MAP of
all associated
WEB PAGES of
Robert A. Hendrix
 Please sign my
GUESTBOOK		 back to Coyote Crossings
Coyoteman's
New World
 back to Coyote Chronicles
Personal Aspects
of Life
 Ciliary Structure & Function
capitol of the
Coyote Empire
of the Web

Robert Hendrix' Appalachian Trail Wilderness Hike SLIDE SHOW October 2002
Escape with this 15 minute, 142 slide show - a feast for the eyes!
http://www.coyotemanhendrix.com/AT.html
all images copyrighted 2002

CHOOSE your best link to Start the Slide Show of the Appalachian Trail

  • If you have high speed, broad band access with plenty of memory and cybercourage to think your system can handle it, then click here...

  • If you have a dial-up modem or limited memory, click one of these chapter links:
    Photochapter 1
    Photochapter 2
    Photochapter 3
    Photochapter 4

    		•

    These are photographs taken (mostly by me) at the end of September and early October 2002 when I met up at the junction of interstate highways in Wythe County, Virginia, with my best friend, physicist, Allan Moser who drove down from the Philadelphia area. With the trail names of Coyoteman Hendrix and Meson Man, he and I made a 35.4 mile wilderness hike with >50 lbs. backpacks on part of the Appalachian Trail in southwest Virginia near Damascus. As every high energy physicist knows, mesons are elementary particles demonstrable in cloud chambers when released from disintegrating atomic componets following very high energy collisions with particle accelerators.

    TECHNICALS: I used my Pentax 48-200 mm SMC ZOOM LENS 35 mm automatic camera, mostly with 400 or 800 ASA film. The hinge on the back door of this 3 year old camera broke just as I was leaving for the trip - I made do with a duct tape repair - never leave home without it! Nonetheless, in some pictures, there was some leakage of light and a reddish streak was produced in across the center of the photo. Some of these photos I salvaged by converting to grey scale.

    I photographed most everything I saw:


    from white tailed deer to wild ponies; from chipmunks to rabbits;
    drawing drinking water from surface streams with our FIRST NEED Water Purifier ultrafiltration pump;
    from the 'orange parachute' tent I have used since I was a lad, to open lean-to shelters;
    from food preparation and chowing down to cleaning my pan coyote style;
    from mountains and meadows to skies blue or threatening and streaming over the peaks;
    from insects amongst the fallen autumn leaves to patterns of moss on rocks,
    from the canopy of trees spreading over the trail high above to the view of path at my feet on an upgrade
    showing what a hiker really sees so much of the time;
    from cattle that followed as I serenaded them with jazz standards
    to the cross-overs along fence lines which the cattle can not transverse;
    from resting on boulders in the sun to blisters on the feet from cruel boots;
    and even proper disposal of my empty bottle of Merlot which I had packed along for over 35 miles;
    PACK IT IN => PACK IT OUT!

    LEAVE NO TRACE = The first commandment of camping
    - DO NOT SPOIL PRISTINE BEAUTY OF WILDERNESS AND NATURE
    I am happy to note that the only places I saw human trash was near points at which the Appalachian Trail crossed highways...

    beyond this, my images must speak for themselves.

    By the way, Allan is the guy who looks like Einstein with a beard. The other fellow shown is Buzz Bireline of "GO GATORS!" Gainesville, Florida who steamed quickly past us on the trail. Buzz, with the trail name "Lightyear" was a southbound 'through hiker' - he had started on the AT in Maine in May from whence he had walked about 1500 miles. He had about 500 miles to go to reach the end of the trail in Georgia before cold weather set in. He estimated that he was the seventh from the front of the approximately 100 'through hikers' who accomplish that feat each year. What a fabulous way to escape all the dreck that modern life imposes upon us.

    Summary of UPS AND DOWNS

    DAY LOCATIONS ALTITUDES
    feet above sea level    		FEET UPFEET DOWNNET CHANGE
    Monday Fox Creek Trailhead 3500
    Pine Mountain 5000 1500 + 1500
    The Scales 4700 - 300 - 300
    Stone Mountain 4800 100 + 100
    just short of Wilson Creek 4700 - 100 - 100
    Tuesday 4400 - 300 -300
    4500 100 +100
    Wise Shelter 4300 - 200 - 200
    Rhodendrum Gap 5600 1300 1300
    near Thomas Knob Shelter 5400 -200 -200
    Branch of AT to Mt. Rogers 5500 -100 -100
    4900 -600 -600
    just beyond crossing of Virginia Highlander Trail and the AT 5000 -100 -100
    Wednesday 4800 -200 -200
    4900 100 100
    Elk Garden & VA 600 4400 -500 -500
    Crossing @ Whitetop Mt Rd 5300 900 900
    5200 -100 -100
    Buzzard Rock 5400 200 200
    crossing of US 58 3300 -2100 -2100
    Lost Mt Shelter 3400 100 100
    ThursdayWhitetop Laurel Creek 2700 -700 -700
    3300 600 600
    3100 -200 -200
    3400 300 300
    3200 -200 -200
    Saunder's Shelter 3500 300 300
    Crossing with the Virginia Creeper Trail (again) 2200 -1300 -1300
    End of Trek: total distance 35.2 milesTOTALS UP AND DOWN:+5600 -6900 -700
    net change

    View My Guestbook Sign My Guestbook

    Regarding the MIDI file you should be hearing: Bloody Well Right, composed by Rick Davies & Roger Hodgson of English band SUPERTRAMP. I cannot determine who sequenced this midi, however, if you like this piece then you would probably enjoy the Seventies MIDI Jukebox at http://www.superseventies.com/midijukebox.html  

    MAP of all associated WEB PAGES of Robert A. Hendrix, MD, FACS