Hiker Hopefuls


The hiking season is now in swing, and I’ve been skimming lots of trail journal entries looking for some interesting hikers to follow. On the CDT, Sidewinder has just reached Pie Town:

I arrive here hoping to get to town so I can eat a meal in the local diner, of which there are 2. Since 1 closed in 30 minutes, I said I will be right back. They asked if I wanted a shower and I said sure, but I want a grilled cheese more. Nita said she would make it for me so go take a shower. While I was cleaning 2 weeks of dirt and sunscreen off, don made green chili and autumn buttered bread. Shortly after I emerged, I had my fill of grilled cheese with green chili. Plus my clothes were in the wash.

So, there in a very short nutshell is what trail angels do.

On the PCT, the janetor drank from a puddle:

Krispie scouted out some water near Pyramid Creek: “Janetor, bring your ladle — there’s a puddle here, but hurry up, it’s evaporating quickly!” I managed to ladle 1 1/2 qts. This water smelled like a mixture of algae & dog shit. We added iodine to get rid of the taste. we were also worried we had just ladled hikers piss, or worse. it was really disgusting, but we were desperate.

And I still wish I were out there with them…


5 responses to “Hiker Hopefuls”

  1. You’re right! We’re always getting lost without adequate clothing, looking around for someone else’s gear to pilfer for matches so we can start a great big fire and be rescued!!! Maybe that’s what we’ll do this weekend!

  2. I just.. i mean, i hate to hear about people dying in the outback. but wtf? i just don’t get it. these complete f!cking gapers and grizwald’s just start tramping around… wth is that? why?

    i mean, i’d like to scuba dive but i wouldnt’ just put on a buncha scuba gear and go do it (never having done it before).

    as fer the 60 y.o. dude that died, what a bunch of irony that those found his last camp. i mean, that is amazingly ironic. and what about them thinking someone was there and the slow realization that that person’s stuff was old and that the journal entry clearly indicated fatality? shit! i mean SHIT!

    i dunno. my whole life i have very very cautious, to a fault. errored on the side of caution. i’ve never broken a bone, never reeeally imperiled my life (well, there’s been a couple of times). i just don’t see how a 28 y.o. man and a 25 y.o. woman could subject themselves to such a hardship. how? HOW? HOW DO YOU F! UP THAT BADLY?

    and that Donovan guy, that was a fairly ‘big’ thing around here / the Internet. i saw his pics, etc., floating around at the time of his disappearence. he “vanished”.

    so yeah, i dunno. the whole thing is rather ironic to me. i would love to talk to those 2 and just berate them for hours about what a couple of quats they are.

  3. “We’re always getting lost without adequate clothing,…”

    that’s prolly more by design than stupidity. *cough*

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