He goes by "Just an Echo"... {We never learned his given name) If you venture onto the AT, and ask around or stop by one of the many trail shelters, you will find evidence of his writing and stories in the trail logs there...

Date:   8/25/2005 8:32:30 PM ( 19 y ago)

Well when we ventured upon the AT last week little did we know that GOD had placed a unique individual in our pathways...   A 70 year old man, in good physical condition, with a hard life, and an open heart with a contrite spirit....

We first noted his prose in a trail log at the Gooch Mt. shelter...  These logs are there for anyone to make entries into...  Most just list names and dates...  Some make smart remarks, and others like "Just an Echo", write of life and trail magic...

Little did we know that we would catch up with him at the Hawk Mt. shelter; later that afternoon...  It was around 18:00 hours when we came into the shelter...  My son who had been the trail blazer had already met him when I came into camp...

He spoke of the trail, as a place where life is pure, and the truth can be found when one looks for it...  We talked about live and different aspects of people..  Most people are good or want to do good and we discussed our back grounds...  He had retired out of the US Navy, some years back....  He told us how he had been a drunk and ended up losing his family because of it...  How he had ended up in a VA hospital in Florida, suffering from several debilitating conditions....

Then there one day, in his fifties, he had set out to walk out on the outer yard... He succumb to fugue and had to brought back in and placed on oxygen, to be stabilized..  He said that then and there he prayed that GOD would, give him the opportunity to become more than a vegitable...   With that faith he was able to check himself out and started to walk the trails in FLA...  Building up his abilities, he then came up to Amicalola Falls State Park in Georgia, which is the approach trail to the Appalachian Trail up on Springer Mt. ...   He said that the first hike up the trail just over eight miles, took him about twelve hours, the normal time is about five hours...  But he did not give up...  He was determined to better himself, and went on... 

Since then he has completed twelve(12) complete trips up and down the AT....  The is over 2000 miles each way, folks... He has made many short trips and spent many moons on the trail...  Every years he gives away his tent, and other items to needy persons on the trail... That way when he goes back to FLA he can travel light...  There are times that he has been hassled by the police as a vagrant, but as he states he has resources, a Navy retirement, and other income, but prefers to be out on God's green earth...

He told us that this year was the first year he had seen Rattle snakes on the trail; and then of a time when he was backed into a shelter by a large black bear...  A woman who was there took a broom and helped drive the bear off...  {Noise will discourage most black bears.... But don't try that with the brown or grizzle bear, it is better to play dead....}  Life is about paying attention and treating others, including the animals with respect...  [Look back on some of my blogs about having respect] 

One of the things he spoke of is the "trail magic"...  What is is and where it is...   He said up in north Georgia, for an example, there are some people who will go up on the trail, and invite, and take people down to there homes, where the wife will wash their cloths, they can get a good warm bath, and the man of the house cooks up a blue berry pancake breakfast...  all for a donation,  the then take them back to the trail refreshed,  a very nice jesture...    There are times, epically during the holidays, that people will find cans of drinks in the cool Mountain streams, and have turkey dinners setup at points on the trail...   Then there are other items of need tat mysteriously appear on the trail for those in need...  This is just some of the trail magic, friends...  

Helping others.....  Do you think there is a life principle or key word here folks?? DUH!! 

And so it was on the trail, as it is on our pathway of life....  We departed the next morning, after praying with "Just an Echo".... Down the trail we went to wards our went adventure, on my road of life.......  See ya on the continuation of our AT hike....

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