Laughing Fox

Thru-hiker, M.J. Fox, wanted to treat me to a nice send off, complete with subs, a boat ride and some trail talk.

There is this zoo in NY that the trail cuts through and it is said to be a very emotional experience for many through hikers. It is one of the spots on the trail that I am very excited to see and experience so I asked, Fox, what he thought about it.

"Oh, it's lame...wicked small," he said. "Oh..." That brings a whole new meaning to emotional experience, I thought.

He then started to talk about how great it was to take dips in the rivers in Maine, but than stopped himself and said that it was going to most likely be too cold for me to do the same.

There were a few other things that he said, but you have to realized, this was a conversation between a nobo (Northbounder) and a perspective sobo (Southbounder). There are perks to hiking the AT in both directions.

It was a very comical boat ride and it got to the point were I finally laughed and said, "Mike you need to stop, you're killing me!"

He was not saying these things to get a rise out of me they were just coming out in conversation. Time spent with Fox always results in a comical post.

He asked me what I was going to wear while I did my laundry in town. Hm, I thought, good question. "Lots of the girls brought a town dress, they kept them in zip-lock bags," he explained.

"What did you wear?" I inquired.

"I used to wrap my sleeping bag around myself and camp out in the laundry mat until my clothes were done."

I think I'll go with the town dress, I have a feeling it would probably draw less attention.