Trail News

I read that there are over 2 million people on the trail every year, and there are only 3 incidents of violent crime every decade. I'm guessing most public parks have significantly more crime with much less use. What intrigued me before starting the trail was how fast killers were caught on the trail. Police often had a description of the perpetrator and his car by the end of the first day. As far as I know, all have been caught within hours of the crime. With over 2,175 miles of trail not including all of the side trails, I could not imagine how these people were all getting caught.

I think I have some answers. As I posted earlier, I lost my tent yesterday. My foot was really hurting, my tent came off my pack, and I did not notice it was gone until I was off the trail and about to get a ride. It took only a matter of a few hours for my tent to come back to me. I was miles from the trail in the middle of a moderately sized town when my tent found me.

As near as I can determine, someone found my tent on the trail. Auntie Mame and V8 recognized it as mine. I have no idea how they knew it was mine because we have never camped together. They met Conan who was heading into Waynesboro, and gave him my tent. Conan was camping at the YMCA. He stopped by the hostile before I got there, and left me a note that he had my tent. Later, Conan ran into Beracus who was staying at the hostile. He gave my tent to Beracus, who returned it to me last night in time for me to use it as my pillow on a very uncomfortable and noisy sleeping cot.

I'm surprised at the level of detail people know about each other on the trail. We know no one's real name, but a whole lot of other seemingly insignificant details. We also know who belongs on the trail and who doesn't. It would be extremely difficult to commit a crime on the trail, and not have everyone know who did it. The few murders that have occurred on the trail were all solved in a matter of days. Killers have only one chance to kill unless they are released from jail by parole boards, which is exactly what happened with the shooting in April 2008. Then they have two chances.