[at-l] golden oldies

[Mara Factor]

LOL.  Thanks for the reminder.

It's an interesting world we live in.  I have three sources of time in my
bedroom and they all self-correct with the time change.  I had forgotten
about the end of daylight savings today until I read your post.

Thanks again,

Mara
Stitches, AT99

Visit my Travels and Trails web site at:
http://friends.backcountry.net/m_factor


On Sun, Nov 6, 2011 at 6:52 AM, Felix J <AThiker at smithville.net> wrote:

>  An oldie but a goodie....and, one you get stuck lookin' at twice a
> year....
>
>
> ************ *Sundown*
>
> ** **
> ** ** Sundown got his name from his habit of showing up well past
> sundown. As he made his way into the shelter, it looked like he would earn
> the right to keep it one more day. Dusk was becoming a memory. The air was
> cool and moist above the churning waters of ****Laurel** **Falls****. I
> moved my stuff closer to “my” corner. **** “Where have you been?” I
> asked. “I’ve been here over an hour.”
>
> “I missed the turn-off for the Trail down at that parking lot. There was a
> dog barking at me and I was watching him and just kept walking. I’ll bet I
> went over a mile. Then, I had to find the Trail in the dark.”****
>
> The flame of my candle flickered as Sundown pulled stuff from his pack. He
> nearly blew it out completely when he dropped his Therm-A-Rest into place.
> “What time is it, anyway?” he asked, shaking his sleeping bag from its
> stuff sack. ****
>
> “Almost **8:30**,” I said, which was a guess. “Hey, where did you take
> your ‘Zero Hour’?”****
>
> “What zero hour?” he said as he pulled his feet from their boots.****
>
> “You know, the Daylight Savings Zero Hour. I took mine at Moreland Gap
> Shelter. It was actually kinda nice to kick back.”****
>
> “Daylight Savings Zero Hour? What are you talking about?” ****
>
> “Today is the first day of daylight savings time,” I explained. “Since the
> clocks ‘spring forward,’ hikers have to sit in the same spot for one hour
> because that hour doesn’t really exist. Today essentially only had 23
> hours. Surely you’ve heard of it.” ****
>
> The concept was apparently foreign to him. He was rendered more or less
> motionless as he tried to figure it out.****
>
> “Seriously,” I said. “Every spring, when the clocks change, hikers have to
> sit in one spot for exactly one hour. Otherwise, they’d be an hour ahead of
> where they should be. That’d mess everything up. That’s probably why you
> got here so late. You hiked through the hour that didn’t exist, even though
> you didn’t go anywhere.”****
>
> A couple moments of silence and handfuls of M&Ms later, Sundown said,
> “What happens in the fall? What happens when you set your clocks back?”***
> *
>
> “In the fall, you have to hike for half an hour, turn around and hike
> back. Or, I suppose you could hike for a whole hour and then turn around. I
> guess it depends on what time zone you’re in. Either way, you have to hike
> for an hour that you don’t go anywhere. Because that day is twenty-five
> hours long and you’d end up an hour behind schedule if you didn’t hike for
> an hour to nowhere. See?”****
>
> I don’t think he saw. I’ll give him credit for trying, though. As he
> started his stove, he’d start a question, and then stop. He either couldn’t
> figure out what the question was, or figured out it wasn’t a question at
> all. ****
>
> “So, if the hour….” Silence. “So, if the hour didn’t exist, then what
> happens to what you do during that hour?”****
>
> “Well, in your case, you made up for it by getting lost for an hour. In my
> case, I rested and read graffiti on the wall of Moreland Gap Shelter. There
> were some doozies, too.” ****
>
> Sundown cooked in silence, either trying to understand what I was saying,
> or figure out if I was telling the truth. It didn’t matter either way. ***
> *
>
> “You know how sometimes you experience what they call ‘*déjà vu’*? That’s
> the stuff that really happens in those hours that don’t happen. Then, when
> they do happen, they seem to be familiar.” The more I explained, the more I
> began to believe it myself. ****
>
> I went back to reading Jack London’s “To Build a Fire.” I figured I’d let
> Sundown digest his Lipton and ‘Zero Hour’ lesson for a while. ****
>
> Before I knew it, I was waking up, my eyes adjusting to the first light of
> day. Sundown was sliding his arms into the shoulder straps of his pack. **
> **
>
> “Where you going?” I asked. ****
>
> “I wanted to get an early start. Gonna see if I can make it to Iron
> Mountain Shelter before dark. Catch ya later, man,” he said as he crunched
> off into the frost. ****
>
> I took my time getting ready to leave. The cold April morning made staying
> in the sleeping bag as long as possible seem like the right thing to do. I
> checked the register as I waited for coffee water to boil, and read
> Sundown’s entry:****
>
> *April 6th*
>
> *I don’t know if I was here or not. If somebody figures it out, let me
> know.*
>
> *—Sundown*
>
> ————****
>
> ** **
>
> --
> Felix J. McGillicuddy
> ME-->GA '98
> "Your Move"
> ALT '03 KT '03http://Felixhikes.tripod.com/
>
>
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