It's a Crash! Bang! is a Thru-Hiker Than g!

“Miles needed to complete thru-hike of Appalachian Trail, morning of 3-21-04: 2,174.1

Miles needed to complete thru-hike of Appalachian Trail, morning of 10-10-04: 0

Knowing that you've come through for everyone who believed in you, and proved wrong those who didn't (they know who they are): Priceless

For everything else, hike your own hike.”

“Congrats dude!”

“Groovy”

“I knew you could do it!”

“Congrats man! I knew you could do it all along.”

“its in indiana”

“congrats, toots. see u next weekend.”

“Congrats!!!!!!! We are so proud of you!!! OMG I knew you had it in you :) Looking forward to having you hang out with us again. I should make you a special dinner with beer and everything :D”

“Good deal Scott!

But what are you gonna do NOW!?”

“Congrats!”

“Awesome man! I knew you could do it.”

“Congrats to you. I enjoyed reading about your journey and I hope the experience was meaningful to you.”

“it was kind of anti-climactic ending on a country road on the new york/connecticut border with just me and treebeard instead of on top of the big k with all the other thru-hikers that suffered and bled with me. however, it is appropriate, because i owe a HUGE debt of gratitude to the trees. from transcbribing my journal to drying and mailing me food, to taking me in this summer when i lost my bankcard, and hiking with me at the finish and bringing me back to their house again, i hope someday i can truly show how grateful i am. thank you treebeard and mapleleaf”

“You cannot stay on the summit forever:
You have to come down again.
So why bother in the first place?
Just this: What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above.
One climbs, one sees, one descends, one sees no longer.
But one has seen.
There is an art of conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one has seen higher up.
When one can no longer see, one can at least still know.

Rene Daumal - Mount Analogue”

“I know I speak for my wife and myself when I say that it was our pleasure to pitch in where we could.

With that, here's a brief trip report from this weekend and I will try and get the pictures up before I hunker down to work this morning. I had to go it alone Saturday morning as Mapleleaf decided to be one of the first people in the nation to kick off flu season. So, I packed up some food and some celebration refreshments for Crash and I, threw them in the pack and headed up towards the Conneciccut border. Met up with Crash mid to late morning near Pawling, New York to finish up the last eight miles of the Appalachian trail.

It was a fairly easy hike with not much more than a 650' elevation gain. There were no overlooks on this portion of the trail, but hey, what can you do? The trail was pretty in most spots. Not too much muck except in spotty places. Found a nice spot along the way for lunch. I got some really tasty, fresh New York bagels and make a chicken sandwich on them for each of us, figuring that Scotty would just love a treat like that. Well, as I figured, he tore into that like he hasn't eaten in six months. Wait a minute! For all intents and purposes, he hasn't eaten in six months!

Anyhow, we took a nice pace getting to the shelter, which was about a mile and a quarter shy of the finish point. There was a group of guys from New Jersey camped at the shelter when we got there. So, we set up camp nearby. Nice dudes and later on we joined them around their fire. First, we cooked up some chili I had dehydrated and had some cup 'o' soup with it. Then, indulged in a spin-off concoction of Bobo's TNT mix. Cutty Sark and raspberry iced tea. tasty!! Then, we went over to the shelter where these guys were checking out the Yankee game, which had a nice ending.

The next morning, we had an easy hike out and it was great to see the elation that Crash was experiencing. I felt so good for him. It was really quite a moment. I got some pics I will post soon. At this point, we decided that getting back to the city and watching football would be in order, so we hitched a ride back to the car and headed out for the Big Apple.”

“"mid to late morning" my ass. it was almost noon, shlobo. : P

i also learned cheap jewish cemetary traditioins”

“wildlife on this trip included lots of fireflies at the shelter”

“for those interested the route was AT train station at 22/55 to hoyt road on the state line, with a stay at wiley shelter. cheap jewish traditions were learned at "gates of heaven cemetary". total 7.2 miles, or about a third of a typical day in virginia”

“SHeesh! Technicalities...”

“And what's so wrong with putting rocks on the grave stones? You hike in there with a bouquet of flowers!!”

“that sounds like a challenge”

“6 bear
1 bare thru-hiker
1 moose
1 rattler
3 copperheads
literally a ton of deer
1 bobcat
1 woodchuck
a handful of groundhogs
several fireflies
a million meandering momos”

“You forgot your little frog!”

“saw lots of frogs”

“whats a momo?”

“omg you live with mike and you dont know what a momo is

what are you, some kind of f*cking momo? (best joe pesci voice)”

“Isn't that like a popo?”

“guys, i'm totally lost :S”

“So am I and I was with him all weekend!”

“Outstanding! 2 thumbs up.

What next?”

“btw, the whites were spectacular. not a drop of rain from moosilauke to carter, clear skies every day. they also kicked my ass. i had a 10 mile day from lake of the clouds hut to osgood campsite that was way worse than any 20plus mile day.

virginia was my favorite state. great food and hostels, plus a variety of scenery and wildlife meant great southern hospitality. followed closely by maine, then new hampshire, which couldve have been first or second if it wasnt for all the freaking tourists (momos). vermont, connecicut, and massachusetts round out the top 6. im still working on the rest of the list. pa is no doubt my 14th favorite state. nc and nj are battling for the 7th spot”

“Every time I drive somewhere with Treebeard, we get lost.”

“I htink he should do the PCT next..you know so he can report to us which trail was harder/tougher/better...”

“West Virginia musta bean tough.~8^)”

“when i get my act together in the real world i wanna learn to lead-climb. ive already top-roped in wv”

“f the real world :) Bping IS as real as it gets :D”

“harpers ferry was cool, but i thought the guy at the hostel was rude”

“Did ya stop at The Outfitter At Harpers Ferry?”

“favorite hostels:
miss janets, erwin, tn
kinkora, hampton, tn
blueberry patch, hiawassee, ga
woods hole, pearisburg, va
terrapin station, front royal, va
blackburn center, near harpers ferry
upper goose pond cabin, on the trail in massachusetts
hikers welcome, glencliff, nh
shaws (best breakfast EVER!), monson, me
white house landing, 100 mile wilderness, me

did not stay at but heard rave reviews about:

standing bear farm, just after the smokies for nobos
rustys hard time hollow, just before shenandoah for nobos
the cabin, andover, me

my apologies for anyone left off the list that deserved to be there”

“yea i got a new buckle or something or other replaced/fixed there by the (in)famous baltimore jack!”

“CB sasha wants to say HI!”

“Pics are up!

http://community.webshots.com/album/198617361ZwILZN”

“Nice legs, Crash Bang!”

“Nice Doors ref.

So the treeman made Crash ride in the back of the truck? LOL, Mr. Stinky?

2Scoops/StormBringer/CrashBang/C!B! looks so slim!

OK Scott, what do we call you now? Crash Bang is OK, but all this change is kinda hard on us 'old' folks. ;-)


Please type up and list all the stuff in your pack at the end of your trip. It would be a great help to lightweigh hikers.
Still can't beleive you carried that 2# Bear Can the whole way! ;-)

Congrads!!!!!! I had faith in you!”

“i dont think i would be that much help to lightweight packers.”

“hey tree, mind if I borrow one of those pics?”

“weigh your empty food bag and rope together, then think of all the expended energy saved not having to bear-bag and tell me what you think”

“LOL, well that bear can is heavy.
I have one like it also now.
Used it in the Wind River Range this summer.”

“Go for it, Spirit!”