I
met someone on the trail, heading northbound from GA
to ME. Her trailname is HYPER. We sat down and talked
for awhile, mostly about things like science fiction
stories and the trail itself. HYPER had already hike
1700 miles. I had 4 more miles to hike that day, so
she decided to join me. She left her pack in the crook
of a tree and hiked back 4 miles with me, continuing
the conversation, but reversing her direction. On the
way, we passed a couple of other northbound people who
looked at her peculiarly, kind of wondering why she
was hiking backwards, but with a trailname like HYPER,
it made sense. She hiked all the way back and spent
several hours with me and my father just filling us in
on her story. She was an Olympic downhill skier, and
yes, she was HYPER When she left us, she took off
running down the trail. Since then, whenever I pass
other northbound people, I ask if they have met HYPER,
they always laugh and say, "Oh, what a perfect
trailname she has."
Further
along, we met an interesting couple: CROUTON and
AMANDA PANDA. They're hiking southbound the same as we
are. We met them first in Maine., and we met them
again recently. They told us some of their interesting
experiences. One day, for example, they were
hitchhiking into town and a funeral director picked
them up and one of them got to sit in the front seat
and the other one got to sit in the back seat with the
body. While hiking through Pennsylvania, AMANDA PANDA
decided she had to do something about all those rocks
... the rocks in PA are certainly abundant! To help
her with the rocks she picked up her own pet rock to
carry with her which she named Ned. She thought that
Ned, being a kindred soul with the other rocks, was
going to help her get over all of these other pointed
rocks that they were climbing over. Since PANDA and
CROUTON are heading about the same pace that we are,
we'll probably cross their paths again, and I'll ask
her if it worked.
There
are various views of southbound hikers going from ME
to GA. Most hikers go northbound from GA to ME. You
don't cross paths that often with hikers heading the
same direction you are, but when you do, it's a lot of
fun to catch up on what everyone has heard on the
trail. The trail grapevine is certainly some of the
life-blood that goes on on the trail. As you pass
through the shelters, there are journals in each
shelter that people write in and that way you can keep
track of the people that have passed you or are behind
you. And we leave messages or tell stories. The story
that CROUTON told about the funeral director ride was
recorded in a shelter, so everyone who passed through
would read this story.
