Leaving footprint

[robertarkme]

Hi. I do as much outdoors as I can get away with, as with hobbies like wild prospecting and backwoods fly fishing. I like the North central Georgia area for my getaways. Pretty, calm, cooler because of the elevation ect... I live in S FL. so I visit areas like these because of the security it offers  (no area amenities whatsoever) and off grid for about a month out of the yr. Please don't get me wrong having a pop-up trailer, propane hot water, 12 volt water pumps and filtration system, solar panels ( 400 w) and overhangs, if I can call that NO Amenities. Regardless of all of this, I come and go, and the only thing you would find of my passage would be a few buried ashes, tire tracks, and a few footprints.

[RWS]

In my younger days I used to do a lot of hiking.  One trip to the AT in the Smokey Mountain Park I took my mail man and a recently retired Marine Colonel (communications).  As we walked the trail I noticed a large foot print.  In the wet parts of the trail I commented on how big and heavy the guy was that put down that big footprint.  When we got to the campsite for the day I noticed a wire antenna stretched across the clearing.  It looked to be somewhere close to 40 M antenna.  It seems we were not following one big hiker but 12 Special Forces A team members.  They were all stepping in the same footprint.
The HF radio they were trying to use was on 6mhz and they were supposed to check in with Brag daily.  No luck they were skipping right over them.  We had 2 meter handie talkies and could bring up repeaters in major cities on either side of the Park.  The Marine (Bob) saw the radio they were using.  He called out the nomenclature and asked the comms guy how he liked the radio.  The soldier told him that he was not supposed to know about that radio as it was still classified.  Bob said he was on the development team, then retired and just wanted to know if he liked it....If it was doing a good job for them.
This A team had been in Panama for a year and just returned to Brag.  They were middle aged with beer guts.  The Army put them out on the South end of the Smokey Mountain Park and told them to hike to the North end on the AT.  They needed to get back in shape.
My mail man had a bad leg due to repeatative use on the brake pedal (Rural Carrier).  A week after our 3 day hike he told me his leg was all better.  He just needed to do something other that on/off the brake pedal.