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  1. #1
    Registered User Ewker's Avatar
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    Default Rain Man has passed away.

    Neo who use to post on here sometimes posted this on FB today.
    Last night my friend also known by his trail name "Rain Man" passed away. I am really going to miss him.
    Rain Man posted on here a lot and was one of the main organizers of the Backpacker meetup group in Nashville

    RIP Rain Man you will be missed
    Conquest: It is not the Mountain we conquer but Ourselves

  2. #2

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    RIP Rain Man,

    willin'

  3. #3
    Registered User Tuxhiker's Avatar
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    Default

    Sorry to hear about Rain Man.

  4. #4

    Default

    Sorry to hear this.
    "Sleepy alligator in the noonday sun
    Sleepin by the river just like he usually done
    Call for his whisky
    He can call for his tea
    Call all he wanta but he can't call me..."
    Robert Hunter & Ron McKernan

    Whiteblaze.net User Agreement.

  5. #5
    Registered User
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    Default

    Too young Rainman
    Order your copy of the Appalachian Trail Passport at www.ATPassport.com

    Green Mountain House Hostel
    Manchester Center, VT

    http://www.greenmountainhouse.net

  6. #6
    Registered User
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    Default

    This makes me terribly sad.

    I met Rain Man about three years ago. He had reached out to me a few days before my HF to Rockfish Gap section, and we met at Blackburn Trail Center on my second day out. He was one last day from completing his 2000+ miles, and the smile on his face was epic. He listened with genuine interest to my silly chatter about those first few miles, and he treated me like an old friend.

    I will miss him here.
    fortis fortuna adjuvat

  7. #7
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    Chattanooga, Tennessee
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    Default

    Very nice fellow, generous with time and advice, humble ... he will be missed.

    I'm glad he was able to complete many of his hiking goals - IIRC he LASH-ed his way to completion of the AT over 14 years ... a steady, long-term commitment of vacation time. And not long ago he hiked the John Muir Trail out west, and was pictured atop Mt. Whitney with, IIRC, an elevation sign while wearing a puffy jacket in, or course, orange.

  8. #8
    GSMNP 900 Miler rmitchell's Avatar
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    09-13-2011
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    Default

    Shocked and saddened to hear this.

    RIP Rainman.

  9. #9
    TOW's Avatar
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    Default

    Wow, I did not even know he was sick. Just spoke to him not long ago. I first met Rain Man and one of his daughters when they stayed with me in 2007 and we remained friends. I visited with him a couple of times when I was traveling through Nashville. We had some conflict politically but we were solid mutually in our friendship. Yep, gonna miss arguing with this old farticus.

  10. #10
    Registered User
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    06-04-2018
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    Husk NC
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    Met Rain Man last year while BPing in the GSMNP. Great guy! Condolences to his family.
    .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. ..........
    Travel not for the destination, but for the joy of the journey.

  11. #11

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    Shocked of course as Rain Man and I and others pulled several backpacking trips together---

    Here's a sort of photographic memorial to Mr Rain Man---

    Trip 146 012-XL.jpg
    I first meet Rain Man on the top of Flats Mt in Citico wilderness as we link up to pull a Citico trip. Sarah (USMC Vet) is with us.

    Trip 146 025-XL.jpg
    We pull 6.2 miles of Flats Mt and hit Beehouse Gap and take South Fork trail to enter Citico wilderness on South Fork Creek.

    Trip 146 026-XL.jpg
    Rain Man on South Fork Creek---headnets are only used by Wimps---while Sarah doesn't need no stinking headnet. (And of course we never offered to share ours).

    Trip 146 029-XL.jpg
    Rain Man crossing South Fork Creek.

    Trip 146 062-XL.jpg
    Taking a break climbing up South Fork trail.

    Trip 146 060-XL.jpg
    Rain Man pulling the tough nut up South Fork trail.

    Trip 146 066-XL.jpg
    Pooped out in Cold Spring Gap after the SF climb.

  12. #12

    Default

    PART TWO

    TRIP 166 129-XL.jpg
    On another trip I meet up with Randy Draper and we backpack up Kirkland Creek trail in Upper Bald River wilderness.

    TRIP 166 120-XL.jpg
    Kirkland pops us out on the BMT and we head north on the tough climb out of Sandy Gap and stop by this trailpost.

    TRIP 166 125-XL.jpg
    We approach Moss Gap on State Line Ridge/BMT and Rain Man checks out the intermittent spring source.

    TRIP 166 138-XL.jpg
    Rain Man and Randy with campfire in Moss Gap on BMT.

    TRIP 166 160-XL.jpg
    We break a real sweat going up State Line Ridge to Rocky Top Mt and along the way Patman finds us and stays with us to Brookshire Creek.

    TRIP 166 165-XL.jpg
    We finish State Line Ridge and drop down Brookshire Creek trail where we all have to take a break.

    TRIP 166 200-XL.jpg
    We reach the Brookshire Creek crossing and get this pic with the camera on the trailpost.

    TRIP 166 201-XL.jpg
    We get off the BMT and stay on Brookshire trail down to this CS where Rain Man builds a campfire.

    TRIP 166 220-XL.jpg
    Time to say goodbye to Rain Man and Patman and Randy.

    Trip 146 021-XL.jpg
    So Long Rain Man.

  13. #13
    Registered User
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    Default

    I first meet Rain Man on the top of Flats Mt in Citico wilderness as we link up to pull a Citico trip. Sarah (USMC Vet) is with us.



    this is where i met him as well..........

    i had just gotten outta my car and heard you whooping it up coming down the trail....

  14. #14
    Registered User kolokolo's Avatar
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    Default

    So sorry to hear this. I never met RainMan, but always enjoyed reading his posts. His successful completion of the AT via sections over 14 years is a real encouragement to me.
    Formerly uhfox

    Springer to Bear Mountain Inn, NY
    N Adams, MA to Clarendon VT
    Franconia Notch to Crawford Notch

  15. #15

    Default

    RIP Rain Man. May he and his family be in peace. Not much of a poster but if his family reads this, he brought joy to a total stranger who read his posts.

  16. #16
    Registered User JNI64's Avatar
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    Harpers ferry wv.
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    I too have never met him, actually bumped heads with him a couple times here; all good in the woods. He's obviously very well respected in the hiking world as well as whiteblaze.we lost a true spirit of the wild ! See ya on the other side! ( RIP Rain Man) .......
    Last edited by JNI64; 08-16-2020 at 15:24.

  17. #17

    Default

    I was shocked to hear this news. I first knew Rain Man through Whiteblaze and in 2011, we finally met face-to-face at Trail Days. By happenstance, I had met his daughter, Sara (Trail name Grass Picker), on her thruhike in 2004 when we shared Low Gap Shelter.

    Rain Man was an avid AT section hiker and in 2017, the year he completed the Trail, I hosted and shuttled him at my home in Vermont. That was the last time I saw him.

    My sympathy to his family - may he rest in peace.

  18. #18

    Default

    I met Rain Man when I section-hiked southern Maine and like so many others, really enjoyed his company. Fittingly, it rained all day today in my neck of the woods, as if in tribute to this kind, thoughtful, intelligent man. I'm very sorry to learn of his passing.

  19. #19

    Default

    Could someone please tell me what Rainman's real name is? I know his first name is Raymond, but I can't remember his last name.
    I would like to look up his obituary in our newspaper.
    Thanks

  20. #20

    Default

    Very sad, he touched many lives. He was always generous with his trail knowledge, even giving me, a stranger, his phone number in case I had questions. He’ll be missed.

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