| LIFE Thought for the Day

Maps are not reality at all - they can be tyrants. I know people who are so immersed in road maps that they never see the countryside they pass through, and others who, having traced a route, are held to it as though held by flanged wheels to rails.

- John Steinbeck

Steinbeck wrote this of paper maps in 1962. I can only imagine his view of mapping programs and a populace consumed by their phones, never noticing the world around them.
 
The long distance hiker, a breed set apart
from the life of the usual pack.
A hoist in his gear, he knows in his heart
he's gone, long before he'll come back.

- Nimblewill Nomad
 
Tim, Patsy and I shared a shelter with him several years ago on the AT. A very interesting man. We got very little sleep that night enjoying his stories and conversation.

That's awesome! I missed meeting him when we did the Flagg Mountain portion of the Pinhoti a few years back. I was more active in the trail community when he did his Key West to Canada hike. Have you ever seen the short film chronicling his thru-hike a couple of years ago? At 83, he set the record for the oldest thru-hike. Funny, he didn't start hiking seriously until retiring at 61, I believe, and he's logged over 30,000 miles.

 
"It's almost like peeling an onion. Layer by layer, forgiving others, you really do get to the point where you can forgive yourself."

Patty Duke
 
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