Hikers "On the Lam"

[Macerc]

I was wondering if any A/T hikers were aware of others who had found the A/T an "escape" not just from society's ignoble strife, but from various forms of legal problems? I just saw that Richard Hatch, the original "survivor" recently was charged with failing to report his million plus winnings on the show! I suppose he will soon be facing an entirely different form of deprivation...:banana

[grrickar]

It was rumored that Eric Rudolph (who was wanted for several bombings in the US, including the Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta) eluded authorities for quite some time hiding out on or around the trail.They finally caught him in Murphy, NC. He allegedly knew the area well, and authorities were thinking all along that people were helping him. If he was on or near the trail, chances are some hikers ran across him - although many might not have recognized him.

http://www.smokymountainnews.com/issues/06_03/06_04_03/fr_rudolphs_saga.html

[Tha Wookie]

I would imagine that to win a Survivor gameshow, you might have to be the kind of person that would also end up with some kinda record. But to hike the entire AT, or any other long trail for that matter, requires some real honesty be it good or bad. In other words, Survivor and thru-hiking really have nothing in common.

[halibut15]

It was rumored that Eric Rudolph (who was wanted for several bombings in the US, including the Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta) eluded authorities for quite some time hiding out on or around the trail.They finally caught him in Murphy, NC.
The area Rudolph was hiding in has basically few road crossings all the way from the AT corridor to the Fires Creek area all the way up into the Tellico River area of Tennessee. That's the kind of place where I'd want to disappear if I ever wanted to get away.

[zephyr1034]

It was rumored that Eric Rudolph (who was wanted for several bombings in the US, including the Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta) eluded authorities for quite some time hiding out on or around the trail.They finally caught him in Murphy, NC. He allegedly knew the area well, and authorities were thinking all along that people were helping him. If he was on or near the trail, chances are some hikers ran across him - although many might not have recognized him. ================================================== ==========

I saw a wanted poster for Rudolph at the Trail crossing of Virginia Route 42 in the New River Ranger District of the Jeff. That's quite a ways north.

Rudolph undoubtedly had help. There were bumper stickers reading "Run Rudolph Run" all over Swain, Graham, Jackson and Macon counties in NC. (I wonder if that's the basis for the old movie "Macon County Line.") If not that movie, then Deliverance.

The area in question, the Nantahala and Snowbird mountain ranges, constitute extremely rough country. You'd have to be a real survivalist to last long there.

[SGT Rock]

Deliverance was supposedly North Georgia, and Macon County Line was in central GA near Alabama if I remember right.

[TakeABreak]

During my 2000 hike, I saw several wanted posters on the A.T. For Eric Rudoph, from Springer to the southern VA., area. Also while training for it in 99, I was living near Franklin, NC. and hiking all over the place and came across people who looked and acted like hikers but acted questions regarding Rudolph, I figured real quick who they really were. I have also talked to people who said they had hiked with a guy resembling rudolph as far north as PA in 98 & 99. They just did not know it at the time, they later saw a wanted poster of him, figured out who it was and called the authorities.

[Footslogger]

It was rumored that Eric Rudolph (who was wanted for several bombings in the US, including the Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta) eluded authorities for quite some time hiding out on or around the trail.They finally caught him in Murphy, NC. He allegedly knew the area well, and authorities were thinking all along that people were helping him. If he was on or near the trail, chances are some hikers ran across him - although many might not have recognized him.
http://www.smokymountainnews.com/issues/06_03/06_04_03/fr_rudolphs_saga.html============================= ====================
I remember being turned back by armed FBI agents on a trail in the Joyce Kilmer Wilderness, up near Robbinsville, NC in either '99 or '00.

'Slogger
AT 2003

[TankHiker]

When I was staying at The Place in '03, the police came into my room and took one hiker away in handcuffs. He was supposedly wanted in Florida, and they somehow tracked him down to Damascus. (I don't know the whole story behind it, so I will leave it at that).

-TANK

[greatbahen]

During my 2000 hike, I saw several wanted posters on the A.T. For Eric Rudoph, from Springer to the southern VA., area. Also while training for it in 99, I was living near Franklin, NC. and hiking all over the place and came across people who looked and acted like hikers but acted questions regarding Rudolph, I figured real quick who they really were. I have also talked to people who said they had hiked with a guy resembling rudolph as far north as PA in 98 & 99. They just did not know it at the time, they later saw a wanted poster of him, figured out who it was and called the authorities.When I was hiking on the A.T. near Wesser in 99, my group ran into 3 FBI agents who had nothing but daypacks. They each had a gun on their hip too. They asked us if we had seen anybody that seemed out of the orginary. Then they gave us wanted posters for Rudolph too.

[The Old Fhart]

Click here (http://www.whiteblaze.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/2644/size/big/sort/1/cat/500) to see a photo of the FBI set up at Trail Days in 1998 with the wanted poster of Eric Rudoph on the front of their table.

[grrickar]

I was hiking some in NC, not far from the AT and while we were walking up to a ridge a helicopter kept passing by, then stopped, hovered for awhile, left, then came back. We figured they were using a thermal imager to see people through the trees, and that they were looking for Rudolph.

[grizzlyadam]

in 2002 i did a four day backpacking adventure on the rim trail in the fires creek wildlife management area, in western north carolina, with two friends. we started our hike at the bob allison campground- which is where the manhunt for rudolph started when they found a truck that he had abandoned.

after he was finally caught, authorities found two of his camps in the fires creek wildlife managment area. the place is wild and rugged and i can understand why he hid out there.

you can read about the whole adventure here (http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?trailname=729).

[Lugnut]

At the Radford, Va ATC Bi-annual conference in 1999 there was a posting on the main bulletin board that read: "Eric Rudolph, please phone home". I think it stayed up there for the whole conference. Guess he wasn't there. :-?

[rickb]

Here is one--

http://data2.itc.nps.gov/morningreport/morningreportold.cfm?date=2003%2D06%2D19%2000%3A00 %3A00

Not sure there is much value in that specific link, but the NPS Morning report does provide better entertainment and education than Matt Drudge, anyway.

I always get a kick out to the plant poachers along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Rick B