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SavageLlama
09-23-2004, 15:58
Funny story. Anyone else heard of this Santa character?


Ex-local resident masters Appalachian Trail


September 23, 2004
By David V. Graham
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION


Michael Leaveck wanted a challenge before he started work on his master's degree in architecture, and he sure found one.

Leaveck, 24, hiked all 2,174 miles of the Appalachian Trail this summer, from Springer Mountain in Georgia to the top of Mount Katahdin in Maine.

He started April 17 and finished Saturday, a pretty good clip for a guy who had never gone on an overnight backpacking trip before he left for this trip.

Along the way, he found a girlfriend, ducked lightning, encountered bears, moose, rattlesnakes and a biting mouse, and had weird encounters with people both strange and friendly off and on the trail.

Leaveck, formerly of Davison Township but now a resident of Los Angeles, is a 1998 graduate of Davison High School. He worked for a small architectural firm in L.A. for a couple of years after graduating from the University of Michigan.

He wanted to do the trail as a physical challenge before going to the University of California-Los Angeles this fall.

"Some people do the trail because they think it will help them find themselves, but I already had a pretty good idea who I am," he said. "I did discover, though, that I can get something done when I set my mind to it, and I learned to listen to other people more.

"I also learned not to hesitate when it is time to take action, to react more firmly to a situation," he said. "I also found out that everyone has to be responsible for themselves, to be accountable for your decisions."

Leaveck said that although he had never backpacked before, he had spent plenty of time in the woods near home and was comfortable with being outdoors.

Leaveck said he averaged about 20 miles each day, usually taking a day or two off every two weeks or so. He said he started his trip carrying 41 pounds in his pack, but reduced that by the end to 20 pounds, a remarkably light load for such a major trip.

"I was able to get rid of some weight by eliminating all my clothes except for the ones I wore every day and only carrying two or three days' worth of food," he said. "I also stopped carrying four liters of water and got my water from streams, which I purified with chlorine drops."

Leaveck said he also eliminated his first-aid kit.

"You can fix most injuries (on the trail) with a sock and some duct tape," he said. "Anything worse than that, you need to get off the trail anyway."

He said he hiked about 60 percent of the trail with a young woman he met on the trail, Anitra "Nitro" Kass, 26, of New Jersey.

He said they once stopped in the tiny town of Unionville, N.Y., and got permission to sleep in the park gazebo. As he took off his pants to crawl into his sleeping bag, he worried that someone would stop by in the morning and catch him pantless.

"Sure enough, first thing in the morning, the mayor of the town walked by just after I got out of my bag and greeted us as I was standing there in my undies," he said. "He was really nice and told us where he lived so we could get some fresh water."

Leaveck said he encountered all kinds of characters on the trail, including a kid named "Santa" who decided to throw away all of his backpacking gear and rely on God to get him down the trail.

"He ended up carrying all kinds of food and stuff that people gave him in a plastic garbage bag over his shoulder, which is how he earned the 'Santa' nickname," he said.

Several times, he said he ran into homeless people who were trying to get along by pretending to be hikers. He said most hikers could tell immediately that they were not real hikers and watched them closely because they had a tendency to steal food and equipment.

He said he ran into several bears along the way, and once had a close encounter with a bull moose from about 10 feet away. Another time he stepped on a copperhead rattler, which fortunately didn't strike him. Another time, the same kind of rattler slithered between his feet as he was hiking.

His worst animal encounter was with a mouse that bit his finger hours after he had put some coconut "medicine" on his blisters.

"I had my arm out and he bit my finger while I was sleeping," he said. "It broke the skin, but it didn't bleed any."

His most difficult medical condition developed when he raced through 70 miles of the trail in the Smoky Mountain National Park in three days, which caused him to develop a very painful case of shin splints.

That problem plagued him pretty much the rest of the trip, but he treated it with legs wraps, compression braces, ice and anti-inflammatory drugs.

Contrary to most people's expectations, Leaveck said, he did not end the trip in better shape than when he started.

"I went from 155 pounds to 135 pounds and I lost a lot of muscle mass, especially in my legs," he said. "When I got up in the morning, I would hobble around for five minutes before I could walk right again."

***

SalParadise
09-23-2004, 18:51
Wish the article mentioned Leaveck's trail name so I'd know who he was. Santa's a good guy, and he really did start out like that, though if I recall he did eventually upgrade to a backpack around Tennessee.

Rain Man
09-23-2004, 19:13
... Another time he stepped on a copperhead rattler, which fortunately didn't strike him. ...

I wonder what a "copperhead rattler" is.
:jump
Rain Man

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Dances with Mice
09-23-2004, 19:19
I wonder what a "copperhead rattler" is.
:jump
Rain Man

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Hybrid pit viper?