The great outdoors

So I hiked the Appalachian Trail (or AT, as those in the know call it) this weekend. Okay, maybe not all of it. Maybe a couple hundred yards of it, if you’re going to get picky about these things.

A friend had asked me if I wanted to go hiking in the Shenendoah. I agreed, but only on one condition: flat terrain. My friend gamely agreed and true to his word, found a stretch of a couple miles that was about as flat as you can hope for in the middle of a mountain range. Along that bit we managed to converge on the AT for a brief while. Check one more thing off my list to do before I die.

Bill Bryson is nuts, by the way, to have actually set out to hike the whole thing. I realize I sound very city mouse but that much greenery is unsettling. And if I ever lucked into six months off from work, hiking would be one of the last things I’d want to do with my windfall.