Post 3B

In the beginning of Bill Bryson's memoir on hiking the Appalachian Trail, I found many similarities between my encounters on the trail and his. Like his story, many of the shelters were overcrowded and infested with rodents. When I was on the trail, we simply slept in our tents next to the shelter rather than submitting ourselves and our food to the rats. Also, most places on the trail were damp and cold. Clearly we hiked the southern section of the trail at the same. Since I only hiked the Blue Ridge Mountains, the southern most section of the AT, and only for a short period of time, Bryson also has encounters which do not relate to my own. I was lucky enough to never hear a bear rummage through my pack in the middle of the night, while Bill hints that such a thing happened to him, although it was in the middle of the night and he had no way to prove it. Also, I never had the opportunity to hike off the trail to a nearby town. Bill expresses the value of these usually decrepit motels and diners as a haven off the trail to recover for a night. By reading Bill's journal on his expedition through the Appalachian trail, I have discovered a rejuvenated desire to hike the whole trail rather than the small part I did with my Boy Scout Troop.