Tom wrote a comment a few days ago about our meeting with him. It is such a good story, we knew we had to share it.
As we were hiking up to Mt Laguna on our third day out, it was a very strenuous climb. We climbed for two days straight, and this day was the second day of our climb.
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| Meet Tom |
I had stopped to answer the call of nature, as Lego (Legasorus) hiked on for a little ways. Approaching a small group of fellow adventurers, I saw that Lego had stopped to talk, so with some relief I stopped also.
We took off our shoes (Oh what blessed relief) and had a great time just shooting
the breeze. After a while, we started relating past trail stories.
the breeze. After a while, we started relating past trail stories.
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| Rich, Tom, and Joe |
Tom said he hiked in '99, the same year we did. I interjected that I thought he looked familiar, but I couldn't quite place him. That is when Lego asked what his trail name was, and he stated that his trail name was Bulldog! Incredible! We knew him well. He had gotten on the trail that year at Kennedy Meadows, to hike with our good friend Sly that we had been hiking with since Mt Baden Powell in Southern California. It turns out that we had ferried Bulldogs car from Kennedy Meadows to Horseshoe Meadows so he could pick it up there. Bulldog eventually made it all the way to Tuolumne Meadows with Sly, where we took the picture of him that is showing under the tab "Why Blog". He is the tall dude in the white shirt and blue shorts, only 14 years younger.
We had also driven around the country that year, and ended up in Philadelphia where Bulldog lived. He had invited us to stop in and see him anytime we were in the area, so we did. He showed us his neighborhood, took us to the best place to get Philly steak sandwiches (our first taste of these great
sandwiches) and basically showed us a good time. The kicker is that he didn't remember any of it. He says he has such a bad memory, that all he remembers is hiking that year.
We were able to fill him in on some of the details, and he was able to recall some of it.
It sure was great catching up with an old friend
Hi Sly, we miss you too, and think about you a lot!
So great to see these photos and to read all of your posts. Keep on Truckin. I think it is a great idea to take breaks (both during the hiking day and multi-day breaks when needed) during your hike. In 97 I took 6 months and 2 weeks to do the AT - nearly twice as long as many hikers, with many a sidetrip. And since you guys already hiked those sections before, that makes the decision even easier. And don't stress if any one group gets ahead of you --- you'll make good friends with the new ones you meet on a daily basis. Maybe they will even remember you! (bad joke....too soon?)
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