IRP blog post 12 -media

During the summer, when Bryson went on day hikes, he came across a man with an "Enviro Monitor". The man clearly wanted to brag to people about what it was and how it worked but Bryson saw it as more of a joke. The man named off all of the things that it could do, equalling out to a bunch of meaningless numbers. Bryson then went on about how all the new technology is making it so people who don't belong on mountains hiking now belive that they do. Another point was -what is the point of having a machine that can measure the environmental conditions that you are currently experiencing? By the time that the machine realizes it is cold, you will as well. This can relate to many things in our lives now. People rely so much on technology and they believe that it can just do things for them, like help them climb a mountain. Some things need to just be kept free from technology because they are better off, like the Appalachian Trail.

IRP blog post 11 -cited passage

At the very end of the book Bryson and Katz both realized that it was time for them to go home. When they stepped off the trail for the last time they were torn between being relieved or sad. Bryson questioned if it was really a good idea to leave because it felt like they hadn't really hiked the Appalachian trail. "I had come to realize that I didn't have any feelings toward the AT that weren't confused and contradictory. I was weary of the trail, but still strangely in its thrall; found the endless slog tedious but irresistible; grew tired of the boundless woods but admired them for their boundlessness; enjoyed the escape from civilization and ached for its comforts. I wanted to quit and do this forever, sleep in a bed and in a tent, see what was over the next hill and never see a hill again." (389). This quote basically sums up their whole journey. When reading it you can understand the emotions that Bryson is feeling. You can tell that Bryson feels differently about life now because of his journey on the trail with Katz. When Bryson questions if they really hiked the Appalachian Trail, Katz replied simply that they had, and what they missed was just simply details. Afterward, Bryson realized Katz was right and that its true, nothing else matters but the fact that they did hike the Appalachian Trail.

IRP blog post 10 -link

During Bryson and Katz's journey, they hear stories about all different types of people and their experiences on the trail. There are several bizarre stories about people who have suffered from hypothermia. Most of the time hypothermia victims are people that are not in severe conditions but rather just underprepared for a drop in temperature. "Hypothermia is a medical emergency that occurs when your body loses heat faster than it can produce heat, causing a dangerously low body temperature." When someone is suffering from hypothermia their body temperature drop below about 95 degrees farenheit. Someone suffering from hypothermia experiences confusion, shallow breathing and severe shivering. Most victims are usually found in strange cirsumstances because hypothermia caused confusion before they died.

health- hypothermia
http://www.bing.com/health/article/mayo-125883/Hypothermia?q=hypothermia

IRP blog post 9 -cited passage

Bryson's wife picked up Bryson and Katz in Front Royal, New Hampshire. Katz was going back to Des Moine and Bryson had to take care of some work realted things. They decided that they would meet up again in June and complete the trail. Bryson could not tear himself away from the trail. He felt unfufilled when he was not hiking it. Each day during the spring he took on peices of the trail at a time. He felt compelled to continue hiking the trail because it had been his entire life for months. "And thus I was to be found, in the first week of June, standing on the banks of the Shenandoah again, in Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, blinking at a gray sky and trying to pretend with all my heart that this was where I wanted to be." (p.326) He didn't want to have to be hiking all the time but somehow that was where he always ended up.

IRP blog post 8 -image

One day while hiking a section of the trail, Bryson came across a town in Pennsylvania called Centralia. Apparantly this town used to be a thriving mining town until one day the coal that was under the town caught on fire. Smoke began to rise through the ground in random parts of the town and sink holes would also randomly form. Someone estimated that there was enough coal under the town for it to burn for hundreds of years more. In 1979-1981 the bizarre town, now wasteland, attracted national attention. The fires are still burning in the ground. All that is left now are destroyed homes on top of unstable ground.

IRP blog post 7 -link

At the beginning of this section, Bryson thinks that he heard a bear near the campsite the night before. He had a very difficult time trying to sleep after that. He heard big footstaps snapping branches around the outside of camp and when he shown the flashlight into the woods to eyes glared back at him but he could not see the size of the animal. The animal never actually came into the campsite. Katz wasn't concerned about the animal at all, only about getting his full night of sleep. They were camping right off the trail in Shenandoah National Park. When the park was first created in 1937 there were only 10 bears known to live in the area. Through the years the population increased and now it is thought that there are bears anywhere from the low to high hundreds living in the park.

bears in shenandoah national park
http://www.nps.gov/shen/naturescience/black-bear.htm

IRP blog post 6 -media

The Appalachian Trial is approximately 2,181 miles long and it passes through 14 states. The trail stretches from Georgia to Maine. In 1921 the trail was only idea but in 1937 the trail was completed. Each year the trail is rerouted in parts but the majority of the trail remains the same from year to year. The trail passes through 8 national forests and is maintained by 31 different clubs and parterships. Only white paint blazes mark the direction of the trail and some hikers have been known to get lost. Often Bryson complains about the quality of the maps of the trail. Each year about 300 people complete the Appalachian Trail all in one trip but that is a small fraction of people who have that intention when they start.