In my work, I travel quite a bit. You learn to adjust and make the best of it and, over time, it becomes a bit of your makeup. As it takes hold of you, you have a tendency to pursue it outside of work. I took a number of hiking trips over a number of years to complete the Appalachian Trail. Another coworker helped a friend restore a boat and they completed the Great Loop, navigating the eastern U.S. via the Intracoastal Waterway, Erie Canal, Great Lakes, Mississippi and Tenn-Tom to complete a loop. Two other coworkers did the Four Corners on their bikes - Key West, San Diego, Alaska and Maine.
All of these are noteworthy, but I’d like to highlight the accomplishment of another coworker. Harold Banks, a native of Dadeville, made a solo canoe trip from the source of the Tallapoosa River to the Gulf of Mexico. Harold was a mentor to me when I was coming up, he’s about seventeen years my senior, and he’s the consummate outdoorsman. He tagged along with me on a 76-mile hike in southwest Virginia, and hung in like a trooper. Despite his longtime dedication to conservation and his encyclopedic knowledge of the Tallapoosa River, he was caught off guard when the Tallapoosa River Canoe Trail was named in his honor.
HB’s a great writer. I had the opportunity to read and review his work for some years, always enjoyable even when it’s a dry financial analysis. He maintained a journal of his descent of the Tallapoosa, it was published in the local Dadeville newspaper, but he finally expanded it into a book, By Paddle and Pack: Headwaters of the Tallapoosa to the Gulf of Mexico - 658 Miles by Solo Canoe. I just got my copy and ran through it pretty quickly, a really great read. Anyone with an interest in Alabama history and/or the Tallapoosa/Alabama River, can’t recommend it highly enough.
All of these are noteworthy, but I’d like to highlight the accomplishment of another coworker. Harold Banks, a native of Dadeville, made a solo canoe trip from the source of the Tallapoosa River to the Gulf of Mexico. Harold was a mentor to me when I was coming up, he’s about seventeen years my senior, and he’s the consummate outdoorsman. He tagged along with me on a 76-mile hike in southwest Virginia, and hung in like a trooper. Despite his longtime dedication to conservation and his encyclopedic knowledge of the Tallapoosa River, he was caught off guard when the Tallapoosa River Canoe Trail was named in his honor.
HB’s a great writer. I had the opportunity to read and review his work for some years, always enjoyable even when it’s a dry financial analysis. He maintained a journal of his descent of the Tallapoosa, it was published in the local Dadeville newspaper, but he finally expanded it into a book, By Paddle and Pack: Headwaters of the Tallapoosa to the Gulf of Mexico - 658 Miles by Solo Canoe. I just got my copy and ran through it pretty quickly, a really great read. Anyone with an interest in Alabama history and/or the Tallapoosa/Alabama River, can’t recommend it highly enough.
