Gilligan on the AT Revisited: 07-Aug-1993
August 7, 2008
This is a 5-month long series of blog posts that are the entries in my journals written on most evenings as I hiked the Appalachian Trail in 1993. The journal entry appears first — indented — and then any additional commentary from my 15-years-removed perspective follows.
8/7/93 – Sat.
Wednesday I hiked to Wind Gap & stayed at the Gateway Motel (dump ). I needed to get to a phone for several reasons, so I wound up having to stay there.
Thursday, I hiked to Delaware Water Gap, where I took Friday off at the hostel. I caught Silver City Snail, Yoram Goldhammer, Shoeless Mare, & Roadrunner there. Thursday night, RR, SM, Antaeus, The Hawaiian Hikers, & I feasted at a potluck dinner that was celebrating the end of Delaware Water Gaps’s Bicentennial Week. Friday, Scout & Cloud came out to visit and took me to lunch.
Today, I hiked 24.7 miles through some rain to get to a shelter that now has 22 people staying at it. There is a group of boys from one camp, a group of girls from another camp, one older fellow from Princeton, and me. The boys are damp, the girls are soaked . There actually seems like there could be some danger with at least one of the girls being wet & cold. These people are unprepared & clueless. If the group was smaller and/or more responsible seeming, I might offer some dry clothes, but, to be selfish, I don’t trust them, and I refuse to have muddy clothes for the next two weeks to save them. It’s late , they’re bitchy & inconsiderate & loud , and although a little entertaining, more than anything they’re annoying. To hell with them!
I chuckled as I typed this up, as I have vivid memories of this evening to this day. I’d passed the group of boys earlier in the day, and they were spread out pretty far. They had a couple of tarps and some rope in lieu of tents, and one of the counselors was actually fairly handy when it came to stringing them up. However, he was grossly outnumbered, and he did not have cooperative campers. At the time, I don’t think I made the connection that, just a few journal entries earlier, I had noted that Antaeus eschewed shelters whenever possible. This sort of experience, I’m sure, was why!
Posted in Appalachian Trail, Tim
