Date: 2011-12-09
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Miles today: 0.0

The winter is upon us. Today I received a letter of appeal for monetary help from the AT Conservancy. Last fall the hurricane devastated sections of the AT in Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. No doubt the volunteer trail crews will do an excellent job of trail repair but the issue is money for supplies and tools etc. If you read this please find it in your heart to donate some money to the AT Conservancy. http://www.appalachiantrail.org/ will show you ways to help. Hiking trails don¢t just happen. They don¢t just fall out of the sky. Countless volunteers help to operate and maintain the thousands of miles of hiking trails in the U.S. This work is done without expecting money or thanks or praise. It is done as a way to sustain a vital link for all so that we can access nature in its entire splendor. Please help in any way you can.I have been hiking some more in Southern Indiana. I have been to Harmonie State Park and hiked along the Wabash River. It was very rewarding. I¢ve also completed some good hikes in the Hoosier National Park. I would like to get on the Adventure Trail in Crawford ¢ Harrison State park sometime this month and walk the 22 miles of that trail along the Blue and Ohio Rivers. I did also did get to Ferdinand Forest and was saddened to see how some of the tree harvesting has taken place over the past year. No matter how you slice it, it is a most distressing commentary on our society. I guess timber sales are important when the state is in panic mode with funds. In Bill Bryson¢s book ¢A Walk in the Woods¢ he uses the illustration of the miracle that is a tree. Imagine if you hired a group of mechanical engineers to create a device that would haul hundreds of gallons of water from the forest floor to 200 feet in the air. Imagine the noise and pollution of a device like that. Then pause to think that every day millions and millions of trees do those very things ¢ all in perfect silence. The planning for 2012 is taking place. I have taken a look at possible hikes for next year including a trip with my son to Utah and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. And I am fixating on a trip in the Sierra Nevada due to a book I read. I just finished reading ¢The Last Season¢ by Eric Blehm. It is a must read. After reading the book and getting a better understanding of the solitude of the Kings Canyon-Sequoia National Parks, I¢d like to get a trip in this year on the 211 miles of the John Muir Trail. But the logistics to hiking in the California Sierra Nevada are daunting. In to the fall of 2012, I¢d like to get back on the AT in Vermont and New Hampshire to finish some sections on my quest of completing the AT.Here is wishing all of you a Happy Holiday Season and leave you with a quote from the Lewis and Clark Journals.April 22, 1805 I asscended to the top of the cutt bluff this morning, from whence I had a most delightfull view of the country, the whole of which except the vally formed by the Missouri is void of timber or underbrush, exposing to the first glance of the spectator immence herds of Buffaloe, Elk, deer, & Antelopes feeding in one common and boundless pasture. Walking on shore this evening I met with a buffaloe calf which attatched itself to me and continued to follow close at my heels untill I embarked and left it. it appeared allarmed at my dog which was probably the cause of it¢s so readily attatching itself to me.Captain Meriwether Lewis