View Full Version : things I've seen on the trail so far
A guy using a 10 foot bamboo pole as a walking stick. LP
A guy with a 50 pound pack ( mostly food) who sent his tent home to save weight.
A guy from Quebec carrying white wine.
Kerosene
04-24-2010, 16:41
A girl lugging a huge yellow Tonka toy dumptruck.
A guy wearing a Halloween mask (fortunately on Halloween).
A college kid unpacking a full-size axe, cast-iron griddle, and 2-quarter Pyrex mixing bowl.
super slidex
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7gHEIvZlx0&feature=related
Wise Old Owl
04-24-2010, 23:31
Nice one Egads! loved it.
Stopped for lunch along the NCT in upper MI. Family of 4 hike pass. The dad is carrying a full 5 gallon water container in each hand. Ten minutes later dad walks back still carrying the full water containers. Perhaps he noticed the trail was within a stones' throw of Lake Superior.
i was passing the side trail to stover creek shelter and ran into a 235lb guy carrying a 90lb pack! he was carrying 2 tents, 2 sleeping bags, 2 sleeping pads, 7lbs of tuna, 5lbs of bacon, and 2lbs of marijuana + god knows what else! great guy though...really funny! maddog
Cookerhiker
04-25-2010, 11:44
2 guys in Sages Ravine in April '05 carrying 70 lb packs. One of them had a heavy ax hitched to the back.
A guy I met at the shelter in the Smokies in '04 was carrying a cigar cutter. After lugging his pack all day, though, he was too tired to get up off the log and fetch it, and was forced to use his regular survival knife to deal with the cigar. The same guy was also wearing a leather chest holster with a whopping big can of bear spray in it.
sasquatch2014
04-26-2010, 07:43
The crew from Mid atlantic ATC and myself where having some good laughs at the folks hiking through by the train stop this weekend as we worked on the new boardwalk. Every time the train from the city would stop a new wave of folks would come by. We would have to stop work to let them by and then after they rounded the bend we would all start to laugh. I particularly like the guy with the full NY Times strapped to his pack still in the blue plastic from it being delivered earlier that day, I am not sure if he knew the guy who passed earlier who was carrying two yellow plastic grocery bags and that was it.
A guy from Atlanta carrying red wine... oops, sorry, that was me.
after a few weeks in solitude in the fall in the south....all of a sudden there was a group of people one was dressed in army camos, another was wearin a navy outfit,one was dressed like a cowboy, another lookd like a doctor,and one guy dressed like a flower child or somthn with a guitar.......i smiled and went on after a min i stopd and sat down aand was like *** was that... then just the other day i had a lady give me a bluetick coon hound jus below fullhardt knob...i have named her ALTHEA
ps. tht group of people was befor woody gap and the same week as halloween at the time i was like wow only in georgia...........and im still speachless bout the dog
Jonnycat
04-26-2010, 09:08
I don't think I will ever get used to seeing online updates from people currently hiking the trail. I know I'm being anachronistic, but I like to disappear while I'm out.
Anghiker
04-26-2010, 09:09
We met someone carrying a 95 pound pack with a 2.5 foot iguana riding on the top.
A guy from Quebec carrying white wine.
Was this guy a sobo named SpAz?
A college kid unpacking a full-size axe, cast-iron griddle, and 2-quarter Pyrex mixing bowl.
Was his name Paul Bunyan ?
Gray Blazer
04-26-2010, 10:40
after a few weeks in solitude in the fall in the south....all of a sudden there was a group of people one was dressed in army camos, another was wearin a navy outfit,one was dressed like a cowboy, another lookd like a doctor,and one guy dressed like a flower child or somthn with a guitar.......i smiled and went on after a min i stopd and sat down aand was like *** was that... then just the other day i had a lady give me a bluetick coon hound jus below fullhardt knob...i have named her ALTHEA
Were they singing songs like YMCA and In The Navy?
i havent a clue man but the camo lookd to be very modern but i just thought it was weird same with althea
5lbs of bacon, and 2lbs of marijuana
You think those two were related somehow? :-?
ps. tht group of people was befor woody gap and the same week as halloween at the time i was like wow only in georgia...........and im still speachless bout the dog
Oh, that group...
Mostly harmless..:eek:
You think those two were related somehow? :-?
oh i have a good feeling it its related
Saw a guy in '07 carrying a hubcab.
Was this guy a sobo named SpAz?
No but I met him too, awesome guy.
middle to middle
04-27-2010, 09:47
My favorite is a guy I passed wearing a leather jacket with a road atlas stuck in the pocket.
Old Hiker
04-27-2010, 09:52
Oh, that group...
Mostly harmless..:eek:
Just don't panic and carry a good towel.
donavan42
04-27-2010, 20:56
Forty-two.
Chaco Taco
04-27-2010, 21:21
A guy in 08 named Buckeye carried an inflatable duckie for the waterfalls in NY only to be crushed when we got there.....they had dried up. The look on this guys face when we got there was priceless.
Matthewski and his "bacon fires"
The stampede of cows in Massachusetts.
Oh and the rabbit that almost killed us. We were walking into Atkins through some of the farm land and property corridors. Up in the woods we hear something coming fast and couldnt see it. As it got closer we got more freaked out. When it jumped out of the woods and we saw it was only a little rabbit, we just died laughing. Good times!
You will have so many good stories just by the time you get to Traildays. After that, it just gets friggin weird!!!!
pafarmboy
04-28-2010, 19:00
Saw a guy on the Florida Trail pushing one of those jogging strollers loaded down with all of his gear. Had to stop and ask....weighed 120 pounds and he was planning on walking over 400 miles of the trail. It was his 2nd day out. Always will wonder how far he got with that thing.
fredmugs
04-29-2010, 09:50
A naked 20 something with Shawn White style flaming red hair carrying only a baby blue guitar.
hal0ofwint3r
05-23-2010, 13:57
someone carrying a croquet stick just west of rausch gap
Graywolf
05-23-2010, 14:23
Maybe the guy wanted to play croquet in Penn??
thelowend
05-23-2010, 15:17
A guy from Atlanta carrying red wine... oops, sorry, that was me.
yo, im right down the road from ya. went to chamblee for high school
the2nddeal
05-23-2010, 15:47
On the Pinhoti Trail this weekend, I walked upon this hanging from a tree. All I could think is "hike faster".
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4015/4629357411_3aed86c1d7.jpg
TIDE-HSV
05-23-2010, 23:51
Years ago, on Standing Indian, we encountered a heavily armed guy (pig season), totally lost, trying to raise his buddy "Maddog" on his walkie-talkie. When we told him he was on a trail which ran over 2,000 miles from Georgia to Maine, then he knew we were crazy. He withdrew a safe distance and continued to try to get Maddog to rescue him...
TIDE-HSV
05-23-2010, 23:59
Oh and the rabbit that almost killed us. We were walking into Atkins through some of the farm land and property corridors. Up in the woods we hear something coming fast and couldnt see it. As it got closer we got more freaked out. When it jumped out of the woods and we saw it was only a little rabbit, we just died laughing. Good times!
If you were a Monty Python fan, you wouldn't have taken that rabbit so lightly... ;)
crazyonelost
05-27-2010, 17:38
I had a guy who claimed he know all about camping and such,so I took him to Dolly Sods Wv and really had a kick cause he had a samuri sword, 100 foot of thick hemp rope,8 quarts of gatorade bottles full of water,i tupperware container of nuts,i tupperware container of 3 musketeers bars,another container of cheese srings and Two large cans of Ravoli. The funny thing was I took him to pack light and bring a coat since it gets chilly onto the ridge and we pass I don't know how many streams. We average about 15 miles in two days cause he just was a little slow.
At night I scuffed the ground below the food bags and hid the food in my tent in the morning and said we had our food stolen during the night and of course as we was heading onto the trail there was a fresh bear print in the mud.
For some reason,he still won't talk about that day. We'll I tried to help him out.
About a week and a half ago while tenting at Greasy Creek Gap, I was awakened by an animal making the strangest noises. I think I am pretty familiar with the animals out there, but I can't figure out what kind of animal makes a noise that is weirdly similar to a cat! When it would get close to the tent, making its loud, pitiful "wrooow-ing" noises, I would clap and yell at the animal to go away. It kept coming back. I finally looked outside, and sitting on a downed tree in the middle of a downpour is a big ol cat! I can't figure out why it would be out in the middle of nowhere. Considering it looked well fed, I figure it possibly had wandered over from the Greasy Creek Friendly area.
I told this story to a thru hiker a few days later. He said when he walked by that spot, there were two people there burning something that put out the worst smell. Turns out there was another camper there the night before, but he had packed up and left at four in the morning, leaving them with a one pound bag of cat food. They were burning it, rather than scattering it and attracting animals.
another hiker in the Smokies who scolded me when I told him I had ventured out to Charlies Bunion to take pictures.... his angry retort to me when I asked him if he had seen Charlies Bunion...
"HELL NO, this is a hiking trip, not a sightseeing trip!"
and he was not joking....most bizarre comment I've heard yet on the trail
Kerosene
05-29-2010, 20:42
I just remembered a weird sighting from 3 years ago. I was tenting at Saunders Shelter, just north of Damascus, on a warm evening in June 2007 after a long but lovely 24-mile day from Wise Shelter. Here's what I wrote in my trail journal:
I slept much better last night, at least once I calmed down. I was emptying my bladder by the tree-line just before I headed to bed. It was now quite dark, with crystal clear stars directly overhead. Gradually my eyes adjusted to the darkness, but just before I finished I caught sight of something glowing a florescent light green in the trees below. There were at least two “objects”, but they were far enough apart that they didn’t seem like the eyes of a single animal. I tried to get a better view by moving to one side, but they disappeared, almost as if something had turned away. I tried not to think about it, but as I zipped up my tent I kept an eye out toward the tree-line and eventually saw a single object moving. So now I’m wondering what it could be,when suddenly it appears not 10 yards away and heading straight towards the tent! I let out a loud exclamation that seemed to scare away the object and attracted the other campers, who scurried over thinking it was a bear (we had been talking about the rumors of a mother bear and cub frequenting this shelter). I never did figure out what I was seeing, but figured it was small enough that I could forget it.
earlyriser26
05-29-2010, 22:16
My favorites, and these come from people I was hiking with, 1) a kite and swim suit (in march when it was snowing) 2) a guy brought a big jar of olives for martinis (they were good though).
While section hiking from Standing Indian to Fontana earlier last month, we saw a rather large nude older gentleman bathing out of a drainage pipe right beside the trail. The ironic thing was it was on Big Butt Mountain. He looked at us and looked down and said "water's cold".
"someone carrying a croquet stick just west of rausch gap"
I first met the "croquet boys" in the Smokies in March, they were just ahead of my group, which we appreciated as it made things easier for us as they were compacting the snow down ahead and making the trail visible at times through some fresh snow that fell while we were in Gatlinburg. Every time my hiking partners and I would get to a shelter they were at they would in fairly short order get up and start to leave, I think figuring that "if the old guys have caught us, we need to do more miles". When I got off trail (temporarily I hope) in New York last week they were a good two weeks further ahead --- those boys cook. They each carry a croquet mallent and do impromptu croquet matches with whatever conditions they can find. Their trail names are Half-Pint, Sweet Potatoes, and Tinman. I'm sure they'll be some of the first NOBOs to get to Katahdin this year.
My personal favorite so far was meeting a SOBO at the Mayor's house in Unionville who carries an Iguana on his pack. Since he's southbound I expect a lot of folks will see him; he's got a big big pack, you won't likely miss him assuming he stays on trail!
A guy at Partneship who had made 3 trips into Marion to lighten his load. He got it down to 85 lbs. Guess he couldn't part with that 10 lbs of AA batteries and 11 flashlights.
I pulled a tick off at Loft Mtn. and a lady asked me to put in her jar filled with alcohol. There must have been tree dozen ticks in there, she sis she was ridding the woods of tick. Weird.
Oops, three dozen, and she says she was ridding the woods of ticks.
hal0ofwint3r
06-02-2010, 20:23
el jefe, i just bathed nude at a stream right on the trail last weekend. it was great. because nobody else passed by!
brianle, that's funny, you ran into them too.
I met the guy with the 85 lb. pack and flashlights and so forth south of Bland a couple weeks ago. Super nice guy! Hiking his own hike!
Czechtrecker
06-05-2010, 08:04
Last Sept. I was leapfrogging a large coed group of late teens/early twenties between Garfield shelter and Mt Lafayette. The last time I passed them it was somewhere between Lafayette and Lincoln. They had stopped in front of a very large boulder with an overhang, sort of a natural cathedral. They were now all wearing long black robes, some with hoods, some with hats. They were having some type of ceremony with candles and wine. It was very foggy and breezy so it was quite an eerie scene.
Czechtrecker,
It was probably just a Wiccan celebration of the autumnal equinox. Some circles wear robes; others not. Sounds like a beautiful place for it.
trailangelbronco
06-05-2010, 14:50
The worst I have ever seen on the trail is when I almost stepped in human poop on the trail. Somebody just dropped trousers right in the middle of the trail and left a big "Baby Ruth" complete with toilet paper right there on the trail in the middle of a big meadow. I was gonna move it aside with a stick but started gaggin and took off on my way and shakin my head.
TIDE-HSV
06-05-2010, 20:28
The worst I have ever seen on the trail is when I almost stepped in human poop on the trail. Somebody just dropped trousers right in the middle of the trail and left a big "Baby Ruth" complete with toilet paper right there on the trail in the middle of a big meadow. I was gonna move it aside with a stick but started gaggin and took off on my way and shakin my head.
I've posted this before, but, back in the early 80s, a friend and I were coming into the AT at Silers Bald from High Rocks on Welch Ridge, and rounded a turn into a designated campsite, and there crouched a dwarf, pants down about to poop in the trail. His tall, good looking, blond girlfriend (I guess) was standing right beside him. As we passed by, with a grunt and a nod (pants up by now), he snarled "A guy can't take a s**t anywhere these days..." Maybe he'd preceded you... :) As we rounded the next bend, I asked my buddy "Did you just see what I saw?"
last year, A guy hiking solo down Wolf Rocks in a speedo and sandals.
a group with a 6 quart soup pot making stew with beef, onions, carrots and potatoes on a huge propane stove.
Then they baked a cake. It was my birthday so they sang to me and gave me a piece.