The social trail

I started on Springer at the same time as Spuds, JohnnyO, and JD (short for John Doe, the trail name he got when he said he didn't have one). I've also been hiking with Dingo and Gearhead, as well as Road Runner and Cory (a.k.a. Don Juan), and Hungry Horse and Float (until a leg injury made him drop back). Except for 35 year Dingo, all in their early twenties. For some reason my old man shuffle has matched their variously partying paces and unorthodox hiking styles. It helps that I started at Springer already having hiked for over 4 weeks, and having previous experience. Plus the mouse traps I carry to ensure peaceful nights in shelters.

I introduced myself as Old Blue, the name that finally attached to me in Maine in 2000, after almost 2,000 miles without one. Old because I was older, as was my gear, Blue due to my passion for grazing on the August ripe blueberries on and off the trail in Maine. It was kind of JD to finally let me in on the generational joke. In the Will Ferrell movie Old School (which came out in 2003), "Old Blue" is a 70 year old who joins their fake fraternity and ends up having a heart attack jello wrestling two coeds.

And in this photo, taken from where I was tenting at Fontana, you can see how the party followed me up the hill from the shelter to the picnic table near the privy. Note that the odd guy (self-styled as "Nomad Ned") in the white shirt and obviously out of shape was not really hiking, just hanging out for the party, "yellow-blazing" -- traveling by car.