[at-l] A Gathering Report

[Jim and/or Ginny Owen]

We just got back from our annual trek to the Gathering.  Since we aren’t working at the 
moment, we left early, on Wednesday, and drove south through the Shenandoahs. The 
leaves were just beginning to turn. The high elevations had color but the lower hills were 
still very green.  (West Virginia had a lot more color near Pipestem.)  We spent the night 
at Big Meadows, spotted 15 or so deer in the campground, and did a short loop hike to 
Lewis Falls in the morning.  As we drove south on Skyline Drive, we noticed a 
backpacker at one of the overlooks. We stopped to see if she was a SOBO thruhiker but 
JJ said she was a section hiker who had missed the last spring, was completely out of 
water, and would appreciate a ride to Waynesboro.  (She had never hitched before, so 
was happy to get a ride so easily with folks whose car was covered with hiking trail 
stickers).  In the car, we mentioned that we were heading to the Gathering.  It turned out 
that a good friend of JJ’s, Mud Butt, was doing a presentation there, so she decided to go 
all the way to Pipestem with us and surprise her.  We got to the Folklife Center after 
dinner on Thursday and were surprised at the number of people who had also decided to 
go early.  Lots of hugs and good conversation ensued.  Usually we are so busy at the 
Gathering there’s too little time for real conversation.  Having the extra day meant we 
had a chance to visit before things got busy.  I enjoyed it.
 
The evening entertainment was excellent.  As others have said, Mossy Old Troll’s AT 
presentation was an excellent one, one of the best AT DVDs I’ve seen.  We liked it 
enough to buy one, which is saying a lot, given our current financial situation.  Saturday 
night’s feature presentation on a two year hike along the Andes was also really 
interesting.  I’ve read a couple of books about hikes the length of South America (George 
Meeghan and Karl Bushby both walked from Tierra del Fuego to Alaska) - -but they 
walked the roads. Gregg Treinish and Deia Schlosberg, the couple who spoke on 
Saturday night, avoided roads as much as possible, preferring to either hike backcountry 
trails, bushwhack or walk village to village.  They had some beautiful photographs.  
Leonard Atkins’ Sunday evening slideshow on the GR10 along the Pyrenees was also a 
beautiful presentation.  He is an excellent photographer and puts together a great show.  
Since we’re always looking for information on trails we might want to hike someday, we 
attended a couple of workshops on unfamiliar (to us) trails:  the Inca Trail in Peru and the 
Florida Trail.  Both look intriguing.  I really enjoyed meeting Mud Butt, who used to be a 
regular on AT-L.  We would have liked to attend more workshops since there were so 
many that looked interesting, but we were busy with our own workshops/slideshows (on 
the GDT and Alaska).  German Tourist took charge of the CDT workshop this year 
(Yea!!) and did an excellent job – though we put in our occasional 2 cents. 
 
It was a very good Gathering.  Best of all, as usual, was seeing old friends and making 
some new ones.
 
On the way home, we again drove along Skyline Drive, leaf peeping with the rest of the 
tourists. This time the leaves were much more colorful, not quite at peak, but very close.  
The hills were ablaze with red, gold, peach and orange trees.  A highlight there was 
eating dinner at the campground, watching the brilliant sunset to the west while the 
nearly full moon rose to the east.  In the darkness we could hear but barely see two bucks 
locking horns in the bushes about 15 feet away.  Today we hiked the five-mile loop from 
Dark Hollow Falls to Rose River, past several waterfalls, with golden leaves drifting all 
around.  It was beautiful.  
 
So, seven days after we set out, we are back in Maryland – happy and exhausted.  It was a 
good trip.
 
Walk softly,
Ginny & Jimhttp://www.spiriteaglehome.com/
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