You can take 6 pictures or have 3 days worth of phone call battery on my phone...but it sucks
You can take 6 pictures or have 3 days worth of phone call battery on my phone...but it sucks
Met a hiker up in southern New Hampshire (we were both heading SOBO) and when he got into the shelter - spent the next hour painting his fingernails pink with sparkles.
I saw myself on the trail, now that was weird.
"You hiked up a mountain? Why would anyone want to do that?"--question posed to me by friend
As for weird stuff on the trail... on the last leg of the 100 Mile wilderness earlier this month I saw a 9 Iron (yes a golf club) leaning against a tree. And not too far from there, a pair of crutches (almost new) hanging from a low limb... yea weird.
~If you cant do it with one bullet, dont do it at all.
~Well behaved women rarely make history.
I was hiking southbound from Dicks Creek Gap to Neels Gap. Just shy of Hogpen gap, heading northbound towards me is a guy and a gal pulling what I can only describe as a rudimentary "sled" loaded with all kinds of stuff. Suitcases, pictures, etc. They even had a small B&W TV. I of course had to ask and they said they were moving to Virginia and thought they would just walk there instead of renting a U-Haul.
Buckowens here at WB can verify this to be true...
Midway Sam
AT Section Hiker
"Adventure is not outside man; it is within." ~ Georg Eliot
Last year I saw a group of about 12 kids/teenagers walking and they all had paintball guns / paintball equipment outfits. It was ridiculous they just walked right past us but Ididn't even know you could do that on the trail? lol
I camped at a spring on the PCT (Cold Spring near the mid-way point). The spring was a pipe that fed into a cattle trough and had the coldest, cleanest water. It was located near a dirt road. As I camped out there, several times people would drive up, park their cars, come over to the spring, rub their hands under the water, get back in their cars and drive away. It was very odd behavior.
Some knew me as Piper, others as just Diane.
I hiked the PCT: Mexico to Mt. Shasta, 2008. Santa Barbara to Canada, 2009.
Maybe it was holy water- be baptised into the hiker way.
(Maybe those people don't even know what they've done- now all those people will slowly begin to shower less and eat pasta and freeze dried food, and they'll wonder why.)
Does a Bear Moon at midday count?
Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.
Woo
Back in the early 80's a guy walked into my camp one night without a flashlight at about 10pm overcast and very dark.
I had come in very late, and had a tiny fire going and just off the trail. It was sort of a large open area. I had just finished eating. This was December and it was very cold.
He spoke and walked over to the opposite side of the opening where I was camped. All I could see was his outline. I asked him if he wanted to come over by the fire and warm up, or if he wanted any food or water.
He said no.
I asked him how in the heck he could hike in the absolute dark, I mean it was pitch black, without a light and he said yours eyes adjust. I thought right !! Not me.
We talked for about 2-3 minutes about what he was doing out there at 10pm without any equipment and where he was going and then he said, well gotto go.
Bye.
and took off down the trail.
I listened intently for a long time expecting to hear him fall into a ravine, but I guess he made it.
Never saw his face.
At the time I remembered hearing multiple stories about ghosts ont he AT so of course that was my first thought. I always tell the story in that manner, but now I just think it was some guy out hiking in the dark with no gear.
Saw a guy rubbing his back end on a tree one time.
Guess he ran out of toilet paper.
This weekend I saw three folks coming down The Priest as I was heading up. Two girls and a guy. As one of the girls passed me, I swear I saw that she had a suitcase strapped to her back. One of the oddest things I've seen so far!
One of the strangest phenomena I ever experienced along the trail was florescent fungi. I was in northern Virginia back around August 2001 and went to find someplace to let my bladder out one late night and that is when I came across the stuff. There were all kinds of colors too. It was an awesome experience!
2010 AT NoBo Thru "attempt" (guess 1,700 miles didn't quite get me all the way through ;) )
Various adventures in Siberia 2016
Adventures past and present!
(and maybe 2018 PCT NoBo)
I saw a huge green inflatable alien sitting on the privy at Hogback Ridge shelter in NC back in 2001. I later read in the register that this guy (a sobo) had carried it with him because he had no company in shelters most nights, but decided to leave it at this one as a gift.
Cheers
I was camped at Betty Creek Gap in NC and some other people stopped for the night there as well. One of them was telling a story about an experiance on the Long Trail with a friend of his. Months later at Full Goose Shelter in Maine I hear this same story again told by the friend of the guy I met in NC. I never saw either of them before or after the night I camped with each person.
Oooooo, White Russians post just reminded me of a strange coincidence, rather than something totally weird. While hiking the JMT in 2002 i stayed at VVR for a day or two. Had a great time there and met some interesting people. Among them were Luna and Sixstring, AT thru hikers. I think we had been on the AT the same year too, in 2001. Anyway, we never exchanged email address's or anything, but went our seperate ways when it was time to hike out.
In 2004 i was taking a few zero's in Hot Springs close to the start of my 2004 thru. I was sitting down to breakfast at Elmers with a bunch of other folk. In comes this woman who looked really familiar to me. She talked with Elmer for a while then joined the hikers for breakfast. We were glancing over at each other for a while, i guess both trying to figure out where we the knew the other from. Anyway, i'm sure you guessed a while back in this story that it turned out to be Luna from VVR back in 2002. I couldn't stand to not know who she was any longer so i talked above the breakfast chatter and asked if it was her, it was! That little bit of serendipity made my day, and i still think about it. What are the chances huh? I mean, i know the hiking community is pretty close knit, but still, quite the coincidence.
Cheers
Now, this isn't my coincidence, but I thought it was funny:
Last weekend (8 days ago, I suppose) I stayed near a shelter where there was a SoBo thru hiker, who was taking a slow day, and we talked and all. Then it got dark and a couple section hikers walked up, and the thru hiker said something and they recognized his voice, and it turned out that they had passed each other in Maine (when the section hikers had been doing another section), and had stopped and talked for five minutes. Cool coindcidence.
2010 AT NoBo Thru "attempt" (guess 1,700 miles didn't quite get me all the way through ;) )
Various adventures in Siberia 2016
Adventures past and present!
(and maybe 2018 PCT NoBo)
I got a buddy that ran about 100 yards inside of a tent one time. I think he was high as a georgia pine. One of the funniest things I've ever seen.