overnight. Thanks for the hospitality. The gardens and landscaping are ¢out of this world!¢If you are aspiring to hike the AT down the road I would highly recommend that you plan to attend next year¢s 23rd annual Gathering. I talked about last year¢s in my pre-hike journal entries. This year¢s was even better. The programs, speakers, workshops and seminars were outstanding. The Hiker Fair was great too. I don¢t see how there could have been a better agenda. The only problem is not being able to be in two places at the same time. I attended the following programs: 1) 3,900 Miles Across the U.S. 2) People, Places, Animals Along A.T. 3) Class of 2003   4) Hiking in the Digital Age   5) John Muir Trail Slide Show and   6) 2000 Miles to Maine movie. I loved all of them¢¦it was worth the drive.My hiking plans are as follows. Tomorrow, I am going to take my camper down to Roan Mountain where I will set up camp. I am then going to Erwin, say hi to Miss Janet and re-hike the AT NOBO for 9 to 10 days. I want to use the RV as a base camp and stay mostly on the Trail. Liteshoe is talking about doing a section with me.Next spring or summer I would like to join Charlie and or Mule when and if they chose to finish their hikes from Vermont to Katahdin. After that, Liteshoe and B-Roc have talked about getting a small group to hike the John Muir Trail in September.As far as this winter¢¦it should be interesting¢¦I could be reading a lot of trailjournals.Take Care & Hike On!