Meeting Hikers in Strange places.

[BooBoo]

I know, I know. This year I missed The Gathering for the first time. Instead I went to a Bluegrass Festival over in Goodnight MO that some of my friends from Schwagstock were putting on. It turns out one of their friends that came there hiked from Springer to DWG in '99. He said that he knew Balt Jack. We ended up "talking trail" for 3-4 hours.It also turns out that he was behind a story about someone putting a bowling ball is someones pack. Who'da thought I'd meet a fellow hiker at a Bluegrass Festival in Missouri of all places? Cool huh?

[TankHiker]

This summer my girlfriend and I spent a weekend hiking around South Park, Colorado. In the lobby of the motel we were staying, we met a guy who had ridden his bike into town. I asked where he was coming from, and he said Pennsylvania. The topic soon turned to long-distance travel, and the AT came up. It turns out the he had hiked from Springer to Damascus last year. He had started the day after I did! So, the 3 of us went to a restaurant across the street and talked for an hour or two about the AT last year. He knew all the same people we knew, and we caught up on the trail gossip. He said he remembered reading my name in the trail registers last year. Although neither of us knew the other, I am sure we passed each other many times on the trail last year.

Funny how things like that happen.

-Tank

[Rain Man]

Maybe someone else can fill in the facts, but during the WhiteBlaze Gathering in September a bunch of the thru-hikers decided to hitch into Canada, just about 45 miles away. They piled into the back of a pick-up truck that stopped quickly, and some did not take their "photo ID" with them. Canada let them in, but the US gave them a hard time getting back into the USA. Not to mention, they were illegally piled into a car then.

Turns out, the US border guard had thru-hiked a few years earlier, believed their story, and cut them some reasonable slack for being dummies, er, neglectful of societal legal techicalities. LOL

It can help running into ex-thru-hikers in strange places!

Rain Man

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