Date: Wed, 12 Jul 95 19:04:47 CDT
From: bush@tailpipe.onramp.net (Joe Bush)

Hi Kathy -

... The page brought back many memories of a little adventure I shared with a young bride some 20 years ago.

My wife, Sandy, and I were married on May 3rd, 1975 at sunrise at a light house on the coast of Maine (Marshall Point Light, recently featured for three seconds in the movie, Forrest Gump). After a wedding breakfast with a small contingent of family and friends we boarded a plane and flew to Atlanta. Early on the morning of the 5th, we set off from the top of Springer headed for Maine (our home). Neither of us had ever been backpacking before.

Five months and five pairs of hiking boots later we reached the base of Katahdin. Katahdin itself had been closed to hikers for nearly two weeks because of ice conditions. The next morning, October the 10th, 1975, most of the same group of family and friends who had attended our wedding some 5 months earlier met us at the base of Katahdin, the weather broke, the trail was opened, and we all hiked the last 5 miles togeather to a cloudless summit. Sandy and I were 19 years old.

We have never forgotten our trip, the people we met, and the bliss we experienced on our 2100 mile honeymoon. We often remark that our marriage was permanently strengthened by the 5 months we spent togeather hauling heavily laiden Kelty backpacks through sun and rain. The experience left impressions that have faded little in 20 years.

........

Happy Trails!

- Joe