Winter 2013 - The Appalachian Long Distance Hikers Association

Transcription

The Long Distance Hiker
The Newsletter of the Appalachian Long Distance Hikers Association
Vol. 24, no. 4
‘ALDHA News That Fits We Print Since 1983’
Winter 2013
INSIDE THIS
E-EDITION
WITHOUT A TRACE
Geraldine Largay entered the
toughest
stretch of the
A.T. in Maine
and vanished
without a
trace, stumping searchers
and hikers alike. Page 6
n
THE AT PASSPORT
Introducing a new way to
create a lasting memento
of your thru-hike, the way
they do in Spain. Page 29
n
“crooked StickS” h. deAn clArk
NEW A.T. RECORD
Matt Kirk of North Carolina, seen above, hiked
the whole A.T. this summer
in 59 days without any support team, breaking a 23year-old mark held by a
familiar fixture from the
1980s and ’90s. Page 13
n
THE GREATEST
TRAIL SONG EVER?
n It has been dubbed the
“backcountry hymn” in one
corner of the country, and
it is not a song by Walkin’
Jim Stoltz. Pages 34-35
INDEX
Coordinator’s report . . . . 2
News & notes . . . . . . . . . 3
ALDHA board . . . . . . . . . 4
New members . . . . . . . . 5
Gathering 2013 . . . . 17-28
A.T. Museum . . . . . . 30-31
Boots McFarland . . . . . . 32
ALDHA minutes . . . . 36-37
Mission statement . . . . . 38
ALDHA Store . . . . . . 39-41
Registration form . . . . . 42
2014 calendar . . . . . . . . 43
Valley mist rises early Sunday at the 2011 Gathering near Williamstown, Mass., in full view of Mount Greylock.
Williams College: WE’RE IN!
by biLL o’brien
Editor-in-Chief
Who can forget the stunning view of
the entire Mount Greylock range from
our campsite at the 2011 Gathering? Sunrise on Sunday was amazing, and over
the course of the weekend we witnessed
fall’s first transition from green to redyellow-orange on the surrounding hills.
Besides the mud from the preceding
week’s rains, the only downside to that
location was the 10-mile drive around the
A Look bAck At ’13
A retrospective of the Shippensburg Gathering, Pages 17-28
Greylock Reservation to get to our host
college at MCLA in North Adams.
Well, the big news this month is that
we’re heading back to that beautiful field
in Williamstown (hopefully without any
mud this time) for next year’s Gathering,
thanks once again to the generous dona-
tion by landowner and triple-crown thruhiker Eric White.
But to make it even better than before
— and this is the really exciting part —
we’ll hold all Gathering events at the
closer and roomier Williams College, just
four miles from the campsite on Route 7,
a straight shot without any traffic lights.
Eric is working with Jim Niedbalski,
a fellow triple-crowner who is responsible for bringing us to that area in the first
Continued on Page 11
New Companion packs in profiles
By the long distance hiker
The Appalachian Trail Thru-Hikers’ Companion includes for the first time a complete set of
professionally prepared elevation profiles of the
entire A.T. It also includes lots of new maps of
trail towns — two-thirds more than in 2013 —
and all the latest information on town services
and trail conditions gathered by volunteer field
editors from ALDHA over the summer and fall.
And the best news of all is that the 2014 edition is now in stock and available for sale. Order
it now and you can have it in your hands in
plenty of time to plan for your 2014 hike.
It is vital to note that no one individual profits
personally from the sale of this book. All proceeds are poured directly into trail programs and
trail protection for the benefit of all hikers. No
other thru-hiker trail guide can make that claim.
Continued on Page 11
2
Winter 2013
december 2013
kip redick greets the dawn
at the Folklife center in
Pipestem, W.Va., in 2012.
Vol. 24, no. 4
h. deAn clArk
editor -in-chief
Bill o’Brien
Photo editor
h. dean clark
The Long Distance Hiker is published four
times each year by AldhA, the Appalachian long distance hikers Association, a 501(c)3 nonprofit registered in new
hampshire at 10 Benning St., PMB 224,
West lebanon, nh 03784.
Membership is open to all. there are no
prerequisites to sign up. to join, fill out
and mail the form on Page 42, or go online to www.aldha.org/join.html.
contact us via email at info@aldha.org.
our home page is located on the Web at
www.aldha.org. to contact the folks below, see the email list on Page 38.
ALDHA coordinator
kip redick
Assistant coordinator
randy Anderson
treasurer
Mike Wingeart
Membership Secretary
robert Sylvester
recording Secretary
Sue Spring
At-Large board Members
ron Bungay ’15
ryan hamler ’14
Jim niedbalski ’15
rhea Patrick ’14
Jim Sample ’15
Judy Young ’14
Gathering coordinators
randy Anderson, program coordinator
Jim niedbalski, college coordinator
eric White, campsite coordinator
outreach coordinator
Judy Young
2014 companion editor
robert Sylvester
Webmaster
Bill o’Brien
Merchandise coordinators
ryan hamler & Judy Young
A.t. Museum representatives
noel decavalcante & Bill o’Brien
DeADLine For SPrinG iSSUe: Feb. 1
Send your stuff to newsletter@aldha.org
or 181 highland Ave., Meriden, ct 06451
No copy of this newsletter may be posted online
in whole or in part without the editor’s consent.
I
Coordinator’s report
t was wonderful to get together with so many
ALDHA folks, to chat and catch up on what
trails everyone has been walking, maintaining, creating, or dreaming. Thanks to Shippensburg University for hosting us this year; I
heard so many good reports about the facilities.
Thanks to all those volunteers who stepped up to
make the 2013 Gathering a great success. When I
arrived many of those volunteers had already assembled the packets to be given at registration. We truly
have so many hard working ALDHA members!
I would like to especially thank Mike “WingHeart” Wingeart for all his diligence and creative
energy as our coordinator for the past term. He
truly came into the office as a whirlwind and instituted many constructive changes that benefit
ALDHA. Mike stepped up as facilities coordinator
at Shippensburg and will continue to serve us as the
new ALDHA treasurer.
Sue Spring (“Mama Lipton”) will continue as
Recording Secretary and also keep our Apple Contest thriving. Judy Young (“Gray Jay”) continues
as outreach coordinator and has a much appreciated
hand in our merchandise efforts. Robert “Sly”
Sylvester will continue to serve as membership secretary, Companion editor and all around give-ityour-best service ALDHA member.
Thanks to Sly and Bill O’Brien (“Sprained
Rice”) for creating the Gathering program booklet.
Bill also generated content for the web pages; his
editing skills, patience with all of us in compiling
contributions to the newsletters and other publications, and encouragement contribute to the overall
success of everything ALDHA does.
This year Randy Anderson (“Chuck Norris”)
will step up as Assistant Coordinator as well as the
2014 Gathering Program Coordinator. He and LuAnne (“Tigger”) provided invaluable help with the
Shippensburg Gathering. Thanks Chuck.
Ryan Hamler (“Redneck Rye”) and Rhea
Patrick (“Razor”) will step up with one-year terms
as at-large board members, and Ryan and Judy will
be the new merchandise coordinators. Ron Bungay
(“Yellow Shoes”), Jim Niedbalski (“High Octane”)
and Jim Sample (“White Sidewalls”) are all in twoyear terms as at-large board members.
Thanks to Ron for organizing the Hiker Fair and
the line dancing. Thanks once again to H. Dean
Clark (“Crooked Sticks”) for all the wonderful photos. Thanks to Chuck Wood (“Wood Chuck”) for his
handcrafted trophies and the beautiful Final Blazes.
Thanks to Michael Daniel (“Lion King”) for his
heart-felt presentation of images and words. Thanks
to Sue Spring and Tom Evans (“Flatlander”) for coordinating the Apple Contest.
Thanks to Kent Wilson (“Tent-N-Kent”) for coordinating the work trip.
Finally, a thank you to Randy Hammond and his
staff at Shippensburg University for facilitating our
use of the campus.
AS THE NEW COORDINATOR OF ALDHA,
I would like to start by offering a few words of encouragement to all the members.
May we all “keep the fire burning.”
Many of us came off our long hike, whether it
was a single thru-hike, multiple A.T. hikes, a
Triple Crown or our last section, with a fire burning in our heart. The trail set us ablaze, and we arrived home wanting to share that flame with others.
There are few human beings who relate to this
strange obsession with long distance hiking, so
many of us did not find good kindling or dry wood
to let our spark ignite more fires. We turned to the
local A.T. hiking clubs or other similar organizations. We found ALDHA and came to a Gathering,
where kindred spirits were similarly fired up about
walking in places few others would dare go. We let
our fire take us out to do trail maintenance. In
some cases we inspired someone who has never
hiked to attempt the walk from Georgia to Maine.
That’s what we do at ALDHA, “keep the fire
burning.”
This year I hope you let your sparks find dry
wood, whether it is doing trail maintenance, field
work for the Companion, being an ambassador for
the A.T. or some other trail, or gearing up to do
your own first thru-hike.
Whatever you do this year to stoke those flames,
bring that passion to the next Gathering up at
Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
Sincerely,
Kip Redick
Coordinator
Winter 2013
3
NEWS & NOTES FROM ALL AROUND ALDHA
Blurbs gleaned from emails, ALDHA’s
Facebook pages and elsewhere about folks you
know and love from your Trail Family:
PoSitiVe VibeS For ‘biLLy GoAt’
Fans of “Billy Goat” will want to send positive
thoughts his way. During Christmas week he was
diagnosed with a 90% blockage in one artery, 60%
in another, with more blockage in a third. He will
be having a triple bypass whenever they can make
the proper arrangements after the holidays.
On the phone just now he said it was OK to share
this info with his PCT friends. I’m urging him to
view this positively. Better to find out and get things
fixed, rather than have the worst hit you on an uphill climb. There are undoubtedly miles of good
hiking ahead for him. He is at “Amoeba’s” (Marilyn Beckley) in Syracuse, N.Y., right now.
— Dr. Bob
biGGer GAMe tHAn tHe GAtHerinG
One noticeable absentee from this year’s Gathering in Shippensburg was the face of the International Appalachian Trail, founder Dick Anderson.
Turns out he had a pretty good reason not to be
there, and he received an informal pardon, if you
will, for his absence.
He was out moose hunting.
Yes, the longtime Mainer and former state official has had his name in the lottery for a moose
hunting permit for many, many years and his name
finally came up this year. The dates blew him away,
however, when he realized they coincided with the
Gathering. He sent his regrets; we sent him best
wishes.
And for all the Bullwinkle fans out there, you
will be happy to know you don’t have a reason to
hate our beloved “No Pack.” He failed to bring one
home.
Like FAtHer (AnD MoM), Like Son
We received this note in the mail the other day
with a membership renewal after a long hiatus and
thought we would pass it along:
We started coming to ALDHA at its beginning
after we thru-hiked in 1980. We brought our
children, then lost touch but our son, Jack
Schroeder, is planning a 2014 hike in March
and we want to resume our membership too.
HELLO OLD FRIENDS!
— Jan Cloverdale and Lou Schroeder,
“Tennessee Jed & Jan,” Marshall, N.C.
it’S A MAjor AWArD
Brian King, publisher for the Appalachian Trail
Conservancy and a perennial presence at ALDHA
Gatherings, has added another feather to his cap for
his coffee table book, “The Appalachian Trail: Celebrating America’s Hiking Trail” (see our review in
the winter 2012 newsletter). This fall, King’s book
won the trophy for best design and artistic merit
from the National Outdoor Book Awards, the outdoor world’s largest and most prestigious book
awards.
A PLAce WHere HikerS cAn Get re-enerGiZeD
PhotoS courteSY of SiGorA SolAr of WAYneSBoro
Waynesboro has just gotten a little greener thanks to ALDHA.
the hiker pavilion off Arch Street in the popular Virginia trail
town not only has a roof and picnic table so hikers camping at
the spot can cook dinner out of the rain, but it also now has
power so they can recharge their ‘other batteries.’ A panel will
store the solar energy for nighttime use, and hikers can use
handy shelves (top right) for their gizmos. ALDHA donated
money to move the pavilion to its new spot and have the panels installed by chris Sine, above,
and others from Sigora Solar. the facility will be called the ALDHA Hiker Pavilion (sign, inset).
King’s masterwork is a treasure trove of archival
A.T. photos and well-crafted essays laid out on
quality large-format paper stock, the kind of book a
serious hiker builds his trail library around.
— S.R.
HooSier DADDy
Scot “Taba” Ward was interviewed recently as
he walked through Kokomo, Ind., on the Nickel
Plate Trail. He headed west after the Gathering and
is undertaking a new project to piece together small
trails to create a new Hoosier Trail, running from
Chicago to Louisville, Ky. (While he was in the
Louisville area, he stayed with “Gray Jay.”)
We wish this intrepid walker/bicyclist/skateboarder the best of luck. You can check out the
story about Taba, who is referred to in the story as
“a professional hiker,” at kokomoperspective.com.
He WASn’t exActLy SPeecHLeSS
Congratulations are in order for Bob Peoples, the
hostel guru and Hard Core trail maintainer at Kincora Hostel in Tennessee, for receiving this year’s
Honorary Life Member Award from ALDHA. The
plaque was handed to him at Sunday’s business
meeting, where his accomplishments were cited before his name was announced, as is custom. But
everyone knew who it was going to be as the description continued, so by the time Bob got up to
h. deAn clArk
bob Peoples accepts the 2013 Honorary Life
Member Award from ALDHA.
accept the award to a standing ovation, he had no
trouble speaking on the stump.
He gave an inspirational call to arms for hikers to
help maintain the trails they enjoy. In fact, if you’re
going to Trail Days next May, sign up for his Hard
Core work trip that heads out that Sunday morning.
4
Winter 2013
NEW MEMBERS OF THE BOARD
these four folks were elected at the Gathering as the newest members of the board. in the spring newsletter, we’ll
profile the folks who’ll be bringing you next year’s Gathering: Assistant coordinator randy Anderson (program), Jim
niedbalski (facilities) and eric White (camping).
At-LArGe MeMber
trail name story: in erwin, tenn.,
i bought a yellow pair of crocs so
they would stand out in the bottom of my pack. A hiker started
calling me “Yellow Shoes.”
Favorite stretch of A.t.: Southwest Virginia with Grayson highlands and the ponies, who are
ron bUnGAy
looking for a handout, Partnership
“YELLoW SHoES”
Shelter where you can have a
Maryland
pizza delivery and chestnut knob
Shelter where a 9-week-old puppy started following me.
chestnut continues to be a faithful friend.
First / favorite Gathering: first Gathering was the one
held at Gettysburg. i was very impressed with the Gathering in north Adams, 2011. it had many workshops that
i found very interesting.
What do you hope to focus on? one word, involvement. the A.t. has enriched my life. it has given so
much to so many and i would like to see many opportunities for all of us to give back to the hiking community.
At-LArGe MeMber
ryAn HAMLer
“REDNECk RYE”
ohio
trail name story: it morphed
from rhea somehow.
Favorite stretch of A.t.:
Grayson highlands in Virginia.
rHeA PAtrick
“RAzoR”
earliest recollection of hearing
about ALDHA: heard about
AldhA from AldhA during my
thru-hike in 2008.
First / favorite Gathering: i attended the 2009 Gathering and
haven’t missed one since. they are all good.
tennessee
What do you hope to focus on? i want to contribute to
all the aims of AldhA.
Future for ALDHA? in the future i see that we are getting more involved in hiker support projects and more
trail and support facility maintenance which is a natural
extension for all hikers! let’s make it happen.
Favorite stretch of A.t.: in the
south, unaka Mountain. in the
north, Vermont.
First / favorite Gathering: 2000, right after i finished
the long trail. in 1999 i was still on the A.t. during
Gathering Weekend. i really enjoyed 2005 in hanover
even with all of the rain. Between Yogi’s Pct “how to”
and Weathercarrot’s photo video, i was inspired to go
out to the Pct in 2006 instead of back to the A.t. again.
What do you hope to focus on? Whatever kip asks
me to do.
Future for ALDHA? Good question. the membership
does not look to be getting any younger. i’m guessing
that the “get the guidebook for free with membership”
gets quite a few people to sign up but it does not seem
to result in too many new and younger faces at the
Gathering.
Future for ALDHA? AldhA is a great organization,
rather unique in that it is by hikers for hikers. We should
be guided by the premise that we have to be an advocate for best interest of the hiker.
At-LArGe MeMber
trail name story: i got my hair
cut short in dahlonega the afternoon before i started my first hike
in 1998. three very sunny days
later i got named at neels Gap.
i could have easily been named
Peeling nose or cracked &
Bleeding ears.
At-LArGe MeMber
jiM SAMPLe
“WHiTE SiDEWALLS”
Pennsylvania
trail name story: A long time
ago i was talking with someone
about the A.t. and commented
that probably by the time i got
around to hiking it i would have a
sporty haircut with a hard top and
white sidewalls. i was half right.
Favorite stretch of A.t.: having
only completed the southernmost
quarter of the A.t. i would have to
say the Great Smoky Mountains.
First / favorite Gathering: i first read about AldhA in
an issue of the Atc’s “A.t. Journeys” magazine. My first
was in 2012 at Pipestem. i went there two days before
the formal opening with the express purpose of meeting
as many hikers as i could, attend as many sessions as
time allowed, and help with setting up the venue if my
help was needed. i accomplished all three objectives.
What do you hope to focus on? expanding the membership base and hiker awareness of AldhA.
Future for ALDHA? i see a larger membership whose
hiking resumes include a larger number of international
trails. A greater focus will be on trail improvement. And
there will be an increase in the number of group events
along the length of the trail throughout the year.
Winter 2013
5
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Giving the gift that is ALDHA
A
by rAnDy AnDerSon
Assistant Coordinator
LDHA HAS A LONG TRADITION OF NOT hitting
members with fundraising appeals by mail, online or on
the phone. But that doesn’t prevent an individual from
stepping up and helping out, as you can see from the
list of unsolicited donations that appears in every newsletter (see
below). The generosity of these folks is much appreciated.
Now there’s another way for members to help give ALDHA a
little boost, and it’s in the form of a gift membership. Since dues
are the principal source of revenue for ALDHA’s operating budget,
the more members we have, the better we’ll be able to keep those
dues at just $10 a year. But beyond any financial edge we may derive from a gift membership, there’s an intangible benefit for both
parties, especially if the recipient is new to hiking.
So enter this new idea, dubbed ALDHA Shares. Consider a gift
to a friend, family member or hiker — now while the holidays are
still fresh in the air, or anytime of the year, it doesn’t matter — that
would benefit both the club and the recipient. It’s called ALDHA
Shares because you would be reaching out to get as many people as
possible to share in the ALDHA experience.
Jim Sample, a newly elected board member, is already doing
this on his own. He has written to his first batch of friends inviting
them to join ALDHA for a year — at his expense — and if they like it after the year is
over, they are welcome to renew on their
own. If not, at least they’ll get to see what
ALDHA is all about. (Click the letter.)
“I originally was planning to send a
money donation to ALDHA,” Jim explained in an email Nov. 21. “After
thinking about it, I thought it might be
more advantageous if I funded a
number of 2014 new member dues
and hope those folks continue their
memberships in the future. I am
shooting for 50 new members.”
Two other ALDHA members
have offered to pay the membership fees of another 50
folks, the first fifty 2014 thruhikers who submit their info.
If you know any ’14ers out there, send
their info to us and we’ll issue up to 50 freebies.
Here’s hoping all these efforts prove successful. If you
need a brochure for someone, visit www.aldha.org/join.html,
or if you need a gift certificate, see Page 40.
Window decals show
you’re a member of
ALDHA. they’re
available online at
aldha.org/store for
$1.50 plus postage.
they’re printed in
green on white.
New members & returnees
the best directory of long-distance hikers is being put together now for publication in early
2014. if you need to update your information, do it noW. Mail the form on Page 42 with your
dues or do it online (and pay online) at http://form.jotform.com/form/10562609918
new members and
renewals (that had
previously expired)
as of Dec. 1:
Mark Agricola
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Ansell
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A. Burroughs
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& family
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& Greg foster
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hayes
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ian Mcdaniel
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& Barbara root
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* Paid life member
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hugh doherty
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— Many thanks!
6
Winter 2013
This is the last known photo
of Geraldine Largay, taken at
Poplar Ridge Lean-to on the
morning of July 22, 2013.
Photo BY dottie ruSt, AkA ‘.coM’
Dottie rust, aka ‘.com,’ and her hiking partner, ‘Queen,’ section-hiked 225 miles southbound through Maine in july. they crossed paths with
Gerry Largay, ‘inchworm,’ at Poplar ridge shelter on the night of Sunday, july 21. Queen and inchworm were both nurses and had a long conversation. ‘Gerry described her hiking plans, was sad that her friend had to leave for a family situation, but excited to know she was so close
to katahdin,’ Dottie said. ‘inchworm was full of joy, thoroughly enjoying her hike.’ in the morning, Dottie felt compelled to snap Gerry’s photo,
and the image, above, has put a face on the tragedy of her disappearance. it was used at Gerry’s memorial service in Georgia in october.
Winter 2013
7
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Photo illuStrAtion BY Bill o’Brien
INTO THIN AIR
the Mysterious case
of Geraldine Largay
“Inchworm” was living her life’s dream of thru-hiking
the Appalachian Trail, starting in Harpers Ferry in
April. Then, three months later, in the North Woods
of Maine, she simply vanished, one day shy of meeting
her husband for a routine resupply at a road crossing.
She hasn’t been seen or heard from since.
by biLL o’brien
v
editor-in-chief
8
Winter 2013
Miles:
0
1
2
3
4
Black circled numbers mark events
in the timeline, including the search,
and thus do not always flow chronologically from left to right.
5
v
6
7
8
9
12
13
14
15
y
M
SO IT IS AGAINST THIS BACKDROP that Geraldine A. Largay came along in July on the northbound
leg of a flip-flop thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. She
began three months earlier in Harpers Ferry, living her
lifelong dream. The former Georgia resident was 66
years old and an experienced long-distance backpacker
whose bucket list included hiking the A.T. She had her
husband, George, meeting her at road crossings to resupply. Everything was going great. She was loving it.
Then, in the middle of the toughest stretch of the
toughest state on the entire 2,186-mile Appalachian
Trail, the intrepid hiker known as “Inchworm” disappeared, vanished.
Without a trace.
11
wx
u
ANY A.T. THRU-HIKERS say
Maine is the toughest state on the
entire trail. If so, the toughest
section of the toughest state could
arguably be the toughest section
along the entire trail — and that
would be the 32.2 miles between Rangeley and Stratton
where hikers face more than 10,000 feet of elevation
gain, miles of above-treeline exposure and two tricky
fords, all without any viable escape route except to turn
back or churn ahead.
It can take up to three days for the average person to
hike the stretch between Route 4, the road to Rangeley,
and Route 27, the road to Stratton. The trail crosses or
comes close to four mountains that are over 4,000 feet
high. You have to climb three other mountains that are
3,000 feet or higher. Climbs and descents are steep and
arduous. When you cross Saddleback Mountain, elevation 4,120 feet, you are totally exposed on the open
summit and a sudden change in weather can spell doom
for the unprepared. Even in summer hikers have woken
at Poplar Ridge Lean-to, just below Saddleback Junior,
to find their water bottles frozen.
On top of all that, in the deep valleys, hikers are confronted by two major fords — Orbeton Stream and the
South Branch of the Carrabassett River — and both can
be tricky if not treacherous after heavy rains. There is
only one unimproved road during this stretch affording
any chance for vehicle rescue and even that is iffy since
Caribou Valley Road is rocky and often unpassable depending on its current state of repair. Although there
has never been any known issues there, a woods road
can always add an unknown element of risk.
10
tiMeLine oF eVentS
Sunday, july 21: Geraldine largay sets
u
off north from route 4 for a 3-day hike to
route 27. her husband, George, hikes with
her for about 2 hours, then goes back to their
car. Supporting her hike by vehicle, he’ll meet
her at route 27 in a few days for resupply.
Sunday: Geraldine sends a text mesv
sage to George, saying she is on Saddleback
Mountain, 5.7 trail miles north of route 4.
Sunday: Poplar ridge lean-to is anw
other 5 miles north, and that is where she
Gerry Largay had been hiking the A.t. north
from Harpers Ferry with a partner, jane Lee
of Arlington, Va., seen at left with Largay on
the Pochuck boardwalk in new jersey. Later,
in late june in Vermont, Lee had to leave the
trail to tend to a family member. they cried
when they parted but kept in touch via cellphone and text messages. ‘Wish u were here,’
Largay texted Lee when she crossed into
Maine. About a week later she was gone.
IT WASN’T SUPPOSED TO END that way, not with
all the planning and preparation Geraldine poured into
her trip. She read seven books about hiking the A.T.,
went to Warren Doyle’s Appalachian Trail Institute
class, practice-hiked about 200 miles in North Carolina
and Georgia with her husband, and even searched out
experienced hikers like Jennifer Pharr Davis, the current
record-holder for fastest known thru-hike, to talk trail.
A retired nurse, she was only 5-feet 5-inches tall and
weighed about 115 pounds, but she was “wiry.” Unable
to carry heavy loads in her pack, she relied on George’s
resupplies every few days. While he enjoyed hiking, a
grueling thru-hike was not for him, but he didn’t hesitate
to support his wife’s dream. The way he saw it, she had
spent her life doing things for friends and family. Now
it was her turn to do something for herself.
And she was thoroughly enjoying herself. Every
morning was like Christmas Day out there for her, he
spends the night, making it a 10.7-mile hike
from route 4 to the shelter.
Monday, july 22: Geraldine sends a
x
text message to George at 7:15 a.m., likely
from Poplar ridge lean-to, saying she will
meet him the next afternoon, July 23, at
route 27, some 21.5 trail miles away.
Monday: At 2:26 p.m., largay’s celly
phone is turned on, registering a ping with
her carrier. A single tower and poor service
make it impossible to triangulate the signal.
She is reportedly seen by southbounder
“crunchmaster” somewhere between the
Spaulding Mountain and Poplar ridge leantos, 8 miles apart, with Spaulding the one farther north. it may be the last sighting of her,
but the hiker, 18, cannot recall where exactly
he saw her in that 8-mile stretch.
Monday night: Geraldine was originally
z
said to have spent the night at Spaulding
Mountain lean-to, but wardens are skeptical
of the tip that was called in to the staff of the
Stratton Motel, where George was staying.
Wardens later interview a woman hiker who
saw largay at Poplar ridge and who spent
Monday night at Spaulding lean-to, and she
says largay never showed up that night at
Spaulding. Wardens found no register entry
from her at Spaulding, but George says she
rarely signed registers anyway.
1
Winter 2013
16
17
}
18
19
z
9
~
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
{
|
Profile courteSY of MAine APPAlAchiAn trAil cluB
tuesday, july 23: it rains heavily, more
{
than half an inch. if Geraldine stayed at or
near Spaulding lean-to, she has to ford the
treacherous South Branch of the carrabassett river and climb the rugged crockers to
reach route 27, about a 13½-mile day.
tuesday night: no sign of her at route
|
27 at nightfall, so George sleeps in their midsize SuV in case she arrives after dark.
Wednesday, july 24: George walks in
|
a little ways on the trail hoping to see her. By
late morning he officially reports her missing.
thursday, july 25: the Maine Warden Service starts its search. Soon about 130 people
— wardens, volunteers and u.S. Border Patrol agents using aircraft, all-terrain vehicles,
search dogs and horses — fan out along the
A.t. from rangeley to Stratton, 81 square
miles. Wardens use the “hasty searches” tactic in which the areas a person is most likely
to go are scoured. Wardens say the steep
drops, thick undergrowth and little human activity near the trail complicate the search.
Monday, july 29: Geraldine has been
}
missing for six days. Wardens decide to
focus on the area between lone Mountain
(about 2 trail miles south of the Spaulding
Mountain lean-to) and route 27.
Friday, Aug. 2: the Maine Warden Service
says it is making “considerable progress”
contacting hikers who may have seen Geraldine. they’ve examined cellphone records
and say they have exhausted all leads so far.
~
Sunday, Aug. 4: Wardens make a final
push to find Geraldine, using a shoulder-toshoulder search through a series of grids to
scour the ravines south of Spaulding Mountain. they don’t find her; not even any sign of
her. later that evening, the Maine Warden
Service effectively calls off its search. At this
point, Geraldine has been missing 12 days.
— Sources: Morning Sentinel and kennebec Journal
courteSY of AniMAl PlAnet / north WoodS lAW
A screen grab from the episode of ‘north Woods Law’ showing Maine wardens at Spaulding
Mountain Lean-to during the first days of their search for Geraldine Largay in july.
told a local reporter back home in Tennessee. One
morning, she stopped to admire the rays of the rising
sun cutting through the mist. “Look how beautiful it
is,” she said to Jane Lee, a friend and hiking partner
who was anxious to get going that day.
They started in Harpers Ferry on April 23. The plan
was to reach Katahdin by late July, then flip back down
to Harpers Ferry and walk south to Springer, finishing
in mid- to late-November. But Lee didn’t make it past
Vermont because of a family emergency. When they
said their teary farewells, Gerry assured Jane, “I’m a
big girl now. I’m going on this hike with or without
you. I’ll be fine,” Lee related to a newspaper.
ABOUT THREE WEEKS LATER, George and Gerry
were at Route 4, the road to Rangeley, having spent
the previous night at a nearby motel. It was early Sunday morning, July 21. Gerry liked to be on the trail by
7. Since Jane had gone home, George liked to walk
with his wife for an hour or two before heading back
to the SUV. Somewhere near Piazza Rock Lean-to
they confirmed plans to rendezvous at Route 27 late on
July 23, giving Gerry three days to traverse the 32.2mile stretch. George turned back and Gerry hiked on.
A couple of hours later, Gerry texted George from
the summit of Saddleback Mountain to say she had
made it up the first major climb of the section. She was
over 4,000 feet high on an open trail that stretched for
2 miles above treeline. The weather was fine and she
was on her way to Poplar Ridge Lean-to for the night.
There were other hikers at the shelter, including a
woman who was also northbound and planning to hike
to Spaulding Mountain Lean-to the next day, same as
Gerry. Monday morning, Gerry was up early as usual
and ready to hit the trail at 7. She texted George at
about 7:15 telling him she was on track for Spaulding
that night and their rendezvous late the next afternoon.
Southbounder Dottie Rust, who enjoyed meeting Gerry
there the night before, felt compelled that morning to
take a photo of her in front of the lean-to, its infamous
baseball-bat flooring from 1961 visible in the background. (See Page 6.) It’s the last known photo of Gerry,
her ever-present smile belying her fate.
She never made it to Spaulding Mountain Lean-to
that night. At 2:26 p.m. Monday her cellphone sent a
ping to her carrier, indicating it was turned on. No call
or text was sent. Because there is only one celltower
in the area, triangulating the location is impossible.
10
There’s no cellphone service from just south of Spaulding Mountain Lean-to all the way to the Crockers, so
the significance of the ping gains weight later.
Spaulding Mountain Lean-to, built in 1989, is not
right on the A.T. but is about 0.3 mile down a side
trail to be closer to a water source. It’s not visible from
the main trail. No one there on Monday night took
much notice that Gerry was absent, possibly assuming
that she may have hiked farther ahead and camped to
be that much closer to Route 27, 13½ miles away.
The next day, Tuesday, July 23, it rained heavily
until about 4 in the afternoon. Nearby weather reports
say about six-tenths of an inch fell.
When it rains heavily like that, fords
in Maine can be treacherous. Gerry
would have had to have crossed Orbeton Stream after leaving Poplar
Ridge Lean-to on Monday. But if
she were somehow farther north than
Spaulding Mountain on Tuesday, she
would have had to navigate the South
Branch of the Carrabassett River before climbing the steep Crockers,
and that river crossing can be downright dangerous in a drenching rain.
roots, blowdowns and bogs, that scouring the area
proved an almost impossible task. Crews were exhausted, some spending an hour or more just driving
around mountains to reach a designated search area.
“It’s tough, tough work,” said one volunteer searcher who fell several times, ripping his clothes and damaging his gear. “That’s why they restricted this search
to people who were members of trained search and rescue groups. Nobody else was allowed to go out on
this,” he told the Lakes Region Weekly.
Lt. Kevin Adam of the Maine Warden Service, who
oversaw the massive search for Largay, explained that
Winter 2013
OF ALL THE SIDE STORIES to the Largay saga, one
seems almost too amazing to be true, and that is the
start — just a couple of years ago — of a new reality
TV series called “North Woods Law” that airs on Animal Planet. The show follows several members of the
Maine Warden Service on their rounds, which usually
entails chasing illegal hunters or other poachers, all
real people in real-life situations. Once in a while there
is a search and rescue that is solved well within the
hour timeslot of the show.
Then along came Gerry Largay’s case, and the cameras of “North Woods Law” were right there as
George sat in the passenger seat of
a warden’s truck telling officials of
his last text message from Gerry and
offering insights into his wife’s routine. She didn’t sign registers, for instance, so the register at Spaulding
lean-to would have yielded no clues
even if she had stopped by.
THE HOURLONG SHOW AIRED
in mid-December. For those whose
cable lineups don’t include the Animal Planet network, there’s another
more convenient way to watch the
LATE TUESDAY AFTERNOON,
episode, and that is online through
George was at Route 27 waiting for
Amazon.com. For a token $1.99,
his wife to pop out of the woods as
you can buy unlimited access to the
scheduled, but she never showed up.
show and watch it anytime on your
Night fell, and he figured she was
computer. Check it out at this link:
held up by the rain, so he slept in his
http://snipurl.com/gerrylargay.
SUV at the trailhead parking area in
Camera crews capture every ascase she arrived after dark.
pect of the search, but while they put
In the morning, with still no sign
you right there in the thick of things,
of her, he hiked south for a little
it is a TV show after all, so it will
while, hoping to meet up with her.
lead you along with promising clues
He turned around, got back to the
that only turn cold after a commerroad just before noon and finally
cial. But TV drama aside, there is
called the authorities.
no mistaking the real-time look of
By the next day, Thursday, the George and Geraldine pose at ramsey cascades in the Great Smokies. one pure agony on the faces of the
largest ever search in Maine for a of Gerry’s Facebook friends, Peggy jones, posted: ‘i love that photo of her!
searchers who repeatedly have their
missing A.T. hiker was underway. She is smiling like that all of the time. She is such a sweet, sweet lady.’
hopes dashed. You soon learn this is
All told, some 300-400 people took
the first-ever case of a missing hiker
part in the search before it was effectively called off he needed to know he had people with training in GPS on the A.T. in Maine that has gone unsolved.
on Aug. 4, nearly two weeks after she went missing.
The scene where they finally reach Spaulding
coordinates, first aid, compass skills and crime scene
techniques if needed. “With untrained people, we don’t Mountain Lean-to tells it all, as the wardens and
THERE IS ALMOST NO SHORTAGE OF THEOsearchers cast their eyes downward when they realize
know what we’re getting,” he told the weekly.
RIES about what happened to Gerry Largay. Whitethere is not a single clue anywhere near that shelter to
blaze was on fire the rest of the summer with ideas HIKERS WHO OFFERED TO HELP were turned help them find this beloved wife, mom and grandma.
ranging from a cliff fall to a river drowning, animal away, and that frustrated the then-coordinator of
attack, foul play and even some sort of encounter with ALDHA, Mike Wingeart, who was following news of
FOR HIS PART, GEORGE HAS REMAINED philothe U.S. military. Foul play has never been ruled out. the search from his home in Maryland. All he wanted
sophical. A deeply religious man from a religious famThe Maine Warden Service doesn’t know what to to do was hop in his truck and go to Maine to help out,
ily, he hopes Gerry didn’t suffer but is glad she got to
think after giving it their finest effort. At one point, up reasoning that only a fellow end-to-ender would be able
enjoy at least some of her life’s dream to be on the
to 130 searchers including Border Patrol agents and to recognize areas that might lure a possibly disoriented
A.T. He hopes the story of his wife’s journey actually
trained search and rescue teams from several states hiker off the A.T., like a herd path or other false trail,
serves as an inspiration to others in their 60s not to
using dogs, helicopters, a mobile radio signal tower while looking for water or a place to spend the night.
abandon their dreams of hiking the Appalachian Trail
and other high-tech gear were out there at the same
but to get out there and “go for it.”
His frustration has moved him to create an informal
time, combing the woods looking for her.
“If I next see her in heaven, I’m glad she’ll be able
study committee to see what it would take to organize
But they seemed to concentrate their efforts on the an actual search and rescue team made up of long-disto put in a good word for me to help improve my odds
area south of Spaulding Mountain Lean-to. Some tance hikers who live up and down the A.T. corridor
of joining her,” he told the media at a group interview
in Nashville after the search was called off. “I would
crews checked out the northern section, the Carrabasand are able to travel quickly to a designated search
thank her for having been the love of my life, having
sett River and Caribou Valley Road but the majority site. A signup sheet at the fall Gathering garnered sevgiven me the best 45 years of my life. She was everyof resources was focused on the stretch between Poplar eral names of people who may be interested in joining.
thing. She meant everything to me. Still does.”
Ridge Lean-to and Spaulding Mountain and an even
But he acknowledges the difficulty in getting a team
more specific area consisting of a boulder field below trained and certified, especially since certification
The family has been contacted by ALDHA with the
steep drop-offs from the A.T. They assumed the ping varies from state to state and the presumed members
offer of a Final Blaze in Gerry’s memory, and George
from her cellphone had to originate south of Spaulding of this new group would live in several different states.
has been appreciative of the outpouring of support from
Mountain Lean-to, where there was still cell service.
Funding for equipment and training is an issue, not to
the trail community. The family has offered a $15,000
This stretch of the Maine woods is so vast and wild, mention the time commitment for each member. For
reward for information leading to her location.
the undergrowth so dense with ferns, briars, rocks, now, Wingeart is compiling all the info he can find.
Winter 2013
11
t
G
he
ng
Story of this stamp on Page 29
A
mstown, M
Wi
lia
atheri
l
Greylock
registration
& hiker fair
’62 center
Saturday night
(Same as in 2011)
Paresky
center
dining hall
brooks rogers
Possible venue for
friday/Sunday night
church
contra dance
(Same as in 2011)
Griffin Hall
classrooms all in
one building
WILLIAMS: Back in Greylock’s good graces
Continued from Page One
place in 2011 when he arranged for the Massachusetts
College of Liberal Arts — where he teaches — to host
the Gathering that year. In 2010, a full year before the
Gathering, Jim was looking far and wide for a suitable
campsite to go with the North Adams school, then late
in the game came Eric with his offer to use his land.
One field trip later — on a cold November day in 2010
— we were sold.
Their partnership continues with this Gathering.
What will make the 2014 Gathering so exciting, besides the fact that it’s only a 5-minute drive between
campsite and campus, is that the facilities at Williams
College are top of the line, as anyone who was at the
Saturday night feature presentation in 2011 can attest.
We were lucky that year to get to use the fairly new
arts center at Williams for our main program, which
was presented by National Geographic explorer and
A.T. thru-hiker Andrew Skurka. It was a “wow” night.
Program Coordinator Randy Anderson is working
on lining up an equally impressive program for next
year since we will once again be in the beautiful surroundings of the ’62 Arts Center, with its two-tiered
semi-wraparound balconies and other niceties.
Assisting Jim and Eric in securing the use of Williams College is Cosmo Catalano, the tech guru at the
’62 Center and a former president of AMC’s Berkshire
County Chapter. Also working with them is Scott
Lewis of the Williams College Outing Club, which will
sponsor the Gathering. Students will be on reading
days so it looks like things are shaping up for Williamstown ’14 to be a really fantastic setting for a Gathering.
COMPANION: Elevation profiles, more town maps added
Continued from Page One
With the addition of elevation profiles, which were
done at regimented 23-mile intervals to give you a truer
picture of what lies ahead, the Companion is back to
being the top-of-the-line guidebook for thru-hikers. (A
sample of the profiles is shown at right.)
Our information is supplemented by the professional
staff of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy from Georgia to Maine. The most up-to-date mileage gleaned
from the ATC’s 14 trail clubs is worked into the databook portion of the guide, showing distances from
shelter to shelter and between other trail landmarks.
The work of more than three dozen ALDHA volunteers in 14 states has been backed by ATC staff and
maintainers every year for 20 years. The goal is to give
hikers the most current, accurate and unbiased information on trail conditions, shelters and hiker-related
services and yet still leave enough to be discovered by
the individual hiker on his or her journey.
If you would like to volunteer to be a field editor
for a section of the A.T., contact the editor, Robert
“Sly” Sylvester, at companion@aldha.org.
Also new this year, anyone buying the book directly
from ATC will get a free digital set of profile maps for
your smartphone. The A.T. Companion costs $14.95
($13.45 for ATC members) if purchased through the
Ultimate Trail Store, online at http://atctrailstore.org.
© 2013 Appalachian trail conservancy
The book measures 6" x 9", is 312 pages, and has
maps, illustrations and other information, with links to
listings of hostels, post offices, parking and outfitters.
You can also tap into the Companion via The AT
App, sierraattitude.com/athikerapp/, with a portion of
the sales going to ALDHA (see the box on Page 38).
12
Winter 2013
2013: THE YEAR OF FIRSTS
‘Cotton Joe’ 1st
2,000-miler on
the IAT-SIA
“Cotton Joe” Norman of North Carolina
has successfully completed a 450-mile hike
from Scotland’s Mull of Galloway to Cape
Wrath, becoming the first to walk what is
known as the Scottish section of the International Appalachian Trail and, in the process,
becoming the first 2,000-miler in the history
of the multi-continental trail.
Having already
hiked the IAT
through Maine,
New Brunswick,
Quebec, Prince
Edward Island,
Nova Scotia, New
Foundland and
Labrador — a total of 1,484 miles
— and having
been the first to
hike the entire Ireland section, in‘cotton joe’ on the cluding the newly
iAt in ireland as he designated section
became the first to in Northern Ireland, going from
complete the new
trail across the isle Slieve League in
Donegal to Larne,
and was later first
to do iAt Scotland. he easily surpassed the 2,000mile mark on his Scottish journey.
Despite varied weather Joe made good
progress along the trail but did take some
time out at different locations, including
Burns Cottage. Farther north he spent
some time in Glasgow and also climbed
Ben Lomond and Ben Nevis, highest point
in the British Isles.
“From the coastline, moors and towns,
to the windy wilds of the Highlands, it was
— along with Ireland — one of the most
powerful hikes I have ever done,” he said.
“In the north, the wild and remote Cape
Wrath Trail offers deep solitude for those
who dare to seek it. It is a truly magical
section of the IAT in Europe.”
IAT founder Dick Anderson couldn’t be
more thrilled: “It serves as the embodiment of the common values of the International Appalachian Trail, proving again
that Nature Knows No Boundaries.”
For more info, visit http://iat-sia.org.
ATC photographed record number of hikers
HARPERS FERRY, W.Va. — The Appalachian
Trail Conservancy Visitors Center in Harpers Ferry
photographed a record 1,130 northbound thru-hikers
this year — surpassing last year’s record of 1,012.
Based on analysis of the register at Amicalola
Falls State Park (signed by slightly less than half of
northbound thru-hikers), an estimated 2,700 prospective thru-hikers started at Springer Mountain,
Ga., this year. That number is higher than any year
except the millennium year of 2000, when an estimated 2,900 started.
For comparison, the number of northbound thruhikers photographed in Harpers Ferry is 12 times
greater than 30 years ago, in 1983, when just 95
northbound thru-hikers were photographed.
— Laurie Potteiger
youngest person
ever to thru-hike
the A.t. by herself
neva Warren
hiked the A.t.
solo at age 15
On April 1 at Springer Mountain,
Ga., Neva “Chipmunk” Warren took
her first steps toward completing her
goal to be the youngest person to ever
solo thru-hike the Appalachian Trail.
By mid-October, she had made it.
She is only 15 years old.
On average, Neva covered 12 to 13
miles per day, taking her just under 7
months to reach her goal. For her
safety, Neva’s parents tracked her
daily via a Spot GPS and she carried a
cell phone for emergencies. Every day
she carried a pack with enough supplies for 2-3 days but would often
meet her folks at night and sleep in the
family camper, aka the “Chipmobile.”
“The whole time I was hiking, I
kept in mind a favorite quote by Babe
Ruth: ‘Don’t let the fear of striking
out, hold you back,’” Neva said. “I’m
tired but I’m glad I didn’t strike out.”
— PRweb
Great Eastern Trail sees its 1st pair of thru-hikers
Jo “Someday” Swanson and “Hillbilly Bart” Houck
undertook the first known thru-hike of the 1,600-mile
Great Eastern Trail — from Flagg Mountain, Ala., to
its junction with the North Country Trail in the Finger
Lakes region of New York — from January to June.
The trail had been partially hiked by “Hammock
Hanger” in 2007, according to Jo, who spent a year
working on the West Virginia section of the GET.
“Bart and I wanted to thru-hike it, but we also
wanted to raise local awareness of the trail,” Jo explained. “We made sure to be available for trail town
newspaper reporters, radio interviews, and a few presentations and events along the way.”
That slowed them down. Jo believes the average
hiker can do it in 4 months, even as it moves off roads.
Read the full story of their thru-hike and how to find
more info for your own hike in the spring issue of LDH.
Jo SWAnSon
‘Hillbilly bart’ Houck and jo ‘Someday’ Swanson approach the end of their thru-hike.
Winter 2013
13
on his OWN two
FEET
A new endurance
record for the A.T.
breaks a mark held
these past 23 years
by Ward Leonard
STORY and LAYOUT by BILL O’BRIEN
PHOTOS and STATS by MATT KIRK
T
his summer, another speed record for the
A.T. was set, but it didn’t knock Jennifer
Pharr Davis out of the top spot for fastest
known traverse of the trail. Instead, it
knocked out Ward Leonard, who has held
the record for the fastest known unsupported thru-hike
since 1990. This time the speedster was Matt Kirk of
Hendersonville, N.C., a previous two-time A.T. thruhiker who helped Davis on her record-breaking trek in
2011. This year, Matt wanted to see if he could combine
his recent love of ultra-running with his longtime love
of hiking to set his own mark. And to him, hiking the
A.T. has always meant carrying your own food and
gear, on your own back, and resupplying on your own
in town. So that’s what he did, in 58 days, 9 hours and
38 minutes, shaving about two days off Ward’s time.
14
Day Date
1
6/10
3
6/12
2
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
clean shaven, Matt smiles on katahdin as he
gets set to tackle Ward Leonard’s old record on
a trail now 45 miles longer than it was for Ward.
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
6/14
6/15
6/16
6/17
6/18
6/19
6/20
6/21
6/22
6/23
6/24
6/25
6/26
6/27
6/28
6/29
6/30
7/1
7/2
7/3
7/4
7/5
7/6
7/7
7/8
7/9
7/10
33
7/12
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
Matt started out weighing 155 pounds and lost
roughly 15 pounds during the course of his 59day hike, finishing Aug. 7 at Springer in Georgia.
6/13
31
32
Matt arrived at the Halfway Marker in Pennsylvania on Day 31. He picked up the pace after that,
finishing the second half in 28 days.
6/11
56
57
58
59
7/11
7/13
7/14
7/15
7/16
7/17
7/18
7/19
7/20
7/21
7/22
7/23
7/24
7/25
7/26
7/27
7/28
7/29
7/30
7/31
8/1
8/2
8/3
8/4
8/5
8/6
8/7
Daily Mileage
33.1
38.3
40.1
39.7
31.9
35.5
42.8
36.9
26.9
27.9
22.9
33.3
34.4
32.3
34.0
36.0
36.5
37.6
36.4
39.8
38.9
37.3
36.0
38.3
38.2
37.0
38.0
40.7
42.6
33.8
40.6
34.8
34.7
36.5
42.1
42.1
40.1
42.0
34.0
38.4
33.6
42.0
34.7
41.0
34.5
37.7
33.1
40.1
35.8
37.3
38.7
41.1
34.8
40.0
39.9
33.6
39.3
43.1
43.2
Destination
Winter 2013
total
3 mi S of Rainbow Stream Lean-to, ME . . . . . 33.1
Logan Brook Lean-to, ME. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71.4
Leeman Brook Lean-to, ME . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111.5
s
Caratunk, ME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151.2
Horn’s Pond Lean-to, ME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183.1
Piazza Rock Lean-to, ME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218.6
Frye Notch Lean-to, ME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261.4
s
Shelburne, NH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298.3
Osgood Campsite, NH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325.2
Zealand Falls Hut, NH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353.1
Lonesome Lake Hut, NH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376.0
0.7 mi S of NH 25A, NH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409.3
s
Norwich, VT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443.7
2.3 mi N of Stony Brook Shelter, VT. . . . . . . 476.0
2.0 mi N of VT 140, VT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510.0
2.8mi N of Stratton Pond, VT . . . . . . . . . . . . 546.0
Congdon Shelter, VT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582.5
s
Dalton, MA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 620.1
Mount Wilcox South Lean-to, MA . . . . . . . . . 656.5
3.5 mi N of US 7, CT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 696.3
s
0.7 mi S of NY-CT border, NY . . . . . . . . . 735.2
8.2 mi N of US 9, NY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 772.5
2.2 mi S of NY 17, NY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 808.5
s
Murray Property, NJ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 846.8
s
9.8 mi S of PA 33, PA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 922.0
1.1 mi N of Camp Road, NJ . . . . . . . . . . . . . 885.0
12.9 mi N of Port Clinton, PA . . . . . . . . . . . . 960.0
4.1 mi S of PA 501, PA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1000.7
s
Wilderness
2½ days
s = resupply point
Colors delineate
the various states
The Whites
2 days
Shortest day:
22.9 miles on
Day 11 (6/20)
Matt: “It did
not seem like
a good strategic maneuver
at the time to
hike past
(Lonesome
Lake) hut ...
I played it
smart and
called it an
‘early’ day
so as not to
risk injury.”
The rocks
3½ days
The Doyle, Duncannon, PA . . . . . . . . . . 1043.3
0.7 mi N of PA 94, PA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1077.1
Tumbling Run Shelters, PA . . . . . . . . . . . . 1117.7
3 mi S of US Alt 40, MD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1152.5
s
Bear’s Den Hostel, VA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1187.2
Tom Floyd Wayside, VA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1223.7
1.2 mi N or Big Meadows Wayside, VA . . . 1265.8
s
Blackrock Hut, VA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1307.9
0.3 mi S of VA 664, VA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1348.0
West Virginia
About an hour
Shenandoahs
2½ days
6.2 mi S of US 60, VA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1390.0
1.5 mi N of Cornelius Creek Shelter, VA . . 1424.0
s
Daleville, VA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1462.4
VA 620, VA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1496.0
Suffers a fall and
badly hurts knee
4.6 mi S of VA 635, VA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1538.0
s
7.7 mi N of VA 606, VA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1572.7
s
Chatfield Shelter, VA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1648.2
s
Damascus, VA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1719.0
7.8 mi S of VA 615, VA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1613.7
Wise Shelter, VA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1685.9
Watauga Lake Shelter, TN . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1759.1
1.1 mi S of US 19E, TN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1794.9
s
8.4 mi S of NC 226, NC . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1832.2
s
Hot Springs, NC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1912.0
AVERAGE
DISTANCE
PER DAY:
37 miles
Hogback Ridge Shelter, NC . . . . . . . . . . . . 1870.9
0.9 mi S of I-40, TN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1946.8
7.7 mi N of US 441, NC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1986.8
s
Cable Gap Shelter, NC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2026.7
Cold Spring Shelter, NC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2060.3
Standing Indian Shelter, NC . . . . . . . . . . . . 2099.6
Low Gap Shelter, GA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2142.7
Springer Mountain, GA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2185.9
Smokies
1½ days
Longest day
on last day:
43.2 miles
Winter 2013
“It was during my first thru-hike in 2001
when I first learned about Ward Leonard
who did it in 1990 in 60 and a half days,” Matt
said. “I was intrigued, fascinated, as a new
thru-hiker about how someone could do it
that fast.”
He finished his first thru-hike, then returned in 2007 for a second, during which he
cemented a bond with fellow thru-hiker and
future wife, Lily Chang-Chien. (Leave it to a
thru-hiker who’s fast to find a partner whose
trail name is “Fast Enough.”)
He had also started running long distances
and was becoming more comfortable pushing
his limits. He thru-hiked the John Muir Trail,
Colorado Trail, Long Trail, Bartram Trail (he
set the endurance record for that one) and
the Mountains to the Sea Trail.
Working as a teacher, he had two months
off in the summer to play, and then Jennifer
Pharr Davis, “Odyssa,” set off in 2011 on a
southbound attempt to set an overall endurance record on the A.T. She succeeded
with major help from her husband Brew and
a team of friends that included, among others,
Matt Kirk, who started thinking again about
that old Ward Leonard record.
“I felt I had the time, resources and experience so I decided to give it a try.”
Before he set off, however, he laid down
some ground rules for himself, based on what
others had compiled previously to help define
what is a self-supported hike. For starters,
he would walk into and out of town to resupply. He wouldn’t get in a vehicle at all. He
would follow the white blazes, no detours or
shortcuts. And, he would not have anyone
provide support in a prearranged manner at
road crossings or elsewhere.
It would be all on his own.
Asked how soon he started to regret his
decision, the 32-year-old chuckled but answered like a thru-hiker.
“Going through the Wilderness of Maine it
had been six years since my last thru-hike.
All of my training had been in the Southern
Appalachians, there’s just this big difference
between the Wilderness of Maine and wilderness of the Southern Appalachians, which I
consider home. It was foggy, cold, rainy. There
I was on the second night after having hiked
through rain all day long, I was borderline hypothermic but still fired up. I wasn’t questioning whether it was a wise move, but I was
questioning whether I’d be able to do it.”
He found that inner strength many hikers
are familiar with and kept going, plowing
through the 100-mile Wilderness in two and
a half days. He was out of Maine in roughly a
week.
He had a great shot at doing this.
“On the startup of the hike, the rivers were
15
As basic as it gets: Matt hikes through Vermont carrying everything he has, all 13 pounds of it.
A vegetarian when he started his
thru-hike, it didn’t take long for Matt
to devour everything in sight, including junk food like pizza and ice
cream. His thru-hike ended five
months ago but he still cannot resist the lure of fatty foods, which is
a good thing in a way since his railthin weight at the start (155 pounds)
dropped while doing 30-plus-mile
days almost every day of his 59-day
hike. His shortest days were in the
Whites (the briefest, 22.9 miles)
when, ironically, daylight hours
were at their longest. Five pairs of
new balance 110 trail runners later,
he was on top of Springer.
ULTRA-LIGHT = ULTRA-FAST
Clothing worn
and footwear
About 2 lbs.
Sleeping gear
Bivy and quilt weigh
in at 1 lb., 12 oz.
Cooking gear
Bottle stove and a
few days worth of
fuel tablets: 4 oz.
Shelter
Poncho/tarp and
tie-out cord: 7 oz.
For stakes he used
sticks.
Pack
13 oz.
Details about his
handmade pack at:
http://snipurl.com/
mattspack
The weight of one
day’s food supply
1.5 to 2 lbs.
Total pack weight
(gear and food)
13 lbs.
Full breakdown at
http://snipurl.com/
mattsgear
16
Winter 2013
jennifer Pharr Davis, at far right with baby charlotte, set the overall endurance record on the A.t. — 46 days and 11 hours — in 2011, thanks in
large part to help from a support crew that included her friend and fellow north carolinian, Matt kirk (yellow shirt). this year she and her husband brew, far left, supported Matt’s bid to break the record for an unsupported thru-hike, which Matt accomplished in 58 days and 9 hours on
Aug. 7 at Springer Mountain, Ga. ‘He’s definitely one of my hiking heroes,’ Davis told the Hendersonville news times for a story in August.
swollen, fords treacherous. It’s just like
Maine slapped me around a couple of times,
told me who was boss and let me miraculously get through and put me in my place. I
wouldn’t have it any other way,” he said.
“It humbled me to be in the wilderness.
I’m really small. I’m not some macho man.
But if the stars align, if things bode well for
me, I might have a chance. I didn’t conquer
anything, the trail was gracious enough to let
me finish and for that I am very grateful.”
With that kind of attitude, he was able to
overcome the only serious threat to his goal,
and that came in Virginia. He badly hurt his
knee in a fall. It swelled up and slowed him
down, but he kept on. He couldn’t afford a
day off. In fact, he never took a zero in 59
days. He soon recovered, and the rest was
history.
Perhaps the most unexpected challenge he
has faced occurred after he got home and the
celebrating was over. A couple of news accounts were published, including one in the
online edition of Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine. In the comments section of that article,
someone questioned Matt’s claim of a totally
unsupported thru-hike. This person, who
posted his or her comments under the name
“Maps,” claimed to have seen Matt buy food
“I didn’t conquer anything,
the trail was
gracious enough
to let me finish.”
from other hikers.
Matt openly acknowledges that on two occasions, when he was several days from his
next resupply point, he asked hikers who were
heading off the trail if they had any spare
food they could sell him, and while he offered
to pay them for it, no one wanted his money.
He and every single person who commented on that website in response to the
negative post saw no conflict with his claim
of a self-supported hike.
“Sometimes it’s foolish not to take advantage of these opportunities,” Matt said, emphasizing that in neither case was his request
for food preplanned.
“I don’t think it compromises the legitimacy
of it,” he continued. “If it became a routine
thing, where I’m just going to mooch my way
to Springer, that would be poor form. Did I
feel great about doing it? No, it does put me
in an awkward position, but I guess when
there’s a great enough need you just do it.”
Typical of the reactions to the controversy
was one signed by “Scot,” who wrote: “Hikers
with extra food = bush with extra berries.
Unplanned is unsupported. Well done, dude.”
Matt, who is working a temporary job at
the Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy
while deciding whether he wants to go back
into teaching, says there was one rule he
made for himself that was by far the most rewarding, and that was not to let the pursuit
of Ward Leonard’s old record overtake the
joy and privilege of being on the A.T.
“I had this approach that I wanted to make
sure I was still enjoying myself and not closing myself off to the experience to just get it
done,” he said. “It never became a job overriding my awareness of where I was or what
I was doing.”
For further details on the hike and a survey
about Matt’s ultralight pack design, visit his
website, http://sub60.wikispaces.com/about.
Winter 2013
32nd ANNUAL GATHERING
17
MILES & MILES
of SMILES
‘Acorn,’ left, and ‘ketchup,’ two
new 2,000-milers, share their
perspectives on trail life at
the gathering
on Friday
night.
ALDHA is going to the
dogs! Indigo’s pup Bailey
was a constant presence,
even at her workshop.
photos by “Crooked stiCks” h. dean Clark
F
SHIPPENSBURG 2013
By MIkE WIngEART
M80’s dog, Willow, watched
as M80 got his hiker patch.
And Uncle Buck’s Jake was
at the group photo, below.
Treasurer
or the fourth time in history
we held the Gathering in
Pennsylvania, and for the
first time we held it at Shippensburg University. It took
a lot of work to set that up but it proved
to be worth it since all the facilities were
within easy walking distance.
That was saying a lot, though, since
we were dodging raindrops while going
in between venues but other than a
flooded camping field we managed to
weather it OK. That covered skating rink
sure came in handy. What a neat way to
camp out for the weekend, in an echo-y
chamber that was nice and dry with a
heated bathroom a short walk away!
Quite a few comments in the critiques
were happy about the centralized location of everything, and with all the classrooms in the same building as the Hiker
Fair, ATC and ALDHA services, that
might have been the best part of all. (Not
to mention the expanded hours and days
for showers!)
We got things underway Friday night
with presentations that ran the gamut
from deliriously joyous to respectfully
somber. We presented the family of the
late Jean Cashin with one of Chuck
Wood’s Final Blazes and had George
Cashin, Jean’s husband, take a bow. It
was so wonderful to see him at the Gath-
Chuck Wood presents Randy Hammond, our college liaison for the
weekend at Shippensburg University, one of Chuck’s signature metal
sculptures showing our appreciation for his hospitality with one of the
school’s unofficial mottos.
ering again, though sad not to have Jean
with us. As Noel DeCavalcante remarked, she will always be with us.
The other end of the spectrum was
provided by all the current-year thruhikers who attended, many coming to
their first-ever Gathering, including two
Wounded Warrior hikers.
Leave it to “Poppins,” from Minneapolis, who finished the trail only a
week earlier and still had those infamous
rocks on her mind, to sum it all up best:
“Only a group as cool as you could ever
get me to come back to Pennsylvania!”
We couldn’t agree with you more.
‘Mama Lipton’ Sue Spring and
‘Flatlander’ Tom Evans get ready
for the Friday night opening like it
was a night out at the movies.
18
‘Mama
w B’
Winter 2013
photos by “Crooked stiCks” h. dean Clark
Also in the picture are ALDHA Coordinator Mike Wingeart, ATC Chairwoman Sandi Marra and ATC Executive Director Ron Tipton.
Oldest woman 2,000-miler
among thru-hiker honorees
At this year’s Gathering, we opened the Friday
night session for a third year in a row with recognition of recently finished A.T. thru-hikers and
presented them with a certificate and patch from
ALDHA. Handing out the certificates were ATC
Board Chairwoman Sandi Marra with help from
ATC Executive Director Ron Tipton, both of
whom are in the first year of their respective jobs.
We had two members of the second group of
Warrior Hikers on hand to take a bow for their
thru-hiking accomplishments this year. We also
had several thru-hikers who finished their journeys
that very week; in one case a thru-hiker was standing atop Katahdin celebrating his finish the previous day.
So there was already a built-in air of excitement
to the proceedings as each hiker was called up one
by one to the hoorays, hoots and hollers from the
raucous ALDHA crowd.
And then a white-haired woman from Knox ville, Tenn., came up to the stage to get her certificate, and that’s when the cheering really got
loud. That’s because Coordinator Mike Wingeart
announced that at age 71 she was the oldest known
woman to ever complete a thru-hike.
“I didn’t feel old out there on the trail, I was
just doing what everyone else was doing,” said
Barbara J. Allen, trail name “Mamaw B.” (She is
seen above, seated at far left in front row, and in
inset photo.) Since she found out she is the oldest
known woman thru-hiker, she says she has taken
a lot of ribbing for being “old.” But she doesn’t
mind. She can still hike with the best of them.
Barbara has been backpacking for 35 years, has
hiked just about everywhere in the United States
and in a few places overseas. She did her A.T.
thru-hike in 2012, starting March 5 at Springer and
ending Sept. 6 on Katahdin for a very respectable
6-month traverse. She purposely slowed down toward the end to enjoy it for as long as she could
and to help a hiking partner who was injured.
She loved hiking with younger folks and told
them all she was their grandmother. The southern
version of grandma is “Mamaw,” which is what
her grandson calls her. “I had a good rapport with
all the younger hikers. I tried to find a connection
with them. ... But I never tried to tell them what
to do and I think they enjoyed that and had a lot of
respect for me.”
Nowadays she can’t stop singing the praises of
ALDHA after attending her first Gathering this
year, and thinks it’s worth the while of younger
hikers. In that sense, at least, she doesn’t mind
telling them what they should do. ;-)
The previous oldest known woman A.T. thruhiker was Nancy “Magellan” McGowler, who
was also 71, but she reached the milestone age during her 2007 hike. Barbara celebrated her 71st in
January 2012, before she even hit the trail. The
oldest male, FYI, is Lee Barry of 2004, age 81.
‘ALDHA WAY’ pATCH RECIpIEnTS
rayana adra, “acorn,” of Wichita, kan.
barbara J. allen, “Mamaw b,” of knoxville, tenn.
kelly rae ansell, “indigo,” of Chesapeake, Va.
thomas J. baker, “radar,” of Maryville, tenn.
phoebe barkan, “Whistleralph,” of Champaign, ill.
Jason benward, “soul Flute,” of Walnutport, pa.
Chip Cenci, “old Goat,” of Minoa, n.y.
sue Cenci, “Check 6,” of Minoa, n.y.
Craig Clapper, “hoosier,” of bremen, ind.
Carl Clendenning, “popeye,” of kakomo, ind.
Christopher elkins, “switchback,” of White lake, Mich.
Michael Foshee, “so'm peach,” of alabaster, ala.
thomas Gathman, “kabba lewisburg, pa.
pattie hessenius, “trooper,” of austin, texas
brett hessenius, “M80,” of austin, texas
rick l. hatcher, “bearfoot,” Cape May Court house, n.J.
Jerry hebert, “shetty yetti,” of Commerce, Mich.
amanda hus, “rainbow,” of tampa, Fla.
sarah kahke, “poppins,” of Minneapolis, Minn.
lisa karst, “peru,” of penn Valley, Calif.
Jessica lawton, “trillium,” of Mountaintop, pa.
Mark Marchiori, “punkin pie,” of brockway, pa.
Wilmot McCullough, “Mot,” of sumpter, s.C.
allan Mendoza, “ketchup,” of new york, n.y.
donald Muth, “pacemaker,” of etters, pa.
keith neumann, “kokopelli,” of Great Falls, s.C.
John patterson, “Marathon John,” of san rafael, Calif.
bob preston, “sarge,” of Mechanicsburg, pa.
lorrie preston, “shutterbug,” of Mechanicsburg, pa.
bob romanoff, “noodles,” of Venice, Fla.
William borg schmitt, “Jungle Jym,” of Winterset, iowa
renee slembarski, “pathfinder,” of lakewood, ohio
Jeff smith, “blazer,” of Cincinnati, ohio
brenton snipes, “Grim,” of rochester, n.y.
Josh Wolsey, “Corn dog,” of bowie, texas
pamela White Wolsey, “Cruise,” of bowie, texas
Jordan Charles Wood, “ishmael,” of hudson, ohio
Winter 2013
19
Fall work trip
on Tuscarora
sent members
on rocky road
By Ron BUngAY
ALDHA Board Member
ALDHA’s work trip after the Gathering had 19
ALDHA members transport materials for the construction of a new shelter along the Tuscarora Trail.
The trail to the shelter site was very rocky (after all
it was Pennsylvania) and a challenge even if one
wasn’t carrying 16-foot boards.
Pete Brown of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club
was very appreciative for our work contribution. The
project was set up by then-Assistant Coordinator Kent
Wilson in coordination with Pete.
We started out the day that Monday morning after
the Gathering under a pavilion at the Shippensburg
campsite for a continental breakfast provided by Kent,
who also rounded up the fixings for our trail lunch
during the day with help from ALDHA Board Member Jim Niedbalski.
Many thanks, Kent and Jim.
Boundary maintenance: A work trip to do boundary work is in the planning stage for the end of April,
during the week. It looks like we’ll be overnighting at
the Blackburn A.T. Center, a nice place to stay with
running water, electricity and other amenitites. I’ll be
working with the Boiling Springs ATC office to set
up this work trip.
A boundary work trip involves crews going out to
check corridor boundaries to make sure there is no encroachment and to touch up the witness trees with yellow paint and other markings. It’s tough but necessary
and satisfying work. (See detailed story about what is
involved in the Summer 2012 edition of The LDH.)
If interested, email me at ronbungay@verizon.net.
ron bunGay
Wood planks 16 feet long were carried up the Tuscarora Trail and set down at a future lean-to
that is set amidst a rock field. (It’s pennsylvania after all.)
h. dean Clark
This new shelter will
have a fantastic view.
25 YEARS Ago THIS ISSUE
From the winter 1988 edition of The Long Distance Hiker:
“Scott Dowling and I worked on the official TrailAid weekend at a different location from the Smoky
Mountain group. We considered the limited amount
of time that we could get away and the driving time
and chose to work on a closer section of the A.T. on
the Nantahala Hiking Club’s turf.
“We cleared a difficult-to-access 4-mile section of
about six blowdowns, pruned and cleaned 48 water
bars.
“Oh yes, my dog helped too by carrying the day
packs, leaving our hands free to carry tools.”
— Warren Clarke (Conley, Ga.)
ron bunGay
Before and after: ALDHA members partake of a complimentary continental breakfast at the
Shippensburg campsite before driving to the Tuscarora Trail. When work was done, a pose.
ron bunGay photos
‘Canada goose’ hauls some timber.
20
Winter 2013
photos by h. dean Clark
ATC Chairman Sandi Marra, at left, hands out ALDHA’s hiker patches and certificates. At right, ATC Executive Director Ron Tipton delivers remarks. Both Sandi and Ron began their new positions this year, and both are ALDHA members. Ron is also an ALDHA founder.
ATC a major presence at Gathering
W
E WERE HAPPY to have representatives from the Appalachian Trail Conservancy join us once again for our
annual Gathering. The ATC’s Ultimate
Trail Store as always proved to be a popular fixture at
our Hiker Fair. And we always love having in attendance Brian King and Laurie Potteiger — who’ve been
called the ATC’s “great ambassadors” to ALDHA —
as well as longtime ALDHA member Hawk Metheny,
ATC’s New England regional director.
But this year was extra special. For the first time,
we had both the chairman of the ATC board of directors — Sandi Marra — and the executive director of
the conservancy — Ron Tipton — come to the Gathering to take part in several major events. For openers,
they were welcomed Friday night at our plenary session and had a hand in recognizing the year’s latest
batch of long-distance A.T. hikers. We also had them
sit down Saturday for a meet-and-greet where they
shared their hopes for the future and fielded questions.
This Gathering was an especially poignant moment
— as well as a homecoming of sorts — for Tipton, who
opened his remarks with what he knew was a sure applause line. “I am very proud to be the first executive
director of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy in history to be a thru-hiker,” he said to the desired effect.
Tipton is not just a thru-hiker, and not just a life
member of ALDHA (Marra and her husband, Chris
“Trail Boss” Brunton, are also life members of
ALDHA by the way). Tipton is a founder of our organization. He was one of about 20 people from diverse backgrounds on the trail to gather in Harpers
Ferry 30 years ago this year to formally create the firstever organization devoted to the long-distance hiker.
“Long-distance hikers are one of the really important facets of the diversity of the trail,” he said. “Two
and a half million people set foot on the trail every
year. Some go a mile, some walk half a day, some go
for a weekend and some go all the way.
“This is a pretty diverse group,” he added, “but
we’ve got to expand that diversity to include a lot more
young people and a lot more people that represent the
face of America,” he said, sounding a major theme he
has laid out so far for his directorship. “We’re going
to need that constituency to continue to protect this
wonderful trail and have it provide the experience for
decades to come that we’ve all been accustomed to.”
He wrapped up his remarks by reminding everyone
that ALDHA is a partner with ATC toward that goal.
“I just want to reiterate how much I love this organization. ... We may not agree on every issue but we’re
in this together and I really do believe that your presence is felt in our office every single day.”
— Bill O’Brien
Diplomas awarded to 11 future 2,000-milers
One of the underlying goals of every Gathering is to pass
along some of our thousands of miles worth of trail wisdom
to those folks who are hoping to hit the A.T. the following
year for their own thru-hike.
If they attend five hours or more of workshops that are
geared specifically toward their needs, they earn a diploma in
long-distance hiking. Among the qualifying workshops are the
question-and-answer session with the current class of thru-hikers and sessions on ultralight backpacking, first aid, tick-borne
diseases, feasting in the backcountry, and bear-bagging.
The brainchild a few years ago of former assistant coordinator Sanne “Ready” Larsen, the diplomas are a nice way to
remind dreamers of their goal over the long winter.
Receiving their diplomas this year were:
John Albrecht of Mantua, Ohio
Paul Bunker of San Antonio, Texas
Anita Dore of Deer Lodge, Mont.
Joan Hatcher, Cape May Courthouse, N.J.
Peggy Pings of Maidsville, W.Va.
Carl Reiners of Stanhope, N.J.
Robert Repsher of Quakertown, Pa.
Barbara Root of Quakertown, Pa.
Michael Sauter of Pittsburgh, Pa.
Xingshu Zhu of Lansdale, Pa.
Brian Zwergel of Lower Burrell, Pa.
A photo of McAfee knob fills the background.
Winter 2013
21
Honors bestowed on ‘Wing-Heart’
Mike even has his
own rap song now
By BILL o’BRIEn
Editor-in-Chief
We knew it was bound to happen sooner or later but
frankly we always assumed it would be a video of
Mike Wingeart captured on the fan-cam and broadcast
on the jumbotron at the Baltimore Ravens arena that
would later go viral on the Internet. Something showing Mike going bananas over a play or finding a new
way to express himself regarding a ref’s call.
But no. Instead, the pop culture phenomenon that
Mike was destined to be part of is a rap song. Yes,
“Wing-Heart” has gone hip-hop.
It all came about as part of a farewell to our immediate past coordinator for his three years of heart-stopping excitement at almost every turn. You can’t deny
the frenetic pace since 2010. Mike came in like a lion
and went out like a lamb (well, sort of).
At the Gathering in October we paused to reflect on
his accomplishments, to thank him dearly for all his
hard work and dedication and to present him with a
few tokens of appreciation. We also included his wife,
Martha, who, at the first spring board meeting chaired
by Mike, was presented with a bouquet of flowers as
our newest “ALDHA widow.” We gave her more
flowers at Mike’s final meeting in October, only this
time they were potted. She can have Mike plant them
for her now that she has him back working for her.
H. Dean Clark, aka “Crooked Sticks,” recited the
rap song he and several others composed in Mike’s
honor, and it wasn’t half bad. (See the lyrics at right.)
Then in all seriousness, Mike was presented with a
mini-yearbook of photos from his 3 years as coordinator and an ALDHA “metal man” by Chuck Wood.
But perhaps the biggest honor was the surprise presentation of an Honorary Life Membership, the highest
award ALDHA can bestow, and in this case quite an
honor indeed since we have never before presented one
to a newly retired coordinator. In the past, the waiting
time for coordinators, no matter how good, has been
at least one year. Mike deserved the precedent.
In his time as coordinator, he has overseen quite a
snipurl.com
/wingeartboo
k
Mike Wingeart, left, and his
wife, Martha, listen to Bill
o’Brien express thanks for
the past three years in
which Mike served as
coordinator while Martha
was right there pitching in.
Mike got a photo book,
Martha got flowers. Visit
the link above to see
what’s inside the booklet.
few changes, perhaps the most impressive and lasting
of which will be considered the most boring, but seriously it was a major, unprecedented accomplishment.
He got ALDHA on a budget. The days of waving
around the checkbook as the gist of a treasurer’s report
are long gone. This one act has put ALDHA in great
shape to prosper in the future.
But that wasn’t all. He created a second tri-fold exhibit to get our display in more places at one time. He
brainstormed the 2,000-miler patch and certificate ceremony that is now a highlight of our Gathering’s opening session. He introduced a patch for people taking
part in work trips. He got our PayPal mess fixed,
helped encourage Pilgrim in getting a real ALDHA
Store launched, finally settled issues with our logo by
getting it trademarked, created notebooks with info on
ALDHA for use in hostels, brought the spring meeting
to Bears Den and the Gathering to Shippensburg (each
for the first time), saved us money by buying a huge
tent for Trail Days, commissioned the huge cloth banner that now adorns our stage at events, got new items
for the store, OK’d the Damascus pavilion and AT
App, and made darn sure the website got upgraded :-)
For these and several other things that won’t fit here,
we thank you, Martha, for letting us borrow Mike!
“Crooked stiCks” h. dean Clark
time for Mike to take a Hike?
YIkES!
our fearless leader MIkE
Who’s good at putting our finger in the Dike
We heard he’s going for a HIkE
Maybe on a BIkE
(at his age it should be a TRIkE)
he’s pSYCHED!
also known as Wing-HEART
he’s about to de-pART
We’ll miss the old FART
so thank you Wing-HEART
aldha’s off to more than a good START
you’ve led us out of the DARk
off you go into the LIgHT
May your future be EXTRA BRIgHT!
Composed in the Dining Hall a little before the annual
Business Meeting, with a tip of the Dr. Seuss hat to Vera
Hurst, Wayne & Kathy Krevetski and H. Dean Clark.
‘Horseman’ rides off, but unprecedented service continues
Since before his 1989 thru-hike, Noel DeCavalcante has been tied to ALDHA in one
way or another. When he finished his hike he
went to his first Gathering and was chosen to
deliver one of the opening night testimonials.
For a nubile hiker sitting in the audience for
that Pipestem Gathering who was still on the
A.T. himself as a southbounder, seeing the
“Horseman” again — having met him in Vermont — confirmed the feeling that ALDHA
was one big Trail Family. On stage he delivered one of the most moving testimonials that
cut to the heart of that Trail Family concept.
He soon got on the ALDHA Board of Directors and immediately went to work in his
own unique way of influencing the direction
that ALDHA was to take and still takes today.
At the 1995 Gathering, outside the student
union that Saturday afternoon, Rerun flipped
a coin to see which one of us, me or Noel,
would run for coordinator the next day. The
other would run for assistant. Noel won, and
I learned a heck of a lot about how I would
serve when it was my turn two years later.
He had one brief hiatus off the board but
never really has been “off of ALDHA.” This
year he stepped down for good but he won’t
go far. His unprecedented term of service will
continue. For that, I want to say thanks.
— Rice-man
22
Winter
r 2013
23
h. dean Clark
24
Winter 2013
A glance back
at the GATHERING
ph otoGr aph s b y h . d ean C l ar k
Hiking buds ‘Ranger Dawg’ David Dalton and ‘Model T’ J.R. Tate, at
right, confer while David’s wife, Carmen, enjoys the banter.
‘Ma Buddha’ kathy krevetski of Vermont and Jeanine and Charlie
kinney of new Hampshire, aka ‘pipe Smoke’ and ‘Mrs. Smoke.’
Below, a cloth poster created by ‘Mawee’ Deb Tucker was set up
for folks to autograph. It’ll be displayed at future gatherings.
Marilyn Beckley and ‘Crooked Sticks’ H. Dean Clark pose for a
photo in a turnaround for Dean, our ‘official’ photographer.
photo by bill Cooke
kip Redick, program coordinator for the gathering,
holds up a pennsylvania rock at Friday’s opening.
Winter 2013
25
Folks chat during the reception after Friday night’s opening. We held the dance Friday night and turned two receptions into one for more fun.
‘Vanna Weathercarrot’ gets ready to work the points board during
Sunday night’s offering of Trail Jeopardy.
Tommy gathman,
an infantry rifleman with the
Marines, speaks
at the Friday night
opening as one of
the four Warrior
Hikers who finished this year’s
thru-hike. He and
fellow Marine/
Warrior Hiker
Steve Clendenning got a huge
round of applause. Each lost
friends while
serving overseas.
‘Uncle Buck’ looks through the leash for his puppy, Jake (behind
him in this photo), while Jason ‘SoulFlute’ Benward looks on.
photo by bill o’brien
A unique setup for the Saturday evening campfire involved three fire bowls that
kept the field from being scarred by a traditional fire pit.
26
Winter 2013
Storytellers share
their experiences
at Garvey gabfest
By BILL o’BRIEn
Editor-in-Chief
Sue Spring gets all her apples in a row so judging can commence in the Apple Contest.
Ontario Macoun
proves to be a cut
above rest of best
T
By SUE SpRIng
Recording Secretary
his year’s apple contest drew seven entries
from the continental United States and
Canada. The contest was set up in the middle of the Hiker Fair, with plenty of room
for people to hang out, sample the apples and contribute their ideas about which apples were the winners in the various judging categories.
Numerous apple varieties were represented, including Honey Crisp, Spartan, Wolf River, Macoun,
and two lesser known, Arkansas Black (also called
Arkansas Black Twig) and Concord-Mac.
As in past years, the fun of the event began with
drawing in the entries, then as the day moved on to
midafternoon, passers-by were invited to help judge
them. Categories included taste, color, size (smallest
and largest circumference) and best overall.
Following in the tradition begun at the 2011 Gathering, prizes came from the ALDHA Store. The
overall grand prize winner got an ALDHA vest. The
winner for largest apple got a short-sleeved T-shirt.
The winner for best-tasting apple got an ALDHA
travel mug. The winner for the most colorful apple
received an ALDHA ball cap, and the winner for the
smallest entry was given an ALDHA mouse pad.
Right off the bat, the largest and smallest apples
were readily apparent. The largest apple was a cooking variety known as Wolf River, submitted by
Kathy and Wayne Krevetski of Vermont. The smallest winner, nicknamed our “ultralight” entry, was an
elegant but tiny Concord-Mac, submitted by Ray
“Otto” Douglas, who graciously brought at least a
hundred more tasty apples for all of us to sample.
The submission of these two readily identifiable
winners gave us our middle-school visual math lesson for the day. Would you believe the numbers behind these spheres’ relative sizes? The larger apple
had a circumference of 13 inches. The smaller apple
had a svelte circumference of 6½ inches… one-half
of the measurement of the big ’un. Take a look at
their volumes. Using the formula for the volume of
a sphere, the larger apple contained roughly 13 times
the volume of the smaller one. Yes, you never know
what you’ll learn from an ALDHA Apple Contest!
With those two categories out of the way we were
able to move on to determine the winners for best
tasting, most colorful and best overall.
The award for best tasting went unanimously to a
lovely Honey Crisp apple of Pennsylvania origin,
submitted by Joan Taggart from Norristown, Pa. The
judges used the words “crisp, juicy and good texture” to describe their favorite in this category.
The award for most colorful went to a seductively
dark red apple of the previously mentioned Arkansas
Black variety, submitted by Kip and Sarah Redick.
And last but not least, we came through it all with
a winner — and if you are a follower of the Apple
Contest, you won’t be surprised. Yes, we went back
to the result of two years ago when we crossed the
border into Ontario and hooked up with good friend
and frequent participant, John Wilson, aka “Canada
Goose,” who gave us this year’s winner, a handsome
Macoun, same as in 2011. It wasn’t the biggest or
smallest or this or that, it was just doggone appealing
from every viewpoint, every sense, and that did it!
Congratulations to “Canada Goose”!
We had a packed house for this year’s rendition of
the Ed Garvey Memorial Storytelling Contest, and the
tale-teller judged the best by the audience (he got the
loudest applause at the end) was Dave Osborn, aka
“Freebird,” with a story about his encounter with Mojave Jack on the Pacific Crest Trail.
We were entertained by quite a few other storytellers, but Dave, who also gave a workshop over the
weekend on Te Araroa in New Zealand, was by far
the popular choice. We also heard from “Librarian,”
“Hippy Kippy,” “Loon,” “Hawk,” “G-hippy,” Nancy from the A.T. Museum, and Charlie Burroughs.
Charlie, it turned out, knew Ed well, and he read a
few excerpts from Ed’s 1971 book and told the story
of Ed’s penchant for Claxton’s Fruit Cake as a staple
of his thru-hiking diet. Ironically, we gave out a brick
of Claxton’s as a prize for the winner of past contests,
but after a photo captured the shocked look on a recipient at the time of the presentation, we realized it
was probably no longer “Garvey approved.” So Dave
got one of the new ALDHA bandanas.
Congratulations to to all of this year’s trail talkers!
And if you want a good read, look up “Freebird” on
Trail Journals. He is certainly a great storyteller.
Body parts and other
low points of Jeopardy!
We tried to come up with a few easy Trail Jeopardy
“answers” this year but still managed to stump most
of our contestants, including a power team consisting
of the immediate past coordinator of ALDHA, the
longtime current editor of the
A.T. Companion guidebook, and
a 2007 thru-hiker. (The Companion editor, who shall remain
nameless — aw heck, it’s Sly! —
is seen in photo inset covering his
face after Alex “Sprained Rice”
Trebek conjectured how “Yellow
Shoes” got his trail name.)
In the end the team with the least number of wrong
answers consisted of “Cool Breeze,” Pete Lane and
Jason “SoulFlute” Benward, a current-year thru-hiker.
(Actually, this team did pretty well!)
Among the categories were the usual high points,
low points, rivers, mountains, etc., but new this year
were “body parts” and middle names. For example:
“Nose” ... “What is Anthony’s Nose?”
or, “Emile MacKaye” ... “What is Benton?”
Yes, we’ll work on it for next year to try to dumb
it down some more! LOL. In the meantime, keep
studying your trail trivia!
Winter 2013
27
Beauty of Another Trail: bill Cooke
Beauty of the A.T.: rayana “acorn” adra
Flora and Fauna: sandra Friend
Humor: allan “ketchup” Mendoza
EARL SHAFFER
MEMoRIAL
pHoTo FEST
We honor the memory
of the first thru-hiker
with an annual invitation for hikers to bring
their favorite trail pics
to the Gathering. kent
Wilson organized this
year’s exhibition. “the
photo contest really
appeals to me and i
have been enjoying
my interactions with all
the contestants,” he
said after the Gathering. see you in 2014!
Trail Community: kathy “Ma buddha” krevetski
Hiker Fair was busy
By Ron BUngAY
ALDHA Board Member
bill Cooke
Chuck Wood’s artwork on display at the Hiker Fair portion of the Shippensburg gathering.
The Gathering Hiker Fair was very successful. We
had a good variety of vendors. The location was very
convenient for stopping by when going to and from
the various workshops.
A special thank you to the vendors listed below who
provided donations for our drawing:
Florida Hikes — Sandra “Navigator” Friend
Squatch Films — Scott “Squatch” Harriott
The AT App — Ryan “Guthook” Linn
Yogi’s Books — Jackie “Yogi” McDonnell
Wizards of The PCT — Shane “Jester” O’Donnell
28
Winter 2013
THE FINAL BLAZE
2013 Gathering
was dedicated to
late Jean Cashin
F
By BILL o’BRIEn
Editor-in-Chief
riday night included an emotional opening
ceremony that saw almost the entire family
of the late Jean Cashin on hand for the formal
dedication of this Gathering to her memory.
Even her husband George, now in his 90s, was able
to attend. Besides the dedication, Chuck Wood also
presented the family with his iconic “Final Blaze” memorial, while the A.T. Museum gave the family a formal plaque recognizing a lifetime of service to the
A.T. by Jean, who died Aug. 18 at age 83.
Accepting the accolades on his mother’s behalf was
Bill Van Gilder, who presented to ATC Executive Director Ron Tipton an old metal A.T. sign that Jean
happily saved from the trash many years ago. It’s now
a relic and back in the possession of the ATC for
archive purposes.
Jean was a founding member of ALDHA and one
of its earliest supporters inside ATC headquarters.
Among those sharing their reminiscences of her were
former ALDHA Coordinators Noel DeCavalcante and
Cindy Ross, both of whom said they had been personally inspired by Jean before and after their respective
thru-hikes. Cindy credited Jean with encouraging her
to become a writer, and Noel shared how, after he finished his hike, he and Jean became lifelong friends.
Chuck made and presented other Final Blazes over
the weekend to former member Joe Anastasia of Ver-
THAT’S A SHARp-LookIng AWARD!
32 gATHERIngS AnD CoUnTIng
Chuck Wood presents Bill Van gilder, son of the late Jean Cashin, a Final Blaze in her honor.
mont, Robie “Jumpstart” Hensley, Bill Evans, Robert
“Lucky 10” Accola, who died on the trail in New
Hampshire, former ATC employee John Fletcher, and
former Kennebec River ferryman Steve Longley.
FARTHEST TRAVELED, MoST MILES HIkED & oTHER noTABLES
In the callout of class years, there’s always some
excitement over who will be the “Last Person Standing.” In 1999 and a few other years it was Earl Shaffer (’48). Recently, when
he’s been able to attend,
it’s been Gene Espy (’51).
This year we fully expected “Red Wolf o’ da
Smoky’s” Robert Croyle,
class of 1971(!), to be the
man. But his ride back to
his B&B was heading out
so he missed his moment
in the spotlight.
Instead, a new award,
sculpted by Chuck Wood,
went to two members of
Be careful holding
the class of 1973, Richard
that award, guys!
Judy and Erich ShellenIt’s so sharp, it cut
berger, who said they’d
creator Chuck
gladly share it.
Wood a few times.
He attended the first ALDHA Gathering in 1982
and says he hasn’t missed a single one since. He was
there during the day Friday, sitting amid the hustle
and bustle of the registration area. And Coordinator
Mike Wingeart was all set to surprise him that night
with an award to recognize his attendance streak, but
when Mike called out the name of Fred “Slopoke”
Waigand (AT ’81) he was nowhere to be found.
Turns out he got tired and went back to his room to
go to sleep. No matter, his streak lives on!
MoST MILES, FARTHEST TRoD, ETC.
We had better luck with the next category of superlatives that Mike wanted to recognize this year.
Billy Goat once again took top honors for the most
miles backpacked. He’s around 44,000 now, and will
add more next year when he returns to the A.T. for
the first time in years to do a 20th anniversary hike.
Getting kudos for most miles traveled to attend the
Gathering was former professional windsurfer Dave
“Freebird” Osborn, who traveled from Hawaii to be
Mat olsen holds his 8½-month-old daughter,
Sierra, our youngest gathering attendee!
with us. (No, he didn’t windsurf to Shippensburg!)
And who among us has done at least one long-distance hike on more than one continent? The recordholder, at least as far as Friday night at the Gathering is concerned, is Mara “Stitches” Factor, who
has compiled decent trail miles across six continents!
Winter 2013
29
A sample stamp
from the Camino
de Santiago.
pASSpoRT STAMp LoCATIonS
Wi
l
Note: Locations will be marked in The A.T. Companion.
a
t
survivor dave’s trail shuttle, atlanta to Fontana
amicalola Falls Visitors Center, dawsonville Ga
hiker hostel, dahlonega Ga
Mountain Crossings, neels Gap Ga
blueberry patch, hiawassee Ga
budget inn, hiawassee Ga
havens budget inn, Franklin nC
sapphire inn, Franklin nC
aquone hostel, aquone nC
nantahala outdoor Center, bryson City nC
standing bear Farm, hartford tn
laughing heart lodge, hot springs nC
elmers sunnybank inn, hot springs nC
hemlock hollow, Greeneville tn
nolichucky hostel, erwin tn
Greasy Creek Friendly, bakersville nC
Mountain harbour hostel, roan Mountain tn
kincora hiking hostel, hampton tn
black bear resort, hampton tn
the place, damascus Va
dave’s place, damascus Va
hikers inn, damascus Va
Crazy larrys, damascus Va
Montgomery homestead inn, damascus Va
troutdale baptist Church hostel, troutdale Va
Woods hole hostel, pearisburg Va
Four pines hostel, Catawba Va
bluedogart café, buena Vista, Va
Grace hiker hostel, Waynesboro Va
terrapin station, Chester Gap Va
bears den hostel, bluemont Va
blackburn at Center, round hill Va
appalachian trail Conservancy, harpers
Ferry WV
teahorse hostel, harpers Ferry WV
harpers Ferry hostel, knoxville Md
Free state hiker, smithsburg Md
ironmasters Mansion, Gardners pa
appalachian trail Museum, Gardners pa
the doyle hotel, duncannon pa
Jail house hostel, palmerton pa
Church of the Mountain hostel, del. Water Gap pa
st thomas episcopal Church hostel, Vernon nJ
native landscapes, pawling ny
bearded Woods bunk & dine, salisbury
Ct
83 depot st. - tom levardi, dalton Ma
st. Mary’s Church, Cheshire Ma
Green Mountain house, Manchester
Center Vt
hikers hostel at the yellow deli, rutland Vt
inn at the long trail, killington Vt
Mountain Meadows lodge, killington
Vt
the hart Family, West hartford Vt
tiggers tree house, etna nh
hikers Welcome hostel, Glencliff nh
Chet’s - one step at a time, lincoln
nh
White Mountains lodge & hostel, shelburne nh
White birches, shelburne nh
hikers paradise, Gorham nh
the barn at libby house, Gorham nh
pine ellis lodging, andover Me
the Cabin, east andover Me
stratton Motel & hostel, stratton Me
Gatherin
g
he
sterling inn, Caratunk Me
lakeshore house, Monson Me
shaw’s lodging, Monson Me
the appalachian trail lodge,
Millinocket Me
lia
mstown, M
aldha Gathering, Williamstown, Ma
kip rediCk
kip Redick’s students follow the Camino de Santiago in Spain last summer. The pilgrimage is
famous for many reasons including the stamps hikers collect at points along the way.
Introducing the AT Passport
New fundraiser modeled after Camino de Santiago’s
booklet that collects stamps along famous pilgrimage
By kIp REDICk
Coordinator
The Appalachian Trail Passport will be starting up
this hiking season. Jeff Taussig, who is a member of
ALDHA and owner/operator of the Green Mountain
House hiker hostel in Manchester Center, Vt., came
up with the idea.
Hikers can buy the inexpensive and lightweight
passport and will receive stamps at participating hostels, restaurants, outfitters and even the Gathering.
Proceeds will go to the ATC and thereby be sown back
into the A.T. community.
Having hiked the Camino de Santiago three times,
I immediately thought of the credentials that pilgrims
must have to successfully navigate the trail across
Spain. The Camino credential serves multiple purposes
that transcend tourism. Unlike some passport programs
that serve as mementos for tourists to prove that
they’ve “been there, done that,” the credential is practical. It shows the hostel proprietor that the hiker is indeed a pilgrim.
Hostels on the Camino are called albergues and the
proprietors are known as a hospitaleros. The credential
is like a letter of recommendation to the hospitaleros.
The second and most important purpose of the credential is to show the folks in Santiago de Compostela that
the pilgrim has indeed hiked the whole way; no yellow
blazing if you want the certificate.
The AT Passport will not become equivalent to the
credential, hostel owners will not require a passport
for a night’s stay and the ATC will not use the passport
as evidence of a 2,000-mile hike. The AT Passport is
not affiliated with the ATC. However, the Passport
will demonstrate a hiker’s presence along the trail if
the hiker chooses to participate.
Many hikers who rarely come into town, only for
resupply and not for a night in the hostel, could still end
up with a number of stamps. There are, after all, several trail towns along the way wherein stamps could be
applied to the Passport. The AT goes right next to the
Laughing Heart Lodge and Elmer’s Sunnybank Inn in
Hot Springs, N.C. The proprietor would stamp the
passport if a hiker made a brief stop.
My own set of three Camino credentials are very
personal and imbued with the presence of the journey.
When I open them up and look at the various stamps
embossed within, my heart is transported to the places
along the way. The stamps are like icons of the Way.
Through them I re-experience the people and places
that are part of my life. I know that the AT Passport
will serve a similar purpose.
The AT Passport costs $6 and can be purchased
online at www.ATPassport.com.
30
Winter 2013
A.T. MUSEUM NEWS
Museum begins
campaign to raise
$150,000 by 2016
GARDNERS, Pa. — The Museum is launching a
three-year fundraising campaign to provide enough
money to finish the renovation work on the Old Mill
and cover the cost of the new exhibits.
The campaign will run from now thru 2016 and
has a goal of $150,000. To date, the campaign has
raised $54,000 including a $30,000 anonymous gift.
The levels set for the campaign are:
Founder . . . . . . . . $10,000
Pioneer . . . . . . . . . . $5,000
A2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,000
Maintainer . . . . . . . . . $500
Trail Angel . . . . . . . . . $250
Caretaker . . . . . . . . . . $100
Hiker. . . . . . . . . . . . . . $50
Total contributions from 2013 through 2016 will
determine the donor’s listing level on a plaque to be
permanently displayed at the A.T. Museum.
The renovations consist of developing the upper
floors of the Old Mill into new exhibit, office, research and storage space and transforming the basement into additional usable space. Work on the
second-floor ramp, meanwhile, resumes in the spring.
The museum reopens on weekends on March 29.
For the full schedule, visit www.atmuseum.org.
Docents now have their
own Internet newsletter
GARDNERS, Pa. — In late fall, A.T. Museum
Manager Joe Harold launched a new Volunteer
Newsletter. It’s basically a blog that he will be
adding to throughout the winter and into next season
and, he hopes, beyond that. It will be the place to
see what is going on at the Museum during the offseason and will also include the happenings at Pine
Grove Furnace State Park and other nearby areas,
but will mostly concentrate on the A.T. Museum.
Follow this link to check it out:
http://atmuseum.blogspot.com/
If you enjoy it, he encourages you to pass it on.
Also, if you are interested in submitting articles, just
let him know. You can email Joe through a link on
his blog above.
He is also hoping to spotlight a different volunteer
every now and then, so he’s seeking someone to,
well, um, volunteer to go first! Just let him know.
And speaking of volunteers, helpers are always
needed and most appreciated. The Museum cannot
be run by one person, and volunteers are needed to
serve as greeters/docents, mow the lawn and perform other duties as the need arises. If you can lend
a hand, contact Joe.
H. Dean Clark
Reporter/author Ben Montgomery talks about Grandma Gatewood at this year’s Gathering.
Getting to know ‘Grandma’
F
Reporter talks about upcoming book on A.T. Hall-of-Famer
By LaRRy LuxenBeRG
A.T. Museum Society President
rom the minute she first stepped on the Appalachian Trail almost sixty years ago,
Grandma Gatewood has been a sensation in
the trail community.
Many hikers are acquainted with
her legend: the high topped Keds
shoes she frequently wore, the
satchel she carried over her shoulder with a bare minimum of supplies.
An elderly great-grandmother
was a rarity on the trails in the
1950s and she appeared frequently
in the media. But over the years
there has never been a thorough
study of Grandma Gatewood.
The first woman to do a thruhike alone and in a continuous direction, Grandma Gatewood went
on to complete the A.T. twice more
as well as many other trails. An early
backer of the Buckeye Trail, she was inducted into
the second class of the Appalachian Trail Hall of
Fame in 2012. She has also been featured in an exhibit at the A.T. Museum.
Over the last few years, Ben Montgomery, a reporter for the Tampa Bay Times, has completed a
full-length biography. The book is due in the spring.
Ben flew to Pennsylvania at his own expense to
present the 13th annual A.T. Museum symposium at
the Shippensburg Gathering and give us a preview
of the book. The symposia are designed to highlight
research on the A.T. and they began with an appearance at the 2000 Gathering by Larry Anderson, biographer of Benton MacKaye.
As an investigative reporter,
Ben talked to dozens of people
who had known Grandma or were
familiar with her career as well as
combed through her diaries and
other archival material.
Through photographs and anecdotes he brought to life this legend
of the trail. Ben is a distant relative of Grandma Gatewood (she
was his mother’s great aunt) and
he’d heard about her all of his life.
A Pulitzer Prize finalist in
2010, Ben dug deep to get a full
portrait of Grandma. During his
talk he mentioned her experiences
with an abusive husband and how she
took to the Trail late in life and thrived on the A.T.
and the many other trails she walked from her late
60s to early 80s.
Ben’s book is due out in late winter/early spring.
We will run a review with excerpts and an interview
with Ben in the spring Long Distance Hiker.
Winter 2013
31
Hall of Fame nominations welcome
By jiM fOsteR
anD jOseph patteRsOn
A.T. Museum Hall of Fame
GARDNERS, Pa. — Nominees for the Appalachian Trail Hall of Fame Class of 2014 will be
accepted through Friday, Feb. 28, 2014, to recognize those who have made a significant contribution
toward establishing and maintaining the 2,185-mile
footpath that passes through 14 states from Georgia
to Maine.
“The fourth class to the Appalachian Trail Hall of
Fame will be inducted in 2014, and nominations are
open for Hall of Fame nominees,” said Larry Luxenberg, president of the Appalachian Trail Museum
Society — the organization that oversees the Appalachian Trail Hall of Fame. “Nominees should be
people who have made a significant positive contribution to the Appalachian Trail and who have unselfishly devoted their time, energy and resources
toward making the Appalachian Trail a national
treasure.”
The 16 Hall of Fame inductees named in the first
three years include Myron Avery, Gene Espy, Ed
Garvey, Benton MacKaye, Arthur Perkins, Earl
Shaffer, Emma “Grandma” Gatewood, David A
Richie, J. Frank Schairer, Jean Stephenson, William
Adams Welch, Ruth Blackburn, David Field, David
Sherman, David Startzell and Everett (Eddie) Stone.
Without their efforts, Luxenberg said the Appalachian Trail probably would not even exist.
nominations
Nominations will be solicited from throughout the
hiking and trails community. The easiest way to
submit a nomination is by using the online site:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/yKZ5Zsy
Nominations also may be submitted using a paper
nomination form. Copies of the form can be found
at http://tinyurl.com/k2dwm3o or by requesting
one from the museum.
A nominator need not be a member of any hiking
organization to submit a nomination. A nominator
may only make one nomination per election cycle.
CRiteRia fOR seLeCtiOn
tO the a.t. haLL Of faMe
Those eligible for inclusion include anyone
who has made an exceptional and positive
contribution to the appalachian Trail or appalachian Trail community.
This could be by leadership, inspiration, service, achievement or innovation. This includes,
without limitation, pioneers who conceived of
and developed the trail; those who organized
or directed major trail organizations like the
appalachian Trail Conservancy and appalachian Trail clubs; maintaining clubs; longtime trail maintainers; leaders who promoted
and protected the a.T.; hikers who have made
significant accomplishments, and other persons who have enriched the culture or community of the appalachian Trail by their
association with it.
A.T.
HALL
OF
FAME
eligible persons can be living or deceased.
The emphasis will be on persons who have
made their contribution to the a.T. over a long
period, whether or not they are still active. Six
individuals were elected in the first year. The
sizes of the succeeding classes will be gradually reduced to create the maximum degree of
honor and exclusivity.
The first few classes will be composed primarily of important historical figures (living
or dead) rather than contemporary figures. eligibility and selection will be determined
without regard to race, creed, color, gender, sexual orientation, or national origin.
Nominators will be asked to justify their nomination in a brief statement not exceeding 200 words
that describes the nominee and why he or she fits
the criteria. (See inset box for list of criteria.)
The deadline for nominations is Friday, Feb. 28,
2014.
ALDHA’s representatives to Museum board
Bill
O’Brien
noel
DeCavalcante
When Mike Wingeart ended his term as coordinator of
ALDHA, he also stepped down as one of ALDHA’s two
representatives to the A.T. Museum board of directors.
Noel DeCavalcante will continue as one of those reps,
a role he has served since the Museum board was established in 2001. A 1989 thru-hiker, Noel has been instrumental in providing his guidance and wisdom to the board
as well as to ALDHA (see story, Page 21).
The new ALDHA representative to the Museum board
will actually be another original member of that body. Bill
O’Brien will replace Mike, but Bill will continue to serve
the Museum board as its secretary. With two complete
hikes of the A.T., Bill has also been active with ALDHA
and the ATC and is currently serving as ALDHA’s
newsletter editor and webmaster.
ALDHA members who have any questions, comments
or suggestions for the Museum are welcome to contact either Noel or Bill. (See Page 38 for their email.)
Joining the Museum board this past fall is Jim Foster,
also an ALDHA member, filling Bill’s former seat.
32
Winter 2013
HIKERS’ MUSE
The late Walkin’ Jim Stoltz coined this term when he did a
workshop at the 2009 Gathering where hikers could share
stories, poems, songs or other musings. Send your creative output, commentary, etc., to newsletter@aldha.org.
the ongoing adventures of Boots Mcfarland . . .
No matter how
moody you get,
always try to look
on the bright side
S
3
Which virginia
university will
give students
college credit
if they thru-hike the
appalachian Trail?
4
5
Mark Hudson is a former coordinator of ALDHA
and a perennial long-distance hiker, building up an
impressive trail resume. Check it out in the Directory!
The international appalachian Trail finished adding
which island this year
to its route in europe?
4. irelanD
5. He publiCly propoSeD an a.T. muSeum
2
The new manager of the
a.T. museum
retired from
which military branch
after 30 years?
His white-hot anger quickened his pace, at least as
much as it could with his limp, and he was making
better time on the next climb when he came to the
road, and on the other side an intact sign — ‘Moody
Mountain 1.5 Miles.’
It takes the human mind a while to grasp its
doom... Slowdude tried going down the road, but
found the same sign around every identical-looking
bend. He even tried leaving the road in the opposite
direction on the trail, only to find that, yes, the trail
ran uphill in both directions, always emerging on the
same road, at the same sign.
And he finally realized that he’d broken the first
law of hiking — don’t curse the trail gods!
3. emory & Henry univerSiTy
1
Which national
award did a
1991 a.T. thruhiker named
elizabeth mcgowan
win earlier this year?
roots and rocks. It did not go quickly. Much, much
later, dragging himself up the mountain he found
himself approaching a road he KNEW should not be
there... and crossed to find a sign reading ‘Moody
Mountain 1.5 Miles.’
Sighing, he leaned on his poles and considered —
the crack on the head must have dazed him more
than he thought, and he must have taken a wrong
turn somewhere.
He set off into the woods yet again, carefully
checking every blaze, even though tilting his head up
drained the cold rain down the back of his neck.
Hours later he emerged at the same road and the
same sign.
“Somebody’s idea of a sick joke! I’ll fix them!”
He grabbed a large downed branch and swung repeatedly at the sign, breaking it in four pieces and
leaving the post tilted.
What did larry
luxenberg do
15 years ago
this year in the
summer 1998 issue of
alDHa’s newsletter?
2. THe CoaST guarD
test your
memory of
the previous
issue of the
newsletter:
Visit bootsmcfarland.com to see more of Geolyn Carvin’s cartoons.
1. THe puliTzer prize
lowdude came by his trailname the hard
way, he started out slow and never got any
faster. The trail had forced him to fix his
overweight pack even as it was trying to
batter him into shape, but he only ended up battered.
The rest days to recover from his injuries: 10
days off in Georgia for the twisted knee, 14 off in
Pennsylvania for the sprained ankle, all the zero
days where he just couldn’t face leaving town, not to
mention the shin splints in New Hampshire that
slowed his hike to a crawl, all put him behind the
other northbounders.
Now he had finally
made it to Maine, worn out
and tired, and it didn’t
even look like he was
going to make it to
Katahdin before the clock
ran out.
He had camped alone,
again, and headed out into
a miserable rainy morning,
essay
his cold clammy rain gear
seemingly holding more
MaRK huDsOn
“SkeeTer”
moisture in than out.
Following the muddy,
slick trail to the edge of the road his foot slid from a
slick rock, wrenching his bad knee yet again, and
earned him a twisting, awkward fall onto his side —
an “all mud” landing except for the rock that cracked
him in the side of the head and left him seeing stars.
The LAST straw...
Slowdude had always fought to control his temper,
but now he snapped. “Curse this trail! Curse the trail
gods!”
Untangling himself from his hiking poles he pulled
himself painfully to his feet and stumbled across the
road to a sign — ‘Moody Mountain 1.5 Miles.’
Still mumbling under his breath he limped into the
woods and began yet another steep climb of mud,
Winter 2013
33
BOOK REVIEW
A
Overcoming hurdles & finding love on the A.T.
S I SLID THE BOOK, “Love at First
Hike” by Michelle “Brownie” Pugh,
from its mailing package, it accidentally slipped from my hands and landed
with a thump on the floor. My first
thought about it was, that is one heavy book. Its
glossy cover features a picture of a smiling girl wearing a pack and striding down a trail. She looks happy
and the sun is shining.
Like all A.T. stories this one focuses on the daily
ins and outs of trail life — the fears, the planning and
the difficulty of walking every day for 2,100-plus
miles. She walks in rain,
sun, cold and heat. She
faces snowstorms, bears
and snakes. She explains
well what emotions a
prospective hiker might encounter while hiking the
trail. Her descriptive writing style is easy to read and
draws readers into the
story. However, this
ReVieW
reader’s opinion is that she
could have been less repetiVeRa huRst
“MiSSinG kink”
tive with her musings, thus
shortening the book.
In the first several chapters, readers clearly understand that from a young age and through her formative years as a Girl Scout, she dreams of hiking the
Appalachian Trail. Her goals for her hike are solidly
established as she plans a solo hike. We learn of her
commitment to be a “purist” (someone who hikes
every mile of the A.T.), to carrying her pack the
whole way and to walking only north. She struggles
with this as well as with physical illness and injury
during her first A.T. attempt until she can go no further. Also, on the first day of her hike, at Amicalola
Falls State Park in Georgia, she meets a male hiker
who becomes an important part of her journey. This
was something she had not planned on while preparing for her hike.
This really is a love story wrapped in one person’s
remembrances of their Appalachian Trail thru hike.
So, if you are a male, please consider this before
buying this book. Admittedly, the book is engaging
and this reviewer read every word of it. However, it
was not without some eye-rolling. The repetitive nature of her complaints, considerations and musings
while hiking the A.T. became tiresome to this reviewer. However, I believe that the process she went
through during her hike gives a realistic view of the
emotional rollercoaster many hikers go through
whenever they challenge themselves with a long
multi-day/multi-month hike.
What was most enjoyable about the book was
reading about the interactions she had with other hikers, her time at various shelters and descriptions of
town visits. When she becomes engaged with her environment and the wonder of being able to take two
years to hike the trail, that’s when the book becomes
interesting.
Her struggles with physical illnesses give evidence
of her indomitable spirit and huge will and desire to
finish her first A.T. thru-hike attempt. For her to
have walked as far as she did seems incredible. I give
huge kudos to her hiking partner for supporting her
during this part of her A.T. journey as the visible evidence of her struggles must have been heartbreaking.
She comes back the next year with her hiking partner to finish the trail and is healthy and strong. They
enjoy the trail much more since she is not in physical
pain. In this last section of the book, readers will understand that just because you’ve hiked 1,000-plus
miles, there are still challenges out there.
When a person considers hiking a long-distance
trail there are many logistics that have to be worked
out. However, the emotional challenges one encounters are often put off and downplayed with the idea
that they will be dealt with only when faced on the
trail. Pugh’s book provides prospective Appalachian
Trail thru-hikers with a clear vision of what you
might encounter — both physically and emotionally
— thus providing some food for thought on how you
might handle similar situations.
Everyone’s struggles are unique, thus, without
downplaying the accomplishment of hiking 2,100plus miles, many hike the trail with little but achy
feet, sore muscles and hunger. Many people who
have fewer rules about hiking will wrestle less when
encountering various difficulties.
However, without this strength of will, I doubt
that she would have finished the trail. So, I took this
lesson from this book. That it takes a lot of strength
both physically and mentally to accomplish one’s
dreams …. dreams of any kind.
In TV show, murder suspect was 1979 A.T. hiker
For what we believe was the first time ever, a
prime-time TV drama tapped the Appalachian Trail to
help solve a murder mystery.
In the “Woman in White” episode of “Bones” (aired
Oct. 14 on Fox), old remains of a 36-year-old woman
are found, and the clues to her killer involve a sharp
iron-carbide weapon of some sort, a fragment of very
hard wood not native to the U.S., multiple injuries on
chest bones, a 17-year cicada found in a sleeve, and
residue in the wounds from diverse animal and foliage
species ranging from Vermont to Georgia.
reaD paST iSSueS of
Give up?
Since the episode is pretty boring unless you’re a
fan, chances are we’re not going to ruin it for you by
telling you the rest of the story. (If you’re a fan, you’ve
already seen it five times anyway since apparently it
was the long-awaited wedding episode.)
The clues end up pointing to a woman A.T. hiker
in 1979 who killed her victim by stabbing her repeatedly in the chest with her steel-tipped hiking stick.
Case closed! Let the wedding commence!
fall 2013
Click here
— Bill O’Brien (not a fan of the show!)
summer 2013
Click here
spring 2013
Click here
fox
a scene from the tV show, ‘Bones,’ with the
body of an a.t. hiker’s victim on the table.
Winter 2012
Click here
fall 2012
Click here
34
Winter 2013
The ULTIMATE
TRAIL SONG
the sun shines brilliantly over Cito peak in the sangre de Cristo Mountains of philmont scout Ranch in northeastern new Mexico.
I
braDy S
A.T. thru-hiker captures essence of what we’re about
By BiLL O’BRien
editor-in-Chief
T MIGHT BE CONSIDERED the height of
heresy to suggest that a song other than one
written by Walkin’ Jim Stoltz could ever be
considered the greatest trail song ever written,
so here I go, down the highway of heresy.
I was deep in the doldrums in September 2011,
burned out over the planning and preparation for that
fall’s Gathering at MCLA and Williamstown, Mass.,
when I stumbled on a video celebrating that year’s
triple-crowners, a slideshow beautifully made by
Ryan Christensen with touching time span-like photos of each hiker perfectly set to three very appropriate pieces of music. It was the final musical set that
got me choked up like only a thru-hiker on Katahdin
can appreciate. The song was “I Don’t Mind” by
Peter Bingen and the Tobasco Donkeys.
So moved by the lyrics, the tune and the voice of
this songwriter, I used his work as the coda to that
year’s Gathering, the last piece of music in a Sunday
night slide show of our weekend, the first song being
“The Appalachian Trail” by the late Walkin’ Jim. I
wasn’t quite sure how the whole thing would go over
but the combination of photos taken by us — of us —
at our Gathering, and the beautiful lyrics that flowed
with those photos left a hush over the room as well
as a few tears here and there besides my own.
Written by an A.T. thru-hiker while working at
Philmont Scout Ranch in Cimarron, N.M., it’s been
dubbed Philmont’s “backcountry hymn,” a title more
universal than the staff there knows.
We recently caught up with Peter, a 39-year-old
originally from Lansing, Mich., who now has a wife
and son and lives in Santa Rosa, Calif., where he
still makes music of a sort — he handcrafts violins.
What did you do at Philmont? How many years?
I worked at Philmont for two years, first as a
Ranger (backcountry guide), and then as a trail construction foreman. My two summers there were three
years apart, and one of the years in between I hiked
the Appalachian Trail. (See photo on Page 35.)
First backpacking experience?
I first went backpacking with my Scout troop in
Michigan. We started with weekend trips, in preparation for longer trips in the Adirondacks and in New
Mexico at Philmont. I really fell in love with backpacking at Philmont, you could say it changed my
life, it inspired me to work at my local Scout camp
every summer during high school, and also to hike
the A.T. later on. When I first heard about thru-hiking as a teenager, I knew that I was going to do it.
How did the Tobasco Donkeys get their start?
The core members, headed by Larry McLaughlin,
started one summer at Philmont when they were all
working together in the backcountry. I don’t really
know the details, or the specific summer. They invited me to come and record “I Don’t Mind” for
their first album, because Larry and I were working
near each other in the backcountry during the summer that I wrote the song, and he really loved it,
and he was there when I first performed it.
What was your inspiration for the
song? Were you out hiking when
you composed it?
The summer that I wrote
the song I was working at
Philmont, overseeing a
trail construction site at
around 10,000 feet,
camped at a high pass, just me and another foreman.
Backpacking crews would hike through and do several hours of volunteer work at the site before continuing their journey. Deep in a valley below, Larry
McLaughlin was in charge of a remote camp where,
besides blacksmithing and touring old mines in the
area, they also had a campfire every night, where
peter
Bingen
Winter 2013
i Don’t Mind
© By Peter Bingen
Well i am looking, i am searching, i have found
near the ground, my soul, myself, beneath this trail.
There’s no other place i’d rather be,
Can’t you see me out here walkin’ in the rain and hail.
purpose of life it seems to me
is not to take yourself too seriously.
i wouldn’t want to be an old man sittin’ in an office building
Someplace far away, with worry on my face.
Well you can take my car, my stereo, my little money,
leave me with nothin’ but my trail family.
Take my dress-up clothes, my cheap cologne,
my college loans. i don’t mind, i don’t mind.
Well if that tax man comes lookin’, i’m at 10,000 feet
Cookin’ up some oatmeal or some rice and beans.
i worship the Spirit who doesn’t just look down
He looks up and through and all around,
find Him in the rocks and trees. Cause there’s no reason
to pray
When you wake up every day to the sunrise over Cito
peak.
So find some ground, lace up your boots, start walkin’
and you will find reason, enough reason to believe.
Well you can drop your worries at the parking lot
or way down in the city where the sun burns hot.
although civilization is a nice place to visit,
i wouldn’t want to live there.
(guitar solo)
oh just one final paragraph of advice:
Don’t burn yourselves out. be as i am.
it’s not enough to fight for the land.
it’s even more important to enjoy it while you can,
while it’s still here.
So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around.
ramble out yonder, explore the woods, encounter a
grizz,
Climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers,
breathe deep that yet sweet lucid air.
Sit quiet for a while, contemplate the precious stillness —
That mystery and awesome space. enjoy yourself,
keep your brain in your head and your head attached to
your body,
(your) body active and alive.
and i promise you this much, i promise you this one
sweet victory
over our enemies, over those desk-bound people with
their hearts
in a box and their eyes hypnotized by calculators.
i promise you this one sweet victory ...
you’ll ouTlive THe baSTarDS!!
35
they played music and told stories. I found myself at the
campfire a lot, drawn to the music and fun.
One day I had the idea to organize a rock opera with the
other staff members. Everyone agreed, and we put it together. We called it “Trail,” and it was a comedic sort of
melodrama about backcountry life at Philmont. All of the
songs were original, including some written by the other
guys on the cast. “I Don’t Mind” was the theme song of
the main character, a trail builder. I drew on my experiences at Philmont and also my time on the A.T. to write
the lyrics. The phrase “trail family” is directly from A.T.
culture.
For the opera, the song “I Don’t Mind” was originally
about building trail. When Larry asked me to record it a
year or two later, I changed a few words so that it was
more about hiking and backpacking. The last half of the
aTC Hiker arCHive
lyrics, as you may know (starting with “Just one final
peter as ‘sherpa the
paragraph of advice...”) are adapted from a speech given
Wet Dog’ during his
by Edward Abbey. That speech segment was a big inspira1994 a.t. thru-hike.
tion for the whole Conservation Department when I was at
Philmont. I found the words on the back of a previous
year’s Conservation Department summer T-shirt. I don’t know where the original
speech is, I haven’t been able to find it, but I’ve heard that it’s out there somewhere.
The funny thing is, I don’t think that I would ever have written the song — or it
would have come out much differently — if I wasn’t writing it for a fictional character
to sing.
As for the aims and ideals expressed in the song, I would say that my own life still
has a way to go, especially in terms of how much I’ve been able to get out camping
and hiking.
How long did it take you to write the words and music?
It all happened pretty quickly. I was messing around with the chords to Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” and got this new thing all of a sudden. I think the lyrics took
me about two days.
Who are your influences in terms of music?
Everything. In the Americana genre, I really love the voice, songs and playing style
of Norman Blake.
How many miles would you say you’ve hiked/backpacked?
Somewhere between 3-4K, probably.
Favorite place to camp?
This planet. I don’t think I could pick a favorite place, really.
Tell me about Cito Peak. It sounds like a really special place for you.
When I wrote “I Don’t Mind,” Cito Peak was the spot where the sun was coming
up every day. So really, it’s about the place where I was standing then: a high ridge
with a handful of peaks nearby, and the sun rising over one of them.
Favorite book by Edward Abbey?
A Fool’s Progress.
Seriously, oatmeal? Rice and beans? (lol) What’s your staple dinner when longdistance backpacking?
Whatever I can get. Protein and fat are amazing, if you can get it.
What kind of feedback have you gotten from this song? Has it surprised you at all?
I am totally humbled and amazed by how the song has touched people over the
years. Larry McLaughlin of the Tobasco Donkeys says that the song, and our creation
of “Trail” the rock opera, inspired him to follow his real passion and become a filmmaker. Another friend said that when he first heard the song at Philmont, it’s what inspired him to start playing guitar and music. That guy is now a better player than I am
or ever will be.
All I know is that it makes people who know the outdoors feel really good.
You can purchase a copy of “I Don’t Mind” and the album “Sawin’ on the Strings”
by the Tobasco Donkeys at http://www.thetobascodonkeys.com.
listen to the song “i Don’t mind” on youTube at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teytL3ggRi8
36
Winter 2013
Minutes of meetings
2013 aLDha annual Business Meeting
– DRaft Minutes
Sunday, oct. 13, 2013, in the auditorium of
Shippensburg university, Shippensburg, pa.
The meeting was called to order at 9:05 a.m. by
Coordinator mike Wingeart
The agenda was unanimously adopted as presented.
Since the minutes of the previous meeting have
been available online, the minutes were not
read at the meeting. The minutes were unanimously approved by voice vote.
The Coordinator’s report was given by mike
Wingeart.
eLeCtiOns
in the election of officers, kip redick was
elected to a two-year term as Coordinator, replacing mike Wingeart whose term expired.
randy anderson was elected to a two-year term
as assistant Coordinator, replacing kent Wilson.
Sue Spring was re-elected to a two-year term as
recording Secretary. The current interim Treasurer, mike Wingeart, was elected to a one-year
term as Treasurer. Wingeart previously replaced
rick Hatcher mid-term as Treasurer.
in the election of at-large board members, five
candidates ran for the five open positions — including ron bungay, rhea patrick, Jim Sample,
Jim niedbalski and ryan Hamler. Hamler and
patrick will serve one-year terms. bungay, Sample and niedbalski will serve two-year terms. a
current at-large board member, Judy young, remains on the board and serves as outreach Coordinator and co-merchandise Coordinator with
ryan Hamler. mike then expressed his thanks to
kent Wilson and noel DeCavalcante for their
service to the alDHa board as their terms have
expired.
RepORts
The Treasurer’s report was given by mike
Wingeart.
The membership report was given by robert
Sylvester.
The Companion report was given by robert
Sylvester.
The newsletter report was given by bill
o’brien.
The museum report was given by larry luxenberg.
The aTC report was given by ron Tipton and
laurie potteiger.
The gathering program Coordinator’s report
was given by kip redick.
“CrookeD STiCkS” H. Dean Clark
an artistic look at sunday morning’s business meeting at the shippensburg 2013 Gathering.
The gathering facility Coordinator’s report was
given by mike Wingeart.
The Campsite Coordinator’s report was given
by Chuck Wood.
The Work Trip reminder was given by kent Wilson.
The call for submission of gathering critiques
and Hiking Diploma forms was given by mike
Wingeart
OLD Business
no items were noted.
neW Business
mike Wingeart deferred discussion of the new
alDHa Search and rescue concept to the
group’s afternoon meeting.
ResOLutiOns
motion made by mike Wingeart:
in grateful recognition of Shippensburg university hosting our 2013 gathering, we wish to
thank randy Hammond and the rest of the staff
for their cooperation and hospitality.
unanimously approved.
hOnORaRy Life MeMBeRship
This year’s award of an Honorary life membership was given to bob peoples in recognition of
his total commitment to the appalachian Trail
community through his Hard Core work trips and
longtime operation of kincora Hostel where
20,000 hikers have found a wonderfully friendly
respite over the past 17 years.
breaking from the tradition of naming only one
Honorary life member at a gathering, bill
o’brien stepped up and gave the group’s hardworking outgoing Coordinator mike Wingeart an
Honorary life membership, in recognition of
Wingeart’s extraordinary work for the organization over the past three years.
annOunCeMents
in announcements, mike Wingeart announced
the following dates and locations:
a. The 2014 gathering will be in Williamstown,
mass., oct. 10-13, 2014 (Columbus Day Weekend).
B. The Spring Steering Committee meeting will
be at bears Den Hostel, april 5, 2014.
final blaze presentations were made by Chuck
Wood in the memory of: Steve longley, the kennebec river ferryman; robert accola, “lucky
10;” robie Hensley, “Jumpstart;” bill evans,
franklin n.C. shuttle service; Joe anastasia,
“vermont Joe;” and John fletcher, aTC.
outgoing Coordinator mike Wingeart passed the
official alDHa “metal man” (the aluminum
cutout of our logo for podiums) to the incoming
Coordinator kip redick.
The alDHa board meeting is scheduled from
3 to 5 p.m. today in Cub 103.
at the close of the meeting, H. Dean “Crooked
Sticks” Clark put up on the screen a “rap ode
to mike,” composed by Dean, vera Hurst,
Wayne krevetski and kathy krevetski.
The meeting was adjourned at 11 a.m.
respectfully submitted,
sue spring
alDHa recording Secretary
Winter 2013
2013 steering Committee Meeting
— DRaft Minutes
oct. 13, 2013, Shippensburg university, Shippensburg, pa., 3 p.m.
attendees: alDHa board members: kip redick,
Coordinator; randy anderson, assistant Coordinator; robert Sylvester, membership Secretary;
mike Wingeart, Treasurer; Sue Spring, recording Secretary; at-large board members: Current
– Judy young; two-year term – ron bungay, Jim
niedbalski, and Jim Sample; one-year term –
ryan Hamler and rhea patrick. others: mike
Cunningham, noel DeCavalcante, Tom evans,
pete lane, Hawk metheny, bill o’brien, Jack
Tarlin and greg Walter.
The meeting was opened at 3 p.m. by the newly
elected Coordinator, kip redick.
The agenda was approved by voice vote.
The reading of the minutes of the Steering Committee meeting from april 13, 2013, was dispensed with, since these minutes have been
available online for several months. The minutes
were approved by voice vote.
BOaRD appOintMents
The new alDHa board officers were introduced
RespeCt fOR OtheRs, in peRsOn anD OnLine
Over the summer the board approved the following policy:
The appalachian long Distance Hikers association welcomes diversity in all its
forms, including views expressed by other members of the trail community, provided those views treat other people with respect. Whether it's in the form of spoken comments at a gathering or other alDHa functions, or written comments on
our website, in our newsletter or on other alDHa platforms, disrespect for others
shall not be tolerated. The coordinator, in consultation with the board, may ask a
person to leave the alDHa gathering (or other alDHa functions) for violating this
policy; and the editors of the alDHa newsletter, website, Companion, online social
networks and other alDHa media, in consultation with the coordinator, may decline or delete comments that violate this policy.
trail Days hiker Reception – Trailangelmary
(mary parry)
2015 atC Biennial hiker Reception – n/a
yahoo aLDha Group – mark Hudson
aLDha facebook page – mike Wingeart, bill
o’brien, Shane o’Donnell and robert “Sly”
Sylvester
hostel notebooks – see item 6
Selection of coordinators:
2000 Miler Certificate/patches/Ceremony –
ron bungay and laurie potteiger
2014 Directory editor – Sly to compile data,
bill o’brien to handle layout
southeastern foothills Coalition assistant –
randy anderson
2015 Companion editor – robert “Sly”
Sylvester
2014 aLDha Brochure – bill o’brien
2014 Display Boards – there are now 2 boards;
kip redick to do “content;” gray Jay will use
one for outreach; if a 3rd board is needed, mike
Wingeart will build it for randy anderson.
Work Crew Coordinator – established a Work
Crew Subcommittee (worktrip@aldha.org), consisting of randy anderson, chairman; ron bungay and Jim niedbalski.
aLDha Care – established to provide help for
shelters, when the shelter management has requested/authorized assistance. Sly, randy,
grayJay and Jim will draw up alDHa Care
guidelines to be reviewed at the 2014 Spring
Steering Committee meeting. as part of alDHa
Care, grayJay will contact all of the hostel owners on the list early in 2014 and work out the
provision/updating of the alDHa Hostel notebooks. There are 56 hostels on the list
a.t. services – mark Hudson
program Coordinator – randy anderson
facility Coordinator – Jim niedbalski
newsletter editor – bill o’brien
Merchandise Coordinator – ryan Hamler, with
grayJay going to numerous events
Webmaster – bill o’brien
Outreach Coordinator – grayJay
a.t. Museum Representatives – noel DeCavalcante and bill o’brien
honorary Life and final Blaze Committee –
bill o’brien, noel DeCavalcante and Chuck
Wood
37
southeastern foothills Coalition Board Member – kip redick
aLDha saR (search and Rescue) – see
Steering Committee notes following this section
steeRinG COMMittiee nOtes
alDHa pavilion update, name, Signage: The
pavilion will be called the “Waynesboro alDHa
Hiker pavilion.” “gourmet Dave” Hennel will
make a box for the register and alDHa information. kip redick will decide the dedication date,
most likely right after Damascus Trail Days.
appropriated Money
final Blazes – money amount for this item to be
on the agenda at the 2014 SSCm
trail Days Reception – Trailangelmary —
$300, possibly more TbD at 2014 SSCm.
trail Days tent space — $400. estimate
Work trips — $150 each, to a total of $600.
opportunities include: hostel, boundary, Hard
Core, aT museum, rpHvC, monday after the
gathering, and others.
hostel notebooks update and add more
B&Bs and outfitters – startup cost $200 plus
postage.
Display Boards — $75
Coordinator expenses — $500 budgeted.
Membership secretary expenses — $500
budgeted.
treasurer expenses — $500 budgeted.
aLDha trail Magic (planning to do 2 venues in
2014) — $125 per site ($250 total).
Warrior hikes – more data to be available in
the spring 2014.
payment for Gathering speaker expenses –
Hawk metheny suggested in the future alDHa
could consider having a one-page contract with
the gathering speaker to define the details of
the agreement.
increase the size of the aLDha Board – no
action taken at this time.
aLDha search and Rescue (saR) – a total of
23 individuals have signed up as being interested in this proposed program. mike Wingeart
will pursue details.
Change spring steering Committee Meeting
date from april to november, to avoid a delay in
taking action on board-related matters. no satisfactory date could be arrived at for november
2013, but many board members verbalized the
wish to meet earlier in the year to get moving on
matters of interest/importance to the group. possible use of Skype or google Hangout was mentioned.
Contact information Sheet needed for new
Hampshire secretary of state.
Conflict of interest sheet – signed during the
meeting.
2015 Gathering site – the site location is being
worked on.
trail fest attendance: This item may be on the
agenda for the proposed november board meeting. Soruck, noruck, new england ruck, aT
kickoff, franklin, Hot Springs, marion, Trail
Days, a.T. museum banquet, Duncannon,
millinocket end of Trail festival.
new business – Hawk metheny, from the aTC
new england regional Headquarters told the
group the aTC is exploring the idea of establishing a fund to honor “the ferryman,” the late
Steve longley, who for many years paddled the
canoe transporting hikers over the kennebec
river in maine. metheny noted proposed costs
for local provision of this service are estimated
near $28,000 annually. metheny mentioned possibly setting up a fund to support the cost of this
service, and asked for financial support from
alDHa. action on the matter was tabled.
meeting adjourned at 5:10 p.m.
respectfully submitted,
sue spring
recording Secretary
38
Winter 2013
ALDHA ALMANAC
Where to email officers, other key people
aLDha Coordinator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . kip redick . . . . . . . . . . . . “Hippy kippy” . . . . . . coordinator@aldha.org
assistant Coordinator . . . . . . . . . . . . randy anderson . . . . . . . “Chuck norris” . . . . . . . assistant@aldha.org
treasurer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . mike Wingeart . . . . . . . . . “Wing-Heart” . . . . . . . . treasurer@aldha.org
Membership secretary . . . . . . . . . . . robert Sylvester . . . . . . . “Sly” . . . . . . . . . . . . membership@aldha.org
Recording secretary . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sue Spring . . . . . . . . . . . . “Mama Lipton” . . . . . . recording@aldha.org
Gathering program Coordinator . . . randy anderson . . . . . . . “Chuck norris” . . . . . . . program@aldha.org
Gathering facility Coordinator . . . . . Jim niedbalski . . . . . . . . . “High Octane” . . . . . . . . . facility@aldha.org
Gathering Campsite Coordinator . . . eric White . . . . . . . . . . . . “Mini Mart” . . . . . . . . . . campsite@aldha.org
Companion editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . robert Sylvester . . . . . . . “Sly” . . . . . . . . . . . . . companion@aldha.org
newsletter editor & Webmaster . . . . bill o'brien . . . . . . . . . . . . “Sprained rice” . . . . . newsletter@aldha.org
Work trip Coordinator . . . . . . . . . . . . ron bungay . . . . . . . . . . . “Yellow Shoes”. . . . . . . worktrip@aldha.org
Merchandise Coordinators . . . . . . . . Judy young & ryan Hamler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . merchandise@aldha.org
Outreach Coordinator . . . . . . . . . . . . Judy young . . . . . . . . . . . “Gray Jay” . . . . . . . . . . outreach@aldha.org
a.t. Museum Representative . . . . . . noel DeCavalcante . . . . . “Singing Horseman” . . . museum@aldha.org
aLDha’s
four-fold
statement
of purpose
iPhone
I
To represent
and promote
the welfare of
the appalachian long
distance hiking
community.
Android
II
To provide
service in a
cooperative
spirit with other
appalachian
hiking organizations.
III
To provide education on the
use and
preservation of
appalachian
long distance
trails.
IV
To provide
opportunities for
interaction and
camaraderie within
the appalachian
long distance
hiking community.
hOpe tO see yOu
in the DiReCtORy!
The oldest and best directory of long-distance hikers
is being put together right
now for publication in early
2014. if you need to update
the trails you’ve hiked, your
address, email or trail name,
do it nOW. mail the form on
page 42 with your dues or
do it online (and also pay
online) at this link.
WeB upDates
photo Gallery
We created an alDHa photo
gallery on the share website
flickr so you can get a good
look at yourselves online. ;-)
the Companion
We have posted supplemental
information to go with your copy
of the 2014 edition including
post office hours and other info.
the aLDha store
new stuff like colorful bandanas
and a ceramic mug have been
added to the online store.
Hike In Harmony
Appalachian Long Distance Hikers Association
aLDha’s enDanGeReD seRViCes CaMpaiGn
the at hiKeR app
Guthook’s Guides and aLDha have
teamed up to bring you a new way to
plan and carry out your hike along the
appalachian trail using an
app for either the iphone or
android platform. it taps into
the latest info from aLDha’s
A.T. Thru-Hikers’ Companion
and all the technical info you
will need from actual Gps measurements of the trail by the app’s creator,
Ryan Linn, aka “Guthook.” a portion of
the proceeds support aLDha’s trail programs. scan the QR code above or visit
www.sierraattitude.com/athikerapp/
nearly 20 years ago, at the 1994 gathering in Hanover, n.H., then-Coordinator ron
keal convened a panel discussion on hiker
behavior after a spate of incidents over the
previous year and a half had threatened or
forced the closure of community gazebos
and pavilions in Dalton and Sheffield, mass.,
and Ceres, va.
afraid other useful hiker services would
soon face a similar fate, the roundtable discussion came up with a few ideas, including
the appointment of an ad hoc committee that
would look into the matter further to see what
alDHa could do.
Thus was born the endangered Services
Campaign, an effort that continues to this
day in the form of the “Hike in Harmony”
bumper sticker (seen above and still available in the alDHa Store) as well as other offshoots. The yahoo support group for hostels
(inset box) and the alDHa Cares program,
yahOO suppORt GROup
The yahoo aT Services group was created by alDHa around 2005 to enhance
contact among appalachian Trail service
providers such as hostels, stores and
other groups or businesses. The list is
private, invitation only, and free. it has
been used to communicate about problem hikers, extreme weather, trail closures, lost or overdue hikers, and
sometimes just good news! if you’re a
service provider and would like information on how to join the list, contact its
creator, past alDHa Coordinator mark
Hudson, at mvhudson@gmail.com.
whereby alDHa members volunteer to help
spell hostel owners in the busy hiker season,
can also be considered part of the campaign.
APPALACHIAN LONG DISTANCE HIKERS ASSOCIATION
STORE CATALOG
Wintertime gifts
for the hikers
on your list
Commemorate their hike!
Plus get free shipping on
orders over $50 til Jan. 1.
Visit the ALDHA Store at www.aldha.org/store
What’s New in the ALDHA Store
A. ALDHA Ceramic Coffee Mug
Unique Handmade Ceramic Coffee Mug with
ALDHA Logo. No two are exactly alike! Created
and handcrafted especially for ALDHA by Bill
Van Gilder, son of the late trail legend Jean Cashin,
in his shop just a potter’s throw from the Appalachian Trail in Maryland. $25.
Detail of the
imprint on the
mug at left
A.
B. ALDHA Bandana
100% Cotton ALDHA Bandana in 10 different
colors. Choose red, royal, yellow, gold, gray, green,
orange (shown), light blue, light pink or purple. $5.
C. The 2014 edition of the Appalachian Trail
Thru-hikers’ Companion
The 21st edition of the Appalachian Trail ThruHikers’ Companion will soon be available, however
delivery before Christmas cannot be guaranteed. It
would make a fine gift for the new year. $14.95.
B.
C.
D.
D. ALDHA Tote Bag
Going from workshop to workshop at the 2013
Gathering in Shippensburg, Pa., became a little
easier thanks to this handy tote bag. $6.
E. Gift Membership in ALDHA
Fill out the registration information for your
intended recipient at www.aldha.org/join.html and
pay online with PayPal, or use the form on Page 42
and mail with your check to ALDHA, then print
out, trim and fill in the certificate below to give the
recipient as a gift. $10 per year.
E.
This is to certify that
a Gift Membership in ALDHA
for
Has Been Entered for One Year
#
print out and trim
this certificate, fill
in the names and
put it in a no. 63⁄4
envelope as a
stocking stuffer
or for any other
gift-giving
occasion.
(Be sure to send
us the recipient’s
information and
pay for the gift.
See item e.)
Presented by
page 40
Order Form
name __________________________________________________________________________________
address ________________________________________________________________________________
City _______________________________________
phone ____________________________________
iteM
Quantity
(fill this in)
Ceramic coffee mug
bandana
2014 Companion
State ___________
zip _____________________
email _____________________________________
siZe
s, M, L, xL, 2xL
Color:
pRiCe
$25.00
$14.95
$6.00
men’s royal blue polo shirt
$28.00
men’s hunter green polo
$28.00
$28.00
Women’s royal blue polo
$28.00
Women’s hunter green polo
$16.00
30th anniversary T-shirt
Wicking navy blue T-shirt
gray fleece vest, black trim
n/a
Short sleeve T-shirt
n/a
green nylon jacket
$35.00
$16.00
$19.00
$15.00
n/a
Coaster
$11.00
n/a
mouse pad
$11.00
n/a
katahdin paperweight
katahdin pin
n/a
$39.00
n/a
$39.00
$10.00
n/a
Springer paperweight
Springer pin
$10.00
n/a
n/a
Silver - gold - black
n/a
“i brake” bumper sticker
n/a
alDHa member decal
n/a
To purchase any of the items shown in the alDHa Store, visit
the new online store at http://www.aldha.org/store or print out a
copy of this form, fill in quantity, size (if applicable), subtotals
and total, and mail it with your check to:
aLDha
10 Benning st. pMB 224
West Lebanon, nh 03784
$36.00
n/a
ball cap
Harmony bumper sticker
$21.00
n/a
long-sleeve T-shirt
alDHa hat pin (pick color)
(fill this in)
$5.00
Tote bag
alDHa patch
suBtOtaL
page 41
$3.00
$4.00
$1.50
$1.50
$1.50
shippinG ChaRGes
Subtotal
Shipping
up to $3 . . . . . . . . $1
$3.01-$15 . . . . . . $4
$15.01-$30 . . . . . $8
$30.01-$50. . . . . $11
$50.01 and up . . $15
Subtotal: $
Shipping: $
Total: $
Make check/M.O. payable to ALDHA
formS To fill ouT anD mail
42
Winter 2013
On this page and on Page 41 are forms you can fill out and mail back to us if you prefer to use snail mail. On this side are a
registration form to renew your membership and a workshop presenter’s form to put on a workshop at the 2014 Gathering.
On Page 41 is an order form for merchandise from the ALDHA Store.
2014 Membership Renewal and Gathering Registration
v if you want to be sure to get in the 2014 Directory, mail this form by Jan. 1, 2014 v
name(s) ______________________________________________ Current member yes q no q
Date ________ / _______ / ________
address ______________________________________________ City, State, zip _____________________________________________________
Telephone (with area code) _______________________________ email address ____________________________________________________
Trail name(s) _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Trails completed and years they were hiked _____________________________________________________________________________________
i would like to help alDHa with: The gathering q Companion field editor q Trail Work q publications q publicity q alDHa Care q
Memberships are $10 per family per calendar year or $200 for lifetime membership. memberships filed after Sept. 30 will also include the following year.
number of years _______________ x $10 per year = $_______________
lifetime membership $200 (Does not include yearly gathering registration fees.)
Gathering preregistration is $20 per person, only $50 for families of 3 or more
Children under 13 free!
= $_______________
Donations to alDHa, a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, are tax deductible.
amount of donation: $ ______________ total enclosed: $_______________
how would you like your aLDha publications delivered?
newsletter q pDf in email (with color) q paper (b&W)
membership
Directory q pDf in email (with color) q paper (b&W)
Go Green: PDFs reduce clutter and save money and trees.
if attending the gathering, please mail your payment no later than sept. 15 to aLDha, 10 benning St., pmb 224, West lebanon, nH 03784
or, register online at https://secure.jotform.com/form/10562609918
Questions? . . . email membership@aldha.org
12/13
Workshop presenter’s form for 2014 aLDha Gathering
v
v
v Deadline for submission: SepT. 1, 2014 v
v
v
name ________________________________ phone ____________________ e-mail __________________________
street address ___________________________________ City, state, Zip __________________________________
title of presentation ____________________________________________ approximate Length ________________
type of presentation (workshop, slide show, panel discussion, etc.) _________________________________________
Briefly describe how your presentation should be explained in the program: ______________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________
What, if any, is desired day and time of presentation? (i.e., Saturday afternoon, etc.) _________________________
please mail this no later than sept. 1, 2014, to: alDHa, 10 benning St., pmb 224, West lebanon, nH 03784
JU LY
JANUARY
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FEBRUARY
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APRIL
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Northern Ruck at Bears
Den Hostel, Bluemont, Va.
April 5
ALDHA Spring Meeting,
Bears Den Hostel, Va.
April 11-13 Trailfest, Hot Springs, N.C.
May 16-18 Appalachian Trail Days,
Damascus, Va.
June 6
A.T. Hall of Fame banquet
in Boiling Springs, Pa.
June 7
National Trails Day at A.T.
Museum, Gardners, Pa.
Sept. 12-14 Trail’s End Festival,
Millinocket, Maine
Oct. 10-12 ALDHA’s 33rd annual
Gathering, Williams College, Williamstown, Mass.
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10
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SEP TEMBER
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OCTOBER
Key Dates to Remember
Jan. 17-19 Southern Ruck at Nantahala Outdoor Center, N.C.
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AUGUST
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March 7-9 Appalachian Trail KickOff,
Amicalola Falls, Ga.
JUNE
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Jan. 31 to
Feb. 2
MAY
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2014
Appalachian Long Di ance Hikers Association
10 Benning St., PMB 224
We Lebanon, NH 03784
www.aldha.org
MARCH
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NOVEMBER
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DECEMBER
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44
Winter 2013
MaRK yOuR CaLenDaRs nOW fOR . . .
the 33RD annuaL
GatheRinG
extreme adventurer andrew skurka speaks at the 2011 Gathering inside the 62 Center on the Williams College campus.
Oct. 10-12, 2014,
at Williams College in
Williamstown, Mass.
you can help us out a lot by visiting the alDHa website and
downloading a pDf of the alDHa brochure, seen here. please
print out a few copies and distribute them to your friends and
other hikers. We know they’ll thank you for it if they’ve never been
to a gathering before and choose the 2014 event as their first.
We will have a fantastic campsite and host college (see story on
page one), and we’re working on a great lineup of programs.
Click image of the cover to go directly to the brochure!
H. Dean Clark

Winter 2013 - The Appalachian Long Distance Hikers Association

Transcription

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