Bringing up the rear
Lynne Savino wrote to me and gave me some funny examples of the differences between a section hiker and a thru-hiker. I have a lot of respect for section hikers and the way in which they have to rediscover their hiking legs EVERY time they go out into the woods. I love to hear these different perspectives so I invited Lynne onto the show. She told us about how she was introduced to camping as a child by her father through adventures in a GMC Motorhome. The picture below is of Lynne and her brother, by the GMC, somewhere out west in the 1970s. She even tried to replicate that spirit, using the very same GMC, with her own family. While she muses that one day she'll be able to hike the entire Appalachian Trail, Lynne is currently content to hit the trail any time that she can and bite off sections. She can be found on Facebook and Instagram, though she confesses to being a little behind with her Instagram account and promises to do better!! In our conversation, I learned that Lynne is a physician and she shared some important information regarding the almost industrial-scale consumption of Ibuprofen, or Vitamin I, on the trail. She referred to a recent article in the New York Times and sent me a link to it. As I used to ship in four of these wonder drugs every day, I'll be reading it with interest. Now that I'm back home, I've caught up with Jessa once more, so John Boyet's excellent advice series has been pushed back for this week. Speaking with Jessa proved to be a lovely recap and her progress really lifted my spirits. Finally, thanks to everybody who pledged to support me on my hike. While I was unable to complete it–and thus reach out to you to collect your pledges–I'm gratified at how generous some of you were. Stuff like that really warms my heart.