Any of you remember Chip Leonard? I met him north of Hot Springs in January 2001 on the trail. At first I thought we were going to duke it out, the way he approached the camp.
He says, "Can I stay here?" real sarcastic like.
I says, "yeah pal, I don't own nothing here."
"Well all your junk is spread all over the place, I figured you thought you owned it? I'm gonna go get some water, have my half of the shelter cleared by the time I get back," he says.
"Go get your water, but don't get smart with me," I replied.
As he strode off he looked at me out of the corner of his eye to see if I meant business? I think he noticed I did.
While he was gone I started placing equalizers all over the place within easy reach. When he returned he just strode past the shelter peering inside to make sure his part was cleaned, I hadn't touched a thing. None of my "junk" was even near being strung all over "his" half.
He went around back and I heard him poking around looking for a campsite I suppose. He then came back around to the front of the shelter, dropped his pack and from a standing position he jumped up on the platform. Scared the crap right out of me!
Stretching his arms, he measured the shelter and paced it out. He says "this half is my half, that half is your half. Any questions?"
"Are we going to have problems? Because if we are, let's quit this silly crap and get it over with!" I replied.
He jumps in the air and to the ground and goes into a stance like the "Karate Kid." Another move that made me want to crawl deeper into my skin. I figured one of us was about to die?
He goes, "I know self-defense!"
I says, "I got a few moves of my own too pal!"
As this is evolving between us I began to think that this guy is as scared as I am? So I says, "Wait just a minute here, this is bull****. Let's start over. My name is Larry The Wanderer. What is yours?" I extended my hand.
He stops, pauses as he drops his mouth and says, "I've heard of you, Dan Gallagher said you were ahead of me and Miss Janet says she just met you yesterday. They said for me to be good to you, that your okay. I guess it's okay to shake your hand?"
I knew then that something wasn't ticking right and he says, "my name's Chip Leonard" and we shook hands.
I told him that I had heard of him and read about him in the book "A Walk In The Woods."
After that I got to know him a bit and we had a good laugh about it all, but I could never get a word in edge wise. As he spoke, I recieved a wealth of info about hiking dos and don'ts. And he told me about some of his troubles on the trail. Also I believe he said he was on his 18th thru hike? I can't remember. He said he would just go to one end of the trail, turn around and go back to the other. He had been doing it for awhile he said.
I thought I was going to have to sleep with one eye open that night but he talked me right to "nana land." The next morning after we arose and ate and packed our packs, he said "I'll meet you at the next road north." That was at 7 am and he was gone.
I never did see him again but I did hear alot of tales about him. I heard that he was arrested and sent to prison for harrassing a female. Then I heard it was for harrassing a trail work crew in SNP. Then there was another story and so on?
Does anyone know what happened to Chip?"
Wanderer