{"id":141,"date":"2005-11-21T22:09:06","date_gmt":"2005-11-22T03:09:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/?p=141"},"modified":"2005-11-21T22:09:06","modified_gmt":"2005-11-22T03:09:06","slug":"lying-thieving-sob-of-the-appalachian-trail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/2005\/11\/21\/lying-thieving-sob-of-the-appalachian-trail\/","title":{"rendered":"Lying, thieving SOB of the Appalachian Trail"},"content":{"rendered":"

Read
\nthis really long Washington Post piece about this con-man\/thru-hiker<\/a>
\nwho stole a bunch of stuff along the Appalachian Trail and generally exploited
\nthe innate decency and goodness of everybody he came upon. Enjoyed a few
\nquotes revealing that the reporter made at least an attempt to understand
\nwhat it’s like on the trail. <\/p>\n

Today, most of the 3 to 4 million people who use the AT
\nannually aren’t planning an escape from reality. They are dog walkers,
\nday hikers or Boy Scouts who want to hike a small stretch — like the
\nsections of the AT that run through outer Loudoun, Fauquier and Frederick
\ncounties — and then return to the Starbucks-and-Wal-Mart world they left.
\nThen there are the “thru-hikers.” Every year, 1,500 to 2,000 people get
\non the trail intending to walk it all at one go. Some years, more than
\n20 percent actually make it. During their five- to seven-month journeys,
\nthru-hikers typically subsist on 4,000 calories a day of gorp, Powerbars
\nand pasta. They drink filtered water they pump out of natural springs.
\nThey walk 14 miles or more a day and become so conscious of the weight
\nin their 30-pound packs that they will cut the handle off a toothbrush
\nto save a few ounces. They also, after hiking day upon showerless day,
\ndevelop a smell that would turn heads in a sewage plant. When a thru-hiker
\ncomes by on the trail, the heads of passing day hikers jerk like Frenchmen
\nin a Pepe Le Pew cartoon. <\/p>\n

I have to wonder about the stench… I met a Pacific Crest thru-hiker
\nin Yosemite and didn’t notice any untoward odors. Of course I might’ve
\nbeen upwind of him. <\/p>\n

The story goes on in excruciating detail about the petty crimes this
\nguy perpetrated. The first guy he hoaxed was a God-fearing Christian who
\ntried to bring him to Jesus. Well, the guy may well have found religion,
\nbut he also found it caused already-trusting people to be even more trusting
\nwhen they heard his conversion tale, told over and over. Read the whole
\nthing if you’ve got the time. Seems like an awful lot of space devoted
\nto a petty burglar\/scammer, but it’s a fascinating read for hiker types.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Read this really long Washington Post piece about this con-man\/thru-hiker who stole a bunch of stuff along the Appalachian Trail and generally exploited the innate decency and goodness of everybody he came upon. Enjoyed a few quotes revealing that the…<\/p>\n

Read the whole thing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}