newly formed group calls itself POTATOE.

[mweinstone]

we the people of the appalachian trail, in order to form a more perfect union, do hearby notify hikerdome everywhere, that from this day hence, POTATOE , witch stands for, PEOPLE OF THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL ORGANIZED EVERYWHERE, doth hearby exist . our mission statement is "...to remove trash from the trail while keeping our heads"
this will be an offshoot of billville and will draw on its second string team for members. we will meet to trash and we will be potatoe heads. trashing and haveing fun on weekends. all of our trash will be stored in a donated space so as to present it at next years gathering to be inspected, demographed and studyed. the potatoe head thinktank will come up with trash suggestions and present them to ALDAHA biannually. a chairperson for POTATOE will be choosen each 4 years . the title of the chair shall be"mr/ms potatoehead " all trash will be cleaned, photoed and stored. graphs will be kept to show all aspects of the trashweather yearound ontrail.

"trashweather" is a registered trademark of POTATOE and may not be used without exspress written permmission.

look for posted info at matthewskis tent at the gathering and online afterwords.

[Nearly Normal]

Those whom hike less than twice a year will recieve "couch Potatoe" status.

Nearly Normal

[mweinstone]

well played pete. well played.
being a master leader of people....i.e.....a supercontrol freak.......i will now simply list the reasons you all will be compelled to join our little musketeerlike allience. things like the ball of string project we will inishiate. on our winter outings foraging trash,...we will concentrate on collecting lost bear cord strings while the leaves are gone and veiws to a kill are provided. this ball of string we will slowly aquire, will be rolled out at each gathering to demonstrate how not to hang food in a tree. as we grow old and feble,..the ball of string will be too much for us and we will use lever bars to roll it out for the young hikers . by then it will be famouse,..along with anyone who was there when the first strings were caught. these are the reasons you will join us. fame and notoriaty. then there will be the in the future, when they sell dna detectors like metal detectors at wallmart,...we will trash for earl shaffers trash and wyomingskateboarders and minnesota smiths trash and establish a hall of trash exhibit of famouse trash.

[Tha Wookie]

Do you think we can Al Gore to speak to all potatos?

[Wanderingson]

Matt,

May I suggest a way to select the chair person?






One potato, two potatoes, three potatoes, four!
Five potatoes, six potatoes, seven potatoes, more!

[mudhead]

May I suggest Spuds as a mascot?

I am wacked today, must be dry air...

[hiker5]

Do you think we can Al Gore to speak to all potatos?

Wouldn't Dan Quale be more appropriate?

[hiker5]

Wouldn't Dan Quale be more appropriate?

Or Dan Quayle even.

[Tha Wookie]

Wouldn't Dan Quale be more appropriate?

exactly.

[mweinstone]

who will be the first to respond seriously to my plee for clean? or is my fate to be bannished to the humor fourum?

[mweinstone]

you all must be the ones who stare at me at gatherings when im trashing asking in a whisper,....."why is he cleaning up?"


or maby your just good spellers on the outside but like me on the in,.....hiker trash!

[Frolicking Dinosaurs]

Dear Mr. POTATOE Head:

I sincerely apologize for having moved your thread to the humor forum. I should be steamed and creamed for this.

Sincerely,
Tator Tart

[camojack]

who will be the first to respond seriously to my plee for clean? or is my fate to be bannished to the humor fourum?

Apparently, yes..."banished" to the humor forum:

As for seriously, there's a group of us (Internet hikers!!! ) doing water quality testing next weekend on the springs in the section between Little Gap and Wind Gap. We might be doing some maintenance, too...

[Dances with Mice]

who will be the first to respond seriously to my plee for clean? or is my fate to be bannished to the humor fourum?

I just want to go on record as saying that when it comes to cleaning the greasiest, grungiest, gruntiest, slimiest, repulsieviest cooking stuff at a gathering, Matt's the guy you want covering your green scrubbie pad back.

And I really mean that. So if he says he's going to clean a trail section, I mean he's not going to just sift through a firepit like a Leakey going through an African archeological excavation site but he's also going to break up and scatter extra fire rings and scrub off the burn marks from the rocks before replacing them in their original positions in the woods.

But that's all common knowledge. It's Matt against trash and grime and slime and grunge. And Matt's friends and people who are friends of friends of Matt, so it ain't no contest. Everyone knows who's going to win.

But this weekend something different happened. Something where the outcome wasn't so sure. Something where two Whiteblaze members alone turned to face overwhelming odds. Yes, as if you haven't guessed, I'm talking about Outdoor Adventure Day . Me and W-B member Mountain Man, armed with only a tabletop presentation provieded by W-B member Briar Patch, faced down about 2000 folk at Unicoi State Park near Helen, GA.

We set up our backpacking tents around the perimeter to hold back the hordes but the cool shade under our canopy soon made our site the best little horde house in Georgia. Mountain Man, having done 600 miles of the AT this season and having worked at two other GA state parks was the Star of our little show.

We held off Boy Scout Troops! And individual Webelos and Cubs in uniform! We fought off home-schooled kids. We went one-on-school busload of kids from private academies on field trips! There were high school teachers wanting information! I'm talkin 'bout young couples who said they were INTERESTED in hiking! Interested! Ohmigawhd, the carnage was horrible! I think we both have post presentation traumatic shock symdrome.

But we survived. Mountain Man's expertise pulled us through. And just when we thought we were on top of the situation and just counting down the minutes until it was time to pull stakes and head home, a golf cart pulls up and unloads a camera crew from Georgia public television And they want to interview us! So I get wired for sound and situated beside our display and the interview starts. So the first question is a softball, something about who are we and why are we here today.

And I say that we're with the GATC and we're here because we maintain the Trail in GA and hiking and backpacking are our baliwick.

Damn! Did I really just say "bailiwick"? BAILIWICK! Who the hell uses that word? Where did that come from? I don't think I've ever used that word before in my life! Bailiwick?! I can't even remember the last time I heard somebody use that word. Bailiwick? Did I just say "BAILIWICK?!"

So while I'm thinking about all that he's asking the second question, something about why is hiking better exercise than using a treadmill, or something stupd and I sput some blabber that probably makes that South Carolina beauty queen sound like a Rhodes scholar but I'm being real careful not to use the word "bailiwick" twice, cause that would be really, really... something. I don't know. Don't ask me, I've already shown I can't think of words.

But we survived that too. And if I'm lucky my interview will decorate the virtual floor of some digital editing booth. Otherwise I might be on TV and then my Trailname may have to change to "Bailiwick".

So thanks, Mountain Man. And Briar Patch. And especially Matt. I'm sorry if I hijacked his thread. I just want to be a potatoe and this Saturday I was scattered, smothered, covered, chunked, diced, and capped.

[mweinstone]

first time i ever heard dances speak normal.without being smart and funny. confused and hurt like a human should be. guess hes not a mouse crossbreed leader after all. had to wait to the last line to know what the hell he was talking about. used alot of tripple word scores he did. i guess rays talkin about a time in his life when he was tryin to be serious and he was received badly. yeah, i feel ya bro. really. and cammos invited me on this water testing trip 4 out of the five last times we've spoke. im beginning to feel like a trident commercial. " four out of five cammos recomend water testing for their matthewskis that have to work" and yes cammo. i know that if for some reason i dont have to work this weekend to stay out of the irs jail,...i should come with you. well im praying for a theif to steal the irs as hard as i can and short of an irs wide ink failure combined with a paper eating virus being released by some scientist sap whos into them deeper than me,......ill be in my lead suit breathing mask air while rolling bone white over parvo virus infestid rat ppop walls for the lord of sludge . whilst secretly praying for an outbreak of mass hiking hysteria leading to a free sex state headquartered in the pavillion at port clinton . with rev. moon doing mass marrages in the river across the street. and with me and a beautiful rich airess being married. an airess to the jiffypop fourtune. i just woke from my lead rest. its what you must do after exsposure to allow your body to recover best. im recharged and ready for fun. its all part of keeping rich folks in blingage. some of us gunnypeadros must did in the mud while others sit in their sealed capsules keyboarding.

[mweinstone]

dear lord god and leader,
please give me a life filled with mostly picking up skanky old hiker trash from the trail all day. and take this one ive ruined with irs debt and throw it on the old wine press floor and crush it . may my bag always be filled and the can close. may my hands stay free of poop. may the towel i pull from the dirt not have a mafia body in it. may the hiker who approches whils i clean , not be iditorad. may ron haven come visit me while i work and entertaine me with storys. may the people looking at me from the shelter while i trash stop thinking im snooping around to steal things. may the single boot i find be old so i dont run into a limping one booted hiker asking to borrow my cookpot to walk in.
and when the day is over and the trash fire burns hot with its plasticy colory glow,...may jester and wonder come hiking in by headlamp with booze in toe and the sunday times with the headline" irs destroyed by paper virus,disks fail too!"

[Nightwalker]

So thanks, Mountain Man. And Briar Patch. And especially Matt. I'm sorry if I hijacked his thread. I just want to be a potatoe and this Saturday I was scattered, smothered, covered, chunked, diced, and capped.

You make great posts. You're almost like Mattie with spell-check turned on!

[Frolicking Dinosaurs]

::: Dino seen tying POTATOE sacks to tail and filling them with trash as she frolicks down trail :::

[Two Speed]

You make great posts. You're almost like Mattie with spell-check turned on!

: : : Two Speed wipes spewed coffee off his monitor. : : :

[mweinstone]

sitting here under the glow of the hydrogen explosion going off in my face that is our sol,.......i am reminded of an old english proverb. it is wiser to make crap up than to think. and i belive this with all my heart. i am typeing to you all live from the edge of my bed. sitting in machine made clothes on a machine made floor in a machine made city useing machines to communicate with my fellow machine slaves. we must revolt! i personaly am revolted allready. have been since birth. i remember clearly looking at the world and the behavior of people as a child and knowing it was wrong and wanting out as fast as possible. so i trainned in the marines and the ycc and as a camping counceler and a sailing instructor and went to nols and walk this trail all in a febal attempt to free myself from the machine and release myself into the wilds. but alas. plans change, love of your fellow man grows, and understanding that the wilderness is not our place anymore. it all adds up to staying in the city and only visiting the wilds. well ,..in this my 46th year,...i may be reminding all of us,.. that the citys could be clean and healthy. and man could act better tword each other. but he wont. were infected with sinful sin sin. so how bout this. could ya pick up after yourself just after ya desicrate the trails and the neighborhoods where we live? is being good and clean and polite so offensive to our cursing mad rap style sociaty that ya still get beat up for it like when i was a kid? i thaught this was the generation of " cool aint cool anymore" but no. being cool is still way cool. and part of being cool is throwing trash on the ground so as to mesh ones vial behaviors to the vile trash in the songs and our hearts. i for one will not stand by and watch my human brothers fail so easy. i will not only keep cleaning the bowels of sociaty as i have since youth,...i will throw my life down across the mud so one starving child can cross to freedom on my back.