0:07

You just heard

0:09

End Times by

0:12

San Antonio's Empty

0:30

Heaven. The new album is

0:32

called Laughing and before that November by

0:34

Cloudbelly from their new album I Know

0:36

I Know I Know and London-based

0:39

Still Corners performing

0:42

The Dream. That's from the

0:44

just released Dream Talk. You're

0:46

listening to WLDW listener supported

0:49

community radio from the

0:51

campus of Franklin and Marshall College. I'm

0:53

Nick Wise and it is

0:55

11.55 p.m. storytime on LDW,

1:00

the first Sunday of every month. Gonna

1:03

stick around and handle the job myself

1:06

tonight if you don't mind some Nick

1:08

Wise overtime. It's

1:11

getting warmer out and when that happens

1:14

every year my thoughts tend to turn

1:16

to my younger days. I used to spend

1:20

a lot of time outdoors so

1:22

I thought why not tell you a few things

1:24

I remember about the

1:26

Sempronia Trail. Get you

1:28

ready for hiking season. I want

1:32

you to listen to the anecdotes I'm

1:35

going to tell you tonight

1:38

in the proper mindset so let me make something

1:41

absolutely clear for everyone. I

1:44

am in no way trying

1:46

to dissuade you from exploring

1:49

the Sempronia. What

1:52

you need to focus on when morning

1:54

comes is the gazillion

1:57

websites and magazine article.

2:00

and YouTube videos, and even

2:02

whole books describing very accurately,

2:04

I assure you, the

2:07

trails bevy of natural

2:10

pleasures and wonders. All

2:13

of the flattering descriptions are

2:15

true. I did something like 700 miles

2:18

on the trail over the course of 10 years. I

2:20

got to be kind of an expert on it. So

2:22

let me tell you, my

2:24

three little anecdotes should

2:27

not for a second prevent you

2:29

from heading out there and hiking your

2:31

butt off on one of this country's genuine

2:33

natural treasures. Getting freaked

2:35

out over a few random things

2:38

that one guy tells you

2:40

happened to him in isolated moments. That

2:43

would be a little like not going to

2:45

a World Series game for free because you're worried about

2:47

getting hit by a foul ball. Statistically

2:50

ridiculous. The

2:52

Ruby Glen Waterfalls, Big Beard

2:54

Cliff, the Corn Jump,

2:56

the Five Village Rail Run, and

2:59

about two dozen memorable overlooks. There

3:01

is no logical reason to not

3:03

soak up every

3:05

bit of the simponia's awesomeness. I've

3:09

just always wanted to speak of these three

3:12

little incidents. The

3:16

first one was

3:20

probably my third or fourth experience with a stranger out

3:22

there who gave me the creeps. It

3:24

happens. It's unavoidable. A trail

3:26

that long spanning so much of the state

3:28

with all those remote wooden

3:31

shelters along the way. But

3:33

this was kind of memorable. It

3:36

was summer and hot and I was

3:38

22 and a total

3:40

daredevil. 22 was the

3:42

perfect age to do the whole trail. Just head out for a

3:44

few weeks and walk it end to end. And I would have

3:46

that very summer, but

3:49

graduate school. So

3:52

this was just a long day hike to

3:54

Megatown from the Route 8

3:56

parking lot. Out and back, a total of

3:58

about 26 miles. I'd

4:01

heard on the radio that some

4:03

pretty heavy storms were supposed to come

4:05

through. Almost right on

4:07

top of the mountain, in fact. But to me, at that

4:10

age, that was an attraction, not

4:13

a repellent. It

4:16

was about a mile into the woods, and

4:19

I came up behind a

4:21

guy moving real, real slowly. He had

4:23

no backpack at all. He

4:25

was just holding a plastic

4:27

bag from the target. Super wrinkled, like he'd

4:29

been carrying it for weeks. He

4:32

was pretty stuffed. My first

4:34

thought was, homeless. Some

4:37

guys basically live on the trail. They're always moving.

4:40

They're dependent on the

4:42

kindness of fellow hikers, or they get government

4:45

checks in town once a

4:47

month, stuff like that. You know the one you see

4:49

them. He

4:51

heard me approaching, and he stepped

4:53

off the trail to the side to let

4:55

me pass. There

4:58

was maybe 30 short

5:00

but really uncoamed hair,

5:03

not shaven. He was wearing two sweatshirts to

5:06

spite the heat. His

5:09

sneakers weren't designed at all for hiking,

5:11

and he was wearing, I swear, black

5:14

tuxedo pants. Very thin. He

5:17

kind of smiled at me and said, go ahead. Friendly

5:20

enough. Now,

5:24

I saw probably 100 guys in my hiking

5:26

days who weren't quite right, but it was something

5:28

about his eyes. You

5:30

know how blue eyes are supposedly such

5:33

a great thing to have, right? Well,

5:36

this guy's eyes were blue, but way

5:39

too much so. Their

5:42

color was so intense that

5:45

they looked unreal. Human eyes

5:49

were not meant to be of such

5:51

a stark, angry,

5:53

primary color. There's supposed to be

5:55

some subtlety to them, and

5:58

if that's not there, what you're looking it as a marionette.

6:01

Not a living person. I

6:05

didn't even slow down. I made some comment about the weather,

6:07

something about how it felt like we were about to get

6:09

hit by the rain, and he didn't

6:11

respond to that. He just kept smiling. Kind of the

6:13

way a zombie might smile if you

6:15

count one on the head, sort

6:18

of robotically. I

6:20

just walked past and I picked up my pace and

6:22

I left him behind pretty fast. And you know, I

6:24

thought, that's the trail for you. It

6:26

can be a grab bag. Then

6:30

came the weather. The weather made me

6:32

pay a hefty price about

6:34

a half hour farther down the trail. Now

6:37

this was in the days before you

6:39

could just get constant weather updates on your

6:41

smartphone. No one I knew even had one yet.

6:44

Apparently if I had stayed in my car another

6:46

10 minutes, I would have heard the emergency alert

6:48

on the radio. First

6:50

I thought it was just a big thunderstorm brewing

6:52

above me. Okay, fine. I was only a half

6:56

mile from the Liz Merton shelter,

6:59

but it turned out to be the

7:02

worst one to hit this state in almost

7:04

a decade. The wind

7:06

got so bad, even before the rain hit, that I

7:08

was almost blown off the trail. Then

7:10

this vicious eruption in

7:13

the clouds. I was soaked and

7:15

scared by the time I stumbled onto the shelter. I

7:18

got myself under the little overhang and

7:21

I thanked God I'd made it because when the

7:23

lightning came, the sound alone

7:25

made me put my hands to my

7:27

ears and crawl across

7:29

the wooden platform and curl up against the interior

7:32

wall. Because there was no

7:34

door, the rain swept right across the platform,

7:36

slapped me silly. Trees began to

7:38

fall. At a

7:41

rate I didn't even think was possible. Every three

7:44

minutes there was a crash as

7:46

something toppled. That

7:49

went on for a good half hour before it finally

7:51

deteriorated into a steady

7:54

pounding rain. Now because I

7:56

was an idiot, I actually kept moving forward.

8:00

I found that the trail was blocked in eight

8:02

or ten different places by fallen timber. I

8:04

had to climb over all of it. And

8:06

then an hour later, here came another big storm. This

8:10

time all I could do was shrink beside some rocks

8:12

and hope that branches didn't kill me.

8:15

And I thought, this is it. I'm

8:17

gonna die. I'm gonna die because I

8:19

didn't take the forecast seriously. And

8:22

that's all. That's the only reason my

8:24

life is gonna end. When

8:28

that second storm finally let

8:31

up, I smartened up and I headed back

8:34

in the pouring rain. I was mentally

8:36

exhausted. It was three miserable

8:39

miles being horrified by the wreckage of the

8:41

forest all along the trail. I've

8:44

never seen anything like it since. Massive

8:47

puddles that constantly forced

8:49

me off the path. Mud completely

8:51

drenched my shoes and my socks. The

8:55

rain was still coming down about a mile

8:57

out from the parking lot. So

9:00

this was more than five hours now from

9:02

the time I had started hiking. I

9:05

came to the spot where I had

9:07

passed the strange

9:09

blue-eyed man. And

9:13

he was standing in the exact

9:15

same place. That's

9:18

where his body was even angled in the exact

9:21

same way as when he'd stopped to let me

9:24

go by. Now he

9:26

was absolutely soaked. Crazy

9:29

hair was matted down. His sweatshirts were water-long. He

9:33

was still holding on to that ancient

9:36

target back. All

9:39

around him was this confused

9:41

mess of broken branches and

9:45

fallen timber. It was an epic wipeout.

9:47

The storm had been even worse than

9:49

this spot. There was this one tree.

9:51

It had broken and toppled maybe 20

9:53

feet from the guy. I

9:57

hurried up to him as best I could with the last.

10:00

lousy, sloppy wet footing on the trail and I said,

10:02

are you alright? And

10:05

he came out of whatever days he'd

10:08

fallen into and

10:11

he looked at me with those elementally

10:14

wrong blue eyes, those

10:16

searchlight eyes. And

10:19

he said, oh yeah,

10:22

I just got

10:25

thinking. And

10:27

he turned a little and started

10:30

walking on real slow like before,

10:32

resuming whatever journey he'd

10:34

intended. His

10:36

sneakers did that splitch splitch sound in the

10:39

mud, one step after

10:41

another. That's

10:44

it, that's all that happened. But

10:47

I still hear those words. I

10:51

just got

10:53

thinking. You're

10:57

listening to WLDW, listener

10:59

supported community radio. I

11:01

have a story of another storm, too. Nothing

11:05

like the earth shaker from hell

11:07

that hit the trail that day, but

11:09

still a vivid memory this

11:12

time someone was with me. Well,

11:14

partly. This

11:17

was several years after that first

11:19

weirdness. It

11:22

was a late autumn Wednesday when I should have

11:24

gone to work, but I

11:26

decided instead to take advantage

11:29

of the perfect solitude that

11:31

a weekday jaunt on the Sempronia

11:33

always offers and hike

11:35

up to the north notch camp spot, sleep

11:37

there overnight and then scoot

11:39

back to civilization in the morning. So

11:42

I drove up to Montague and set out alone

11:44

from the edge of the state park there. It

11:47

was about nine miles along the trail. I'd

11:50

never actually been on that part before. Now,

11:55

when the leaves really start

11:58

to fall in earnest ease... year.

12:00

What happens is that they

12:03

very cruelly obscure the

12:05

trail in parts. Sometimes you

12:08

look up and it's just this vast,

12:11

thick, crazy carpet ahead of you. And

12:15

I zoned out like I

12:18

would sometimes do on a hike and for

12:20

the first time ever I truly lost the

12:22

trail. There was some point about an

12:24

hour and a half in where I

12:27

looked up and I realized I had not seen a

12:29

bright green triangular blaze on

12:31

a tree for a long time. I

12:34

wandered back and forth. I thought I must

12:37

have been tricked by a switchback, confused

12:40

it for the real path, but

12:42

the leaf cover made retracing

12:44

very hard. Eventually

12:46

I began to suspect that I had

12:48

lost the true trail much further back

12:50

than I thought and that got me

12:52

nervous. So I

12:54

retraced my steps mentally and I visualized

12:56

my original path in relation to the

12:59

points of the compass, blah blah blah,

13:01

but at some point no

13:04

matter how logically you feel you start

13:06

to get afraid of taking a chance

13:08

to correct yourself. I

13:11

was deep in the Allegheny Mountains and because

13:15

it was a weekday and so cold and those

13:18

fall leaves didn't have a whole

13:20

lot of color anymore, other hikers

13:22

were kind of rare. But

13:24

by chance I noticed this little rut leading

13:28

off to the north. It looked

13:31

like something that might have been worn into the earth over

13:33

time by shoes and the

13:35

boots of hikers and I

13:37

followed it for a time and just when

13:39

I was losing faith that it was going anywhere

13:41

meaningful I saw

13:43

that four flat

13:46

mossy stones, each

13:50

one from about four feet long, had

13:53

been laid end to end seemingly to bridge

13:56

some little muddy patch. over

14:00

them I had to be very careful not to slip

14:02

on the leaves that were clinging to them.

14:04

Then my fear came back about 10 minutes

14:06

later when the rut thinned to almost nothing,

14:10

but then I was miraculously

14:13

delivered onto a yellow-blazed

14:16

muddy fire road that

14:18

forest maintenance used, and

14:21

that eventually got me back onto the

14:24

symposium. I

14:27

told all this that night at

14:29

the North Notch camp spot to one of the most

14:32

interesting people I ever met on the trail. A

14:35

16-year-old kid with bright red

14:37

hair named Micah. He

14:40

was sitting all alone at the

14:43

site putting

14:45

together a metal detector that he had

14:47

more or less made himself. Micah

14:51

told me he was the sole

14:53

youth representative at the board

14:55

meetings of his synagogue. With

14:59

his parents' full blessing he did overnights

15:01

on the trail all the time, as

15:05

long as he kept his satellite phone

15:07

with him and kept

15:09

the Sabbath laws in mind. Micah,

15:13

Micah, Micah, uh, he kept

15:16

pressing me into trying to describe the

15:19

wandering route I had taken there. He was just

15:21

baffled by how badly a grown man could get

15:23

so lost. It

15:26

was only when I mentioned the

15:28

stones that

15:30

he realized where I had been. He said, four?

15:33

Exactly four stones? Long,

15:36

pretty flat? I

15:39

said, yeah. And

15:41

his face sort of fell, and he looked

15:43

a little bit ill. This

15:46

would be the first time I'd ever

15:48

heard the story of the Sempronia Trail

15:51

Keepers. Micah had learned it

15:53

from his extensive reading about

15:55

the topography of the state of

15:57

Pennsylvania. The

16:00

Trailkeepers were these young volunteers who

16:03

had originally helped to maintain

16:05

the Sompronia way back when. In

16:09

1945, five

16:11

of them had gone up to an overlook.

16:14

They were hanging some wooden

16:16

signage up there. And

16:18

four of them had fallen

16:22

to their deaths from

16:25

the rock overhang that jutted over a drop into

16:27

Deer Valley. The young

16:30

man who had been preparing to take their picture

16:32

at the time told police

16:34

that there was a freak wind gust, and

16:37

it had caused two of the group to

16:39

fall, and them

16:41

grabbing outwards to

16:43

the others took them over the edge too.

16:47

And yes, it had been very

16:49

windy that day, maybe even dangerously

16:51

so. But

16:53

the police doubted the story. This

16:56

young man with the camera, his name

16:58

was Christopher, he'd

17:00

been romantically involved with one of

17:03

the dead volunteers, and there had

17:05

been some apparent strife between them

17:08

in the previous weeks, and

17:11

mounting jealousy directed

17:13

toward another member of the group who was

17:15

there on the rock. After

17:19

this tragedy, the overlook was

17:21

closed off to hikers forever. It just

17:23

became overgrown and inaccessible.

17:28

Decades went by and the forensic

17:30

mystery only deepened. People

17:34

reanalyzed the

17:37

weather patterns, physical

17:39

evidence was reevaluated

17:41

over and over again. And

17:45

as those years went by, Christopher

17:48

Heuermuth became more and more

17:50

unhinged. He

17:52

built and lived in a

17:55

crude tree house on the edge of the forest.

17:59

He said it was because because he

18:01

was trying to escape the accusations that were

18:03

directed against him. He

18:05

began this long campaign to get the

18:08

four dead volunteers a memorial

18:10

on the Simponia Trail,

18:13

but the

18:15

trail had bylaws that didn't allow

18:17

such things, and the

18:19

relatives of the deceased did

18:21

not want a memorial like that

18:24

there. So finally he went with

18:26

Valad to build his own. And

18:28

all that obsessive talk,

18:31

it just convinced more people that he

18:34

truly had killed those poor kids in 1945,

18:36

and he'd slowly gone

18:39

mad with guilt. In

18:41

the 60s he

18:44

had, and no one ever quite figured

18:46

out how he did it, he'd laid

18:48

four symbolic, unmarked slate

18:50

stones down in a place so far

18:53

off the trail that only curiosity

18:55

seekers were able to find them, which

18:58

I inadvertently had.

19:03

The stones were where Huremuth was found,

19:06

dead of natural causes in 1989. Micah

19:12

said to me, please tell me you

19:14

went around the stones, you didn't step

19:16

right onto them. And

19:19

I told him no, of course I stepped on them. Don't

19:22

tell me there's some legend about something

19:24

happening if you do. And

19:27

he said, yeah, well, you just

19:31

absolutely have to leave no

19:33

boot marks on them. Absolutely

19:36

none. And

19:38

I gave him this little innocent shrug. I said, oh well.

19:42

But poor Micah, he

19:45

was visibly mortified. Anyway

19:47

he and I talked about baseball

19:49

a bit around the fire, and we both

19:52

turned in early. I shook his hand. I wished him

19:54

good luck with the various engineering projects

19:56

he was working on in his spare time. let

20:00

him know that I would likely be gone

20:02

before first flight. Well,

20:05

sleep didn't work so well and

20:09

my watch told me it was 1.30 when

20:11

I heard the zipper on Micah's tent

20:14

being drawn down. He

20:17

was doing a lot of moving around out there

20:19

then so I stuck my head out. He

20:23

was fastening a head lamp to his forehead

20:25

and screwing the cap onto his

20:28

thermos. I asked him where

20:30

he was headed and he told me that

20:33

he needed to go to the stones

20:36

to wipe off the boot prints. Now

20:41

I will spare you the

20:44

details of the ten frustrating

20:47

minutes of discussion that followed in which I

20:49

tried to bring reason to a seemingly

20:52

reasonable mind except for a clear

20:55

susceptibility to superstition. He

20:58

was determined and I

21:00

think genuinely afraid so

21:02

I gave up and said I'd go. It was only

21:04

a half hour walk. I was the one who'd left

21:06

the prints. I knew exactly where to turn. I'd go.

21:08

I couldn't sleep anyway for

21:11

some reason and I wasn't gonna let

21:13

him get lost out there. Even

21:15

though he said he had the spot marked in

21:18

pencil, he carried around like a dozen maps every

21:20

time he went hiking. I

21:23

even offered to pinky swear that I would

21:25

really go and take a picture of the

21:27

spot. But Micah said no no no you

21:29

can't take a picture. You can't. Suffice

21:33

it to say I was

21:36

soon on my way with my own head

21:38

lamp mostly to sue

21:41

the teenager that I'd never met before.

21:44

A kid who by 21 was probably going to be a

21:48

neurosurgeon or maybe

21:50

the governor of Maryland by then. Now

21:55

night hiking alone is

21:58

something that I've never quite gotten used to. to,

22:00

not quite. Go ahead and

22:02

tell yourself there's nothing out there in the dark that's

22:04

not there in the light. And,

22:07

you know, see if you feel that way through

22:10

the shifting and

22:13

scurrying sounds in the woods all around

22:15

you. And these little eyes

22:18

keep glittering when

22:21

you hit them with the flashlight or your headlamp.

22:23

Night is when predators go hunting out

22:25

there. And in

22:28

summertime I would never night hike

22:31

alone on a rockier part of the trail. I just

22:33

wouldn't do it because someone needs to be a snake

22:35

spotter. I

22:39

knew just where to turn off onto the

22:41

fire road. That part was easy enough. And

22:43

I told myself that if I did not

22:45

remember the exact precise spot where the rut

22:47

took me toward the stones, I would bag

22:49

it and give Micah a

22:51

little white eye. But that

22:53

spot was obvious because there

22:55

was this odd

22:58

rock formation there.

23:00

And I kind of thought it

23:03

was possible that maybe Christopher Heurmuth

23:05

had taken parts

23:09

of his memorial from

23:11

there. Pure speculation.

23:14

I told myself, Christopher, stop thinking

23:16

about such things. There

23:19

were no navigational surprises this time.

23:22

And soon enough, the

23:24

beam of the headlamp fell upon me. Four

23:27

stones. I look at my watch

23:29

and was confused. I was confused because I'd

23:32

gotten to the spot much faster

23:34

than seemed possible.

23:36

Maybe I'd misread the time when

23:39

I'd left the camp. That had to be the case

23:41

because what my watch told me just did not make

23:44

sense. It would not have been

23:46

doable. Because it said

23:48

it was 2.08am and that was only 18 minutes

23:51

since I'd left the camp. No

23:54

way. It could not be. I

23:57

stepped up to within about five of

24:00

feet of those lonely stones. And

24:03

I tried to imagine what it was about

24:05

this seemingly random spot that

24:07

had made Hurma decide that this

24:10

was the place. I'd

24:13

come a long way and it seemed right at that

24:15

point that I'd follow through and

24:17

remove the traces my boots had left on

24:19

the slate. I thought, this one's for you,

24:21

Micah. But

24:25

there were no traces from

24:27

my eight or ten steps

24:29

from hours before. None at all.

24:32

The stones were completely

24:35

unblemished, which was

24:37

weird because the rut had been

24:39

and still was a little muddy,

24:42

as was the simproni itself. I

24:45

looked at the bottoms of my boots.

24:47

They were thoroughly coated with mud. So

24:50

they certainly would have been that afternoon. I

24:54

knelt real close to the stones and I

24:56

ran my hand over one of them.

25:00

I thought, maybe I should

25:02

do a symbolic call. But

25:06

then I tried to stop myself from being so

25:10

noodly. Instead

25:12

I turned and started

25:14

hiking back to the campsite. I

25:18

checked my watch again when I got there and even

25:20

though the way back was just as easy as

25:22

the way to the stones, my

25:25

watch said that 45 minutes

25:27

had gone by since I'd knelt

25:29

at the stones. It was truly another

25:31

head scratcher. I

25:34

walked up to Micah. He was sitting there poking at the remains

25:36

of the fire and I said, I did my duty. And

25:40

he seemed genuinely relieved. He said, good

25:42

night. And I went back

25:44

to my tent. The

25:46

storm came at about four. It

25:49

started out just as rain

25:52

and that had been predicted. But then it

25:54

developed into something more, much

25:57

higher winds. And

25:59

I laid in my tent. tent and I got more

26:01

and more surprised by what I heard the

26:03

trees doing above and all

26:05

around the camp. I thought

26:07

it was hail striking my tent for a while. Between

26:10

wind gusts I heard Micah's

26:12

tent unzip again and I called out

26:15

loudly, you okay over there? And

26:18

he called back, yeah. Things

26:22

did settle down before any significant

26:25

branches began to snap and I suppose we

26:27

just gotten hit by a random squall. No

26:29

real danger. I lay in the dark

26:31

and I stared at the roof of my tent.

26:34

My eyes were just about to close I

26:37

think. When something more

26:39

than the rain seemed

26:41

to touch my tent there

26:43

was a gentle wet creaking.

26:48

It was like the canvas above

26:50

my head was being pressed gently

26:53

inward at a

26:55

few spots on the paintings. I

26:58

reached over where my head lamp lay and

27:01

I switched on and held

27:03

it up. I was kind of alarmed. I

27:05

thought Micah had maybe come over to my

27:07

tent for some reason. But

27:10

there was nothing different about the roof of the

27:12

tent and

27:15

the sound never

27:17

came back. I

27:20

expected to be an unrefreshed wreck the

27:22

next morning and

27:24

I resigned myself to sleeping in and calling

27:26

in really late to work the next

27:28

day. At some point I did fall

27:30

asleep and when I woke up and

27:32

I unzipped my tent flap the

27:35

rain had stopped. The sky outside was gray and

27:38

bleak but it was clear. I

27:40

climbed out I was hungry I was

27:42

uncomfortable my joints were aching I

27:45

was miserable at the thought of how muddy the trail was going to

27:47

be that day. Micah's

27:49

tent was gone. He'd

27:52

left something for me. It

27:54

was a note. He'd put it inside a plastic

27:56

sandwich bag and left it on one of the

28:00

Rocks that was ground to be remnants

28:02

of the fire. He

28:04

put another little rock inside it to pin it down

28:09

The note said I left

28:12

before five At

28:14

the very end of the storm. I swear

28:16

I heard them screaming because they were falling

28:19

over the oval Someone

28:21

yelled stop stop.

28:23

I Have

28:26

to go home That

28:30

was the whole note he didn't

28:32

even sign his name Micah

28:36

would be almost 40 now As

28:41

far as I know the stones are still there I stopped

28:45

hiking the simponia regularly

28:47

in 2016 so I Can't

28:51

really give you a good

28:54

account of how things have changed in tiny

28:56

ways I

29:01

didn't stop for any

29:03

special reason just life stuff I guess

29:07

getting older I've

29:09

been in midlife mode for a while now

29:14

Maybe I do remember a certain feeling I

29:16

got after the last thing happened

29:18

the third thing a

29:22

feeling of the magic leaving the trail for me some

29:26

Mystique I'd imbued it with

29:30

Going away Which

29:32

is what happens to the magical places about

29:34

you sometimes? So

29:36

the places are still wonderful to new

29:39

people who find them for the first time but Not

29:42

for us no longer the golden

29:44

is fades I was

29:48

38 and newly

29:51

divorced I was Driving

29:54

back through Garrett County for a work

29:56

conference and I noticed how

29:58

close I was to the southwestern

30:01

terminus of the Simpronia.

30:04

Kind of the boring part is

30:07

considered. That's where it winds through

30:09

a line of three tiny towns. I'd

30:11

only walked there twice

30:14

before, very briefly, and

30:17

I thought, you know, I have a few hours till

30:19

I need to check in at the hotel. Why not

30:21

take a short stroll? When's

30:23

the last time I'd even been on the Simpronia. No

30:26

backpack, no supplies, just the Pepsi

30:29

I'd just gotten from the 7-Eleven.

30:31

I would just enjoy the scenery. I

30:34

wouldn't count them on. So

30:37

I found a parking spot beside an information

30:40

kiosk. It was shuttered, and it

30:42

didn't even glance at the

30:44

map that was mounted outside it. I would just

30:47

let the bright green blazes

30:49

on the trees guide my way. Trail

30:51

maintenance still used that same

30:54

obnoxious paint color after all those years.

30:58

And you know what? That

31:01

was one of the best walks I

31:03

ever did in my 30s. And

31:06

maybe it was because I put so little

31:08

meaning onto it. I

31:10

had no goal. It

31:12

was late spring, and those

31:16

usually few miles bathed

31:18

in the gold afternoon light,

31:20

they were just perfect. I was as

31:23

content as I have ever been. When

31:26

other hikers passed me, I almost

31:28

felt sorry for them. I almost felt bad because

31:31

they all seemed to be weighed down by

31:33

their packs, and

31:35

driven to get to some next point, like I

31:37

used to be. But

31:39

no more. The

31:42

trail around passed a few

31:44

farms and an occasional house.

31:48

Going past one of these rolling

31:51

lots, I saw that the owners had put

31:53

out a little wooden

31:55

end table and set

31:57

an ice chest on it. filled

32:00

it with floating bottles of water.

32:02

Trail magic for the long-distance hikers

32:04

who started out from, or I

32:06

guess ended at, Christmas City.

32:10

The water actually came along at a very good time.

32:12

I had walked so much further than I thought I

32:14

would that the remains of my

32:16

soda were long gone, so

32:18

I stepped off the trail for a bit and

32:20

I helped myself to a bomb. And

32:23

this older woman, who

32:25

was draped elaborately in classic

32:29

gardening gear, everything you can imagine, she lifted a

32:31

hand to me. She'd been pruning

32:33

some weeds from her yard,

32:36

which was this huge, wild,

32:38

dramatically sloping thing. She

32:40

came over and introduced herself. Her name was Lee.

32:43

And way behind her, her husband

32:45

was stepping off their long, fun

32:47

porch. And he was ambling

32:49

over towards us. His name was Monty. They

32:52

were in their sixties, both in

32:54

very good shape. They shook

32:56

my hand and they immediately dove into

32:58

conversation. Very polite. They

33:01

asked with genuine interest about

33:04

every aspect of my journey that evening

33:06

and my entire history with the trail.

33:09

I didn't mind talking, though I would have to be going on.

33:13

They'd lived in that big old

33:15

house and owned the maple trees for

33:18

30 years. They both sold

33:21

insurance and they had this interesting arrangement

33:23

where one of them would work

33:25

full time while the other would focus

33:27

more on the house and the property and such. And at

33:29

some point they'd switch and try

33:31

that split for a while. They

33:34

had no kids. They

33:36

were fascinated by my job, which

33:39

back then it had become pretty intense

33:41

to me about developing new cooking technology.

33:45

And that of course led to the discussion

33:47

about food and you know how long

33:50

that can go on. They invited

33:52

me onto their porch for a pie tasting

33:54

because Monty had just given Cherry a go.

33:57

Now on any other day, I... probably

34:00

would have just given my apologies and

34:03

shoved off. I was

34:05

very good at protecting my social borders.

34:08

But this time I said, sure, why not? And

34:11

I ascribed that to this undeniable

34:15

feeling that my life was changing.

34:18

And I was leaving old things behind,

34:20

most definitely my time on the sopronia,

34:23

because with my job, it was just becoming more

34:26

and more inconvenient to visit.

34:30

That afternoon I felt this desire to stop

34:32

time. Plus

34:34

I just plain liked this couple, who

34:36

were still plainly in love after

34:38

four decades of marriage. That fascinated me.

34:42

We were there on the porch and we talked

34:44

about everything as dusk

34:46

crept in with the May

34:48

light playing so gracefully

34:51

on the slope of

34:53

their property. It was soothing

34:55

just to watch the shadows unfurl

34:58

from me. Maple trees

35:00

can get longer, longer. It

35:04

came out that Monty and Lee never really

35:06

loved home anymore. Hadn't for 15 years

35:08

or more. Didn't feel the need. They

35:11

did their business totally by phone. And once in a while

35:13

they had a client in for the

35:16

consultation. Grocery shopping they

35:18

did once a month, two

35:20

towns over. They loved

35:22

the land and this home they'd built all the

35:25

way back in 1979. They

35:29

knew every bird that visited them

35:31

by name. They read

35:33

voraciously. Monty loved military history.

35:37

And Lee was a fan of

35:39

those big sprawling 19th century novels

35:42

like Fakare, people like that. And

35:45

they sat there together on a

35:47

wicker sofa. At one point I remember

35:49

Lee said to her husband, I

35:52

don't know whether you're boring me with your submarine

35:55

stories or the line is too

35:57

powerful but my energy level is. fire.

36:01

And she did this big

36:04

melodramatic collapse sideways into his arm.

36:06

She was laughing. And he

36:09

pretended to be in pain and desperately

36:11

gasping for breath. And

36:13

he said he didn't remember her being such a plow

36:15

horse or something like that. It

36:18

was it was such an unforced and

36:21

youthful display of affection.

36:24

I felt a tug of sadness. I

36:27

hadn't mentioned to them how messy

36:29

my divorce had been. We

36:33

eventually parted without one of

36:35

those typical tiring empty promises to get

36:37

back in touch or or

36:40

keep an eye out for each other on the trail. There was

36:42

none of that. It was simply so long. Nice to meet you

36:45

the way it should be. I had

36:48

just enough time to get back to my car before night

36:50

film or so I thought. The

36:53

scenery on the way back was simple

36:55

and predictable and nothing you couldn't

36:57

see on any decent suburban trail.

37:00

But I soaked it in with

37:03

real happiness. I

37:05

saw myself becoming likely

37:08

in Monty maybe in late 10 more years. Talking

37:11

to them made me feel so

37:14

much better about wanting

37:16

less and less less

37:18

clutter. Let's hurry. Let's

37:20

human contact and

37:25

whatever romance would

37:27

wind up being my last

37:29

one. I vowed I remember

37:31

it was right there on the trail. I

37:34

vowed not to

37:36

bring to it my usual locked

37:39

chest of secret

37:42

hopes and expectations. I

37:45

would try to let the mystery of another

37:48

human being be messy

37:50

and unpredictable and

37:53

even unfair. She

37:56

and I would let age

37:58

and time and quiet

38:02

temper our interior

38:04

storms. We

38:06

would grow old and content somewhere

38:09

we could see the mountains. I

38:13

walked at such a leisurely

38:15

pace that I actually did have to bail because

38:17

it got too dark. That

38:20

was easy enough because at several points in

38:22

that area, the Sempronia comes within

38:24

yards of reform. I

38:27

parted the woods and I hopped out to where

38:29

the land was open enough so I could at

38:31

least make my way down the shoulder with good

38:33

visibility. Maybe not the perfect

38:35

way to end that day, but at

38:38

least tramping down the road made me feel more like

38:40

a rough and tumble hiker

38:43

the way I used to be. I

38:46

didn't realize then that those

38:48

would be my last steps on

38:50

the Sempronia. Not

38:52

because of any one reason, mind you, but

38:55

because life takes us where

38:57

we don't always expect to

38:59

go. 10

39:02

minutes into my tramping, a cop car slowed

39:04

beside me and pulled onto the shoulder. And

39:07

this small town trooper popped up out of the

39:09

driver's side and he gave me a very cheerful

39:12

chaining to big cannon. The chaining

39:14

was an old hiker town term.

39:17

It meant you were getting off the

39:19

trail to make your way towards someplace that had restaurants

39:22

and groceries and

39:24

a place to stay for the night, probably a hostel.

39:27

They had special rates for people hiking along

39:29

the distance. I hadn't heard that

39:31

word spoken in a lot of years. It

39:34

was friendly tradition in towns that connected

39:37

to the trails remote stretches

39:39

for local folks to give

39:41

rides to the pack weary wanderers they spotted

39:44

coming out of the woods. You know, the

39:46

dedicated ones who looked like they were going

39:48

the whole length, all 181 miles. I

39:52

showed the cop that I didn't even have a

39:54

backpack. And I said, look, my chaining days are

39:56

long behind me. I just got caught a little

39:58

behind on time. And he laughed

40:01

and offered to give me a lift back to my

40:03

car, and I accepted. I was getting hungry. I

40:05

wondered if you really thought I was chaining or just

40:08

thought it couldn't hurt to stop and

40:10

talk to the weird guy walking alone down the highway

40:13

in the dark. The

40:15

cop asked me if I had had a nice day on the trail, and

40:17

I said it had been great, that I

40:19

had met some terrific people who lived right on it. He

40:22

told me he might recognize their names. I

40:25

said, Lee and Monte

40:27

Rills something, and he nodded and

40:30

he said, Greenwich. He

40:33

seemed kind of intrigued that they had

40:35

been out in their yard when I spotted them. He

40:37

kind of implied that they didn't even like to come out of

40:39

their house most of the time. He

40:42

said he supposed they got lonely for human contact once

40:44

in a while, and he asked

40:46

me what we talked about. His

40:48

questions had this weird tone to them that

40:50

he didn't really intend. It

40:53

sounded really like genuine

40:55

inquiry. I

40:57

remember we turned on to Blackburn

41:00

Road, getting kind

41:02

of closer to our destination, and I asked him

41:04

how well he knew the Renuges. He

41:06

told me that about 12 years before, he'd

41:09

had reason to visit their house quite a few times. There

41:13

had been a couple of disappearances back around that time.

41:16

Two young people, two young women. One

41:20

vanished from a campsite way down

41:22

the Simponia in Gristwall. And

41:25

the other had just been passing through Glance

41:28

on a road trip to Ohio. Just

41:30

vanished about six months apart, never found. Presumed

41:34

dead by now, unofficially. I'd

41:36

never heard of these cases, but I guess the

41:39

timeline had me mostly

41:41

absent from the area around then. He

41:44

didn't want to bore me with just how the Renuges

41:46

came into the picture, but there had been some loose

41:49

talk and eventually

41:51

some forensic things were performed in

41:53

their house just to clear them.

41:56

It had been their idea actually. But

41:58

the cops said that that the

42:00

process hadn't

42:02

exactly cleared them 100%. And

42:06

in town, they had become priors

42:09

pretty quickly. Retreated from

42:11

sight mostly and stayed as cleared. Some

42:14

people hadn't ever really forgotten the whole

42:16

affair. We

42:18

came to the parking lot where my rental car

42:20

was. We turned into it. And

42:23

I said to the cop, no

42:26

charges or anything though, right? He

42:29

said, no, no, no, no one ever got arrested.

42:31

A lot of people got talked to. They

42:34

just got talked to more, but

42:36

they seemed like nice folks like you say. I

42:40

said, I guess it's what he

42:42

called a cold case then. And

42:45

he sighed and he said, yeah, probably

42:48

permanent. I still have to go

42:50

through the files sometimes, part of the job. We

42:54

pulled up beside my car there and

42:58

we stared out at the lovely spring

43:01

dark for a last quiet moment before

43:03

I opened the passenger

43:05

side door and started to step

43:07

out. And

43:09

I asked him, and it was really unfair for

43:11

me to do this. And I didn't expect an

43:13

answer. I asked him, do

43:17

you think they were involved? And

43:21

he said, yeah, I

43:24

think they did it. Then

43:27

I called the police. WLDW,

43:38

listener supported a community radio

43:40

from the campus of Franklin

43:42

and Marshall College. I'm Nick

43:44

Wise, giving away here after

43:46

our break to State your

43:49

Litco for nighttime blue Samantha.