redtree_innerview_guitar_freak redtree a friend of mine did the appalachian trail last year. he had hundreds of digital fotos and almost as many stories. what are some of your most memorable experiences? 051106 ... guitar_freak Well, I only spent two weeks on the AT (appalachian trail). I only had enough time to hike the section in Georgia (about 80 miles). I had many memorable experiences though. The weather and the people were by far the most interesting. When I started the trail, I began with two of my friends at the trail head. We were dropped off with a man named Rehab. Rehab was a jolly 300 pound man who gave my friends and I our trail name. The people who dropped us off wanted to take our picture and Rehab said that he couldn't be in the picture with us because he told his wife he was going hiking and that he didn't want her to see him with the Hooters Girls. I didn't know whether or not to be offended, but the name spread down the trail and soon people would start hooting when we would walk into camp at night. Rehab later sprained his ankle really bad and we had to call 911 from someone's cell phone on the top of a mountain. 5 hours later an EMT and a local dude came up on an ATV and took him to the hospital. That same night, the day before Easter, a man hiked up the mountain with M&Ms, apples, and oranges to give to the hikers. People such as him are called trail angels because they do the most unexpected, wonderful things. The weather was ridiculous. One night it started raining, the hailing, then sleeting. I was in my tent for the night, but the next morning it was snowing. I got out of camp and just started hiking, wearing shorts and a tank top. The wind picked up and it was sleeting all day. Since the temperature was only about 20 I was really cold, but i kept going because I didn't want to freeze or get my few warm clothes wet. When I got to the next shelter I jumped into my sleeping bag and put on all my warm dry clothes. I didn't move for 17 hours. that night, the mice came out and would run over my head and body, but if I moved to get them away, the cold air would invade my sleeping bag. The next day it was 80 degrees... The other, perhaps most memorable event, was meeting a man named Bramble and his black labrador- Chase. I had set up camp for the last night in an isolated location. It was dusk and all of the sudden my friend and I see this HUGE muscley man who is wearing nothing except a kilt, a massive knife, and hiking boots headed to our site. He sat down, uninvited, and proceeded to create the largest fire I've seen on the AT. He said he was an ex-army ranger who decided to hike for cancer patients for 5 years. He was covered in tattoos of cancer ribbons and his toenails had been manicured pink with breast cancer ribbons and rhinestones. My friend was holding her can of mace the entire time as he told us stories of threatening to hang people upside down in their sleeping bags with food stashed underneath their hanging body. Bramble was so ripped that he could have done it easily too. I was sooooo scared. Eventually, he left our site in the dark, much to our relief- and we left the trail for home the next morning. 051106 ... guitar_freak ohh yeah, and the trail is sparkley because of the mica. My boots are still glittery 051106 what's it to you? who go blather from