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Corona Virus and the Trail

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    • jimmyjam wrote:

      Astro wrote:

      jimmyjam wrote:

      Guess what?
      You announcing you just became a grandpa too?
      Yep! She gave me the coffee cup below 20 years ago an! the one in the post above a couple of weeks ago.
      That is Awesome, congratulations! :thumbup:

      I have a son who got married in January and another son scheduled for an August wedding. So I guess in a few years I should be joining y'all. :)
      The road to glory cannot be followed with much baggage.
      Richard Ewell, CSA General

    • Since this is the CV thread this probably fits here as well as anywhere.

      I disinfected my counter tops today (and some other areas as long as I doing it) with the recommended 1 teaspoon of bleach to 1 cup of water. I've always kinda wondered if that was enough bleach as it sure isn't very much. But I followed the science and proceeded as usual.

      A while after I finished I happened to look down and noticed that I had obviously slopped a few drops on both my gray t-shirt and grey sweats as it bleached the color out.

      I don't wonder any more.
      2,000 miler

    • Right now Maine still has a two week 'quarantine' for new arrivals to their state. The governor is getting a lot of push-back on that right now.

      Massachusetts and New Hampshire have signboards at the borders requesting that visitors quarantine for two weeks, but I believe this is a request, not a requirement.

      In Vermont I believe there is an official order from the Governor for out of staters to quarantine, but I have not read any stories of actual enforcement. It is just near impossible for an out-of-stater to get a hotel room in Vermont right now. Things do seem to be slowly loosening, some places in Burlington, VT have started outdoor dining. I know about the situation in Vermont best because I have been traveling up there quit a bit the last few weeks.
      “Of all sad words of tongue or pen,
      the saddest are these, 'It might have been.”

      John Greenleaf Whittier

    • max.patch wrote:

      Astro wrote:

      Checked both MATC and Whiteblaze, and it appearrs the Kennebec River Ferry started today. :thumbup:
      Using Whiteblaze as source of credible information is like a Ph.D candidate citing Wikipedia in their dissertation. :)
      Now that there's funny. I don't care who you are.

      And on a totally unrelated note, my daughter needed to find a new apartment since both of her roommates were moving on. She found a place in downtown Raleigh, only a half block from the state capitol. In April and May, it was the "Re-Open NC" rallies - lots of yelling, chanting and car horns. Now it's tear gas, arson smoke and broken glass. She's getting quite a life lesson. Makes her pine for standing on the summit of Max Patch in a snowstorm.
      Trudgin' along the AT since 2003. Completed Sections: Springer Mountain to Clingmans Dome and Max Patch NC to Gorham NH

      "The days I keep my gratitude higher than my expectations...those are pretty good days." Ray Wylie Hubbard

    • max.patch wrote:

      Astro wrote:

      Checked both MATC and Whiteblaze, and it appearrs the Kennebec River Ferry started today. :thumbup:
      Using Whiteblaze as source of credible information is like a Ph.D candidate citing Wikipedia in their dissertation. :)
      I felt the MATC was a little more credible. And no I did NOT use Wikimedia in my dissertation 10 years ago, but I guess I didn't realize I was going to have to defend my post to the Cafe Committe for approval. :D
      The road to glory cannot be followed with much baggage.
      Richard Ewell, CSA General

    • StalkingTortoise wrote:

      max.patch wrote:

      Astro wrote:

      Checked both MATC and Whiteblaze, and it appearrs the Kennebec River Ferry started today. :thumbup:
      Using Whiteblaze as source of credible information is like a Ph.D candidate citing Wikipedia in their dissertation. :)
      Now that there's funny. I don't care who you are.
      And on a totally unrelated note, my daughter needed to find a new apartment since both of her roommates were moving on. She found a place in downtown Raleigh, only a half block from the state capitol. In April and May, it was the "Re-Open NC" rallies - lots of yelling, chanting and car horns. Now it's tear gas, arson smoke and broken glass. She's getting quite a life lesson. Makes her pine for standing on the summit of Max Patch in a snowstorm.
      I hope she stays safe from harm
      "Dazed and Confused"
      Recycle, re-use, re-purpose
      Plant a tree
      Take a kid hiking
      Make a difference

    • Astro wrote:

      max.patch wrote:

      Astro wrote:

      Checked both MATC and Whiteblaze, and it appearrs the Kennebec River Ferry started today. :thumbup:
      Using Whiteblaze as source of credible information is like a Ph.D candidate citing Wikipedia in their dissertation. :)
      I felt the MATC was a little more credible. And no I did NOT use Wikimedia in my dissertation 10 years ago, but I guess I didn't realize I was going to have to defend my post to the Cafe Committe for approval. :D
      We have a Cafe Committee? Oh dear. Fortunately mine was done in 1986, long before I invented the internet. I did have someone plegerize one of my papers once. We got a paper to review from a group in Italy. It was not well written. You could tell their English was weak. But the second paragraph of the introduction was noticably better (and familiar). It was a paragraph from my paper published the previous year. Obviously we didn't give them a good review.

    • I ran into my neighbors today while I was doing my (almost) daily walk. They hiked today from the bottom of the falls at Amicalola Falls State Park to the Hike Inn and back and were excited to tell me about the bear they saw up close.

      They then went on to say that when the Approach Trail entered the woods there were very few people. However...they said that walking up the infamous stairs that parallel the falls was like being in line at Disney World -- wall to wall people. :(

      The State Parks have been refusing entry and turning away people when they reached social distancing capacity; which means for the some of the most popular parks you better be there no later than 11:00. Looks like they fell down on the job today.
      2,000 miler

    • max.patch wrote:

      I ran into my neighbors today while I was doing my (almost) daily walk. They hiked today from the bottom of the falls at Amicalola Falls State Park to the Hike Inn and back and were excited to tell me about the bear they saw up close.

      They then went on to say that when the Approach Trail entered the woods there were very few people. However...they said that walking up the infamous stairs that parallel the falls was like being in line at Disney World -- wall to wall people. :(

      The State Parks have been refusing entry and turning away people when they reached social distancing capacity; which means for the some of the most popular parks you better be there no later than 11:00. Looks like they fell down on the job today.
      They must have decided to switch to the "No Social Distancing Guidelines" currently being followed for protestors and rioters in major cities. :rolleyes:
      The road to glory cannot be followed with much baggage.
      Richard Ewell, CSA General

    • max.patch wrote:

      Somewhere in the thread I posted that the REI stores were closed.

      I just got an email that they are reopening. All 5 stores in the Atlanta are now open 10-6. Masks required.

      You can check the status of stores in your area on their website.
      LOL, people really must like REI -- I posted this in facebook yesterday and came back to 170 "likes" this morning. That's more than when I post something that's actually important.

      And then facebook being facebook -- last night one of Virus Deniers made a comment about masks which of course started an argument and the Admin had to turn off commenting. It was kinda like Whiteblaze all over again.
      2,000 miler

    • CoachLou wrote:

      max.patch wrote:

      Somewhere in the thread I posted that the REI stores were closed.

      I just got an email that they are reopening. All 5 stores in the Atlanta are now open 10-6. Masks required.

      You can check the status of stores in your area on their website.
      Not yet in Connecticut, just curbside service.
      In AR we don't have one, but if we did they never would have closed unless they wanted to.
      The road to glory cannot be followed with much baggage.
      Richard Ewell, CSA General

    • Story of entitled thru hikers:

      outsideonline.com/2415299/appa…u-hikers-2020-coronavirus

      <snip>

      He only had 24 miles of Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park left, for instance, when authorities announced it was completely closed. That morning, when a hostel owner dropped him off at the trailhead before dawn, the headlights of a nearby white pickup truck flashed on—a park ranger, he presumed. As the truck sped toward Underwood, he bushwhacked through the dense woods for a mile before rejoining the trail, elated that he hadn’t been nabbed. Later, at New Jersey’s High Point State Park, he waited an hour for an officer to leave their post before he passed. He once hit the deck after spotting a car on a forest road, using his camera to zoom in on the license plate for signs of law enforcement.

      Marra laughs ruefully when she hears these stories: “You know you’re doing something wrong if you’re doing all that, right? Shouldn’t a bell go off?”
      2,000 miler

    • BSP opens and ATC's comments:

      <snip>

      The Appalachian Trail Conservancy continues to advise hikers to postpone thru-hikes and long-distance section hikes that require resupplying in vulnerable Trailside communities due to these considerations:


      appalachiantrail.org/official-…9s_8osIRG7pr2FNwuDI9ZySCI
      2,000 miler

    • Anti-Masker keeping it real...
      Images

      • Anti Masker.jpg

        87.42 kB, 595×600, viewed 347 times
      Trudgin' along the AT since 2003. Completed Sections: Springer Mountain to Clingmans Dome and Max Patch NC to Gorham NH

      "The days I keep my gratitude higher than my expectations...those are pretty good days." Ray Wylie Hubbard

    • Hiking on the AT seems like the perfect way to quarantine to me. I don't see a problem with resupplying, since I find it very easy to keep away from people in stores, just be mindful and stay away. However, you definitely want to abstain from hitchhiking and sleeping in the shelters -- I can live with that, especially since my style of hiking is to carry at least 2-weeks of food at a time.

    • Shelters are people magnets; I would not even go to a shelter location unless I needed water (since there is usually a water source at shelters). If I went to a shelter location for water while there I would not enter the shelter, read the register, use the privy or sit at a picnic table.

      I also wouldn't get in a strangers car for a shuttle or ride to town.
      2,000 miler

    • max.patch wrote:

      StalkingTortoise wrote:

      Anti-Masker keeping it real...
      I think it's a damn shame that wearing a mask and absentee balloting has become a political issue.
      Attempting to make people stand in line for hours during a pandemic to vote is nothing more than an attempt at voter suppression.
      But allowing mass mail-in ballots is just encouragin and practically condoning voter fraud. It has already happened, but this is like putting it on steroids.

      There are much better alternatives, such as longer precinct hours, more precincts (voting locations), even multiple days. Even requiring picture ID would suppress the lines of many illegal voters. If you do not have enough identification to get on an airplane, rent a car, or cash a check, you don't need to be voting! On the other hand, considering the the lack of of intelligence and work ethic of some potential voters, perhaps suppression would not be such a bad thing.
      The road to glory cannot be followed with much baggage.
      Richard Ewell, CSA General

    • max.patch wrote:

      StalkingTortoise wrote:

      Anti-Masker keeping it real...
      I think it's a damn shame that wearing a mask and absentee balloting has become a political issue.
      Attempting to make people stand in line for hours during a pandemic to vote is nothing more than an attempt at voter suppression.
      I've used absentee ballots twice - once in PA and once in OH. In PA, anyone could have filled out my ballot as there were no safeguards. In OH, I was required to enter my driver's license number on the sealed ballot envelope.

      A Republican candidate for a US House seat representing NC proved that mail-in ballot harvesting can change the results of an election. Fortunately, the fraud was identified and the election results were nullified. I'm OK with vote by mail as long as there are sufficient safeguards to prevent fraud.

      But arguing about wearing a mask to keep your germs to yourself? ?(
      Trudgin' along the AT since 2003. Completed Sections: Springer Mountain to Clingmans Dome and Max Patch NC to Gorham NH

      "The days I keep my gratitude higher than my expectations...those are pretty good days." Ray Wylie Hubbard

    • I've voted "absentee" or "early" (for those times I didn't get around to requesting an absentee ballot) for probably the last 10 years. (Except for the last Presidential election when I thought both candidates were spectacularly unqualified for the position and I needed time to figure out who to vote against.)

      This is a picture of the Primary election last June in Georgia. This is why absentee voting is crucial in a pandemic.

      media.pagesuite.com/psapps/ima…85e-8707-55f2ac5f9714.jpg
      2,000 miler

    • Photo's can be misleading. I can't tell in that one if the people are 6 feet apart or not, due to photographic foreshortening.

      I have not voted on "election" day in probably 30 years. I do early voting. Early voting here is often 8 to 5 plus some Saturday hours. Right before the election day, they go 7-7. Easy to just take off work 30 minutes early (before I retired) and drop by. Usually check in takes longer than the actual marking of the ballot. The "news" occasionally interviews some election worker who tells the truth AND they air it. "well, I worked all last week. Best day we had was 135 people over the 8 hours. WHY are they NOW standing in line!".

      I've also voted third party several times. Both major parties seem more and more corrupt to me. I must be getting old.
      Pirating – Corporate Takeover without the paperwork

    • I vote every election at the polls.

      Just voted one month ago in the local town election. The elections were not contested, so it was the lowest turn out ever but I still cast my ballot because it just seemed like the right thing to do for all people who volunteer for these thankless positions (selectmen, school committee, and so on).

      It was very safe, everything was spaced out, masks were required, it was 'bring your own pen.'

      Most elections I work as a 'tally person' at the end of the night. I reconcile misread ballots and write-in votes. I know our elections are honest locally, but I worry about what is happening in other places.
      “Of all sad words of tongue or pen,
      the saddest are these, 'It might have been.”

      John Greenleaf Whittier

    • max.patch wrote:

      I thought both candidates were spectacularly unqualified

      max.patch wrote:

      rhjanes wrote:

      I've also voted third party several times. Both major parties seem more and more corrupt to me. I must be getting old.
      I had a brief flirtation with a third party until I realized that I was just wasting my vote.
      I equate it to how some governments have elections. An option is "No Confidence". I figure maybe, just maybe, it will give some political analyst something to ponder.
      Pirating – Corporate Takeover without the paperwork

    • If Trump gets his way we won't have to debate the pros and cons of mail in voting -- he wants to delay the election.

      His tweet from this morning:

      "With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???"

      If this suprises you you're not paying attention.

      usatoday.com/story/news/politi…e-mail-voting/5543726002/
      2,000 miler