Maine, the land of Ahhh’s

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I had the pleasure of visiting Maine a few weeks ago. More specifically, I visited Limerick, Maine. If I recall, I don’t think the town has a traffic light, if there is, there can’t be more than one. I was there on the invite of Rex Harper. He is a ham radio operator of some renown and he invited me to come to the town library and give my Appalachian Trail presentation. 

Maine, being one of the most challenging and interesting parts of the AT, easily lures me up there for any reason, and this was no exception. I found Rex’s home in mid-afternoon and after refreshing a bit, we went down to the town library. The library is an older building, substantial, and impressive. The halls, walls and rooms all tell a story of place that is loved and cherished by it’s citizens. Just as many enjoy holding an old book in their hands, this library had that same feel.
The librarian, Cindy, greeted us and help with setup. In such a rural setting I was expecting maybe seven people to show up; traveling to the library when gas prices are so high is an expedition in rural areas. Much to my surprise I think maybe 30+ showed up. I was stunned. We started on time and I did my best to give such a wonderful audience my all. They were fantastic. After about fifty minutes of presentation we started with the questions and answers and they went on for a very long time. I learned a lot about Maine and I hope they learned a lot about the Appalachian Trail.
There were a fair number of radio hams in the audience, I think Rex (ham call letters: W1REX) primed the pump so they would show up. Not only did this educate the locals about the trail, I think it may have also given them some insight into amateur radio, at least I hope so.
It was a fabulous evening and I can’t thank them enough for allowing me to come and tell them about the trail and the book. Hopefully, I will hear from a few of those that took a book home to read.
Thank you Maine and especially Limerick…
Dennis “K1” Blanchard

Candidates need reals tests, not debates.

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All of the attention was on New
Hampshire recently because of the GOP political debate. Much was made
of the candidates doing a televised debate to score points with the
party faithful. I have some advice for them, and the Democrats as
well when their time comes: spare me.

If politicians really want to score
points, here is a way they could do it. Hike the Appalachian Trail
(AT). I mean it. There would have to be a few rules so it doesn’t
turn into a media circus. They’d only be allowed maybe five “zero
days” where they’d be allowed to stage media events, interviews and
the like. They would only be allowed a limited budget for gear, food,
hostels and the like. Maybe they should fore-go their health care
plan for the duration, like so many hikers that have no health care.

They could hike together if they wish,
but I think they would find, like most thru-hikers do, that they have
different paces and interests and before long would find themselves
hiking with strangers that are more in sync with them. Those
strangers may, or may not, be politically in sync with them, but they
quickly learn that is not important on the trail, finding the next
meal and place to bed down is more important.

As I hiked the AT I was convinced that
every candidate for President, the Senate and the House should be
required to do a thru-hike. It connects one with reality and brings
one back to the basics. Day in and day out an individual has to carry
all of their worldly needs on their back. They have to plan a budget,
keep to a schedule, find shelter and meet their own needs. More often
than not, they end up having to depend on others. How many of the
people that run for high offices in this country have actually ever
done that?

To my knowledge, not very many people
of elevated political status in this country, have ever hiked the AT.
I could be wrong of course. William O. Douglas, a former Supreme
Court Justice does have a shelter named after him in Vermont, he did
hike it.

The beauty of the hike is not the
physical challenge, it is the mental challenge. Suddenly one is
thrust into an environment where everyone is equal and everyone is at
the mercy of the elements. The real beauty however, is the generosity
of others; the other hikers, trail angels and people met along the
way. Meeting people in small towns and boroughs that have lost their
jobs and health care and they still offer a hand to you can be a very
sobering experience. People that have lost their homes due to the
financial meltdown that help you find a place to stay can be an eye
opener. I don’t say this lightly, I’ve met those people.

Debates in nice sanitary environments,
with carefully guarded questions and bright lights tell us nothing
about the candidates. A cold, dark shelter, surviving days on end of
extreme rain and dealing with incessant insects, random snakes and
bears could perhaps tell us far more about the candidates than any
debate ever will. That would be a very bright light to shine on these
individuals.

Miserable weather, but a great time.

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Yesterday I had the pleasure of hiking up Mt. Passaconaway in New Hampshire with my hiking friend, New York Minute.  The drive from where we met up to the mountain was about one and a half hours. We had a nice lively discussion on the way and were totally enjoying ourselves and then it dawned on me: we had not once mentioned the weather or even commented on it. Mt. Passaconaway was a four-thousand foot peak that neither of us had yet done.

Understand now that the weather outside was terrible. It was foggy, cold and raining, and we were going hiking! I mentioned this to New York Minute and we both burst out in laughter! The conclusion was that we were either two very experienced hikers and could brave anything, or, more likely: we were idiots.

In spite of this situation, we arrived at the trail head, parked, suited up, put on our packs and headed off into the wilderness. In all, it was a fabulous day. We did climb to the rather auspicious peak of the mountain, if it were not for a sign marking the summit, I don’t think we would have known we were at the top. We stopped long enough to wolf down a quick lunch in the rain, but didn’t stay long because we started shivering from being so wet and so cold. We had climbed up on the Dicey Mills Trail and took a much longer, steeper route down via several different trails. I haven’t worked out the distance, but I would guess about nine or ten miles.

On the return trip we stopped at a pizza place, Pizza Barn, in Ossipee, NH and had pizza. While there, noting the rustic setting, I noticed old photos and documents on the wall that were about a William Blanchard. Since that is my last name, I asked the waitress about him and she noted that he was her grandfather and he had started the restaurant many years before. I gave her a business card about the book, THREE HUNDRED ZEROES and she told me she had several uncles that had hiked the trail and she would pass it on to them.

In all, it was a great day, although I do admit being totally chilled to the bone, an unusual event for me.

Dennis “K1” Blanchard

Dayton, Ohio, “Hamvention” was warm and friendly.

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Every year radio amateurs from all over the nation converge on Dayton, Ohio. It is the annual “Hamvention,” a gathering of the clan. Anywhere from 25,000 to as many as 55,000 spend a few days at the worlds largest ham radio gathering.

The gathering is so large that there are subsets of gatherings, which of themselves are substantially large. I spent most of my time at one such event, the FOUR DAYS IN MAY, or FDIM as it is known. This is a collection of radio amateurs that are sincerely interested in conservation: they insist on communicating with radio transmitters that use 5 watts or less of power. This is significant because the legal power limit is as much as 1500 watts. 
Why do they do it? Simple, they’ve found that, in most cases, the additional power is just wasted. It is the same as using a 475 horsepower automobile for transportation when a golf cart will suffice. Another practical reason to do so is the equipment is portable, small and will run on batteries. This is why I chose low-power, or in ham radio jargon: QRP, operation. QRP is an abbreviation used by ham radio operators (one of many “Q” abbreviations) on Morse code to indicate their power level. It is much easier, on Morse code, to send the three letters “Q,” “R,” “P,” than it is to send out a character string such as, ” I am running low power here, 5 watts to be exact.” Low power, battery operated equipment suits my hiking environment.
On the Appalachian Trail I carried a radio that fits inside an Altoids mint tin and managed to communicate with radio amateurs all over the country.
This year, at the Hamvention, I had the good fortune of addressing an audience in a Forum about my hike. It was on Sunday morning and I feared a small turnout since many of the long distance travelers to the event leave Sunday morning to return to the far reaches of the globe, and the east and west coast. I was thrilled to see the room nearly full. The room holds several hundred!
The audience was engaged, fun, and lively. It was a fantastic session. I presented a bunch of video slides about the hike and took questions afterwards. It was practically a mob scene and did my heart good to see so much enthusiasm. It is always thrilling for a public speaker to have such a great audience.
I closed the discussion with a slide that summed it all up. I announced that on my next hike on the Camino de Santiago, in Spain, I was going to use QRO power. (QRO translates as high power, at least hundreds of watts). I showed this ridiculous slide that shows me pulling a very large wagon, with a 5 kilowatt power generator, video terminal, ancient high-powered radios and tuners on my back and an automobile battery. Those that use QRP had good chuckle on that one…
QRO

Is Sarasota still that mean?

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In my book I had mentioned how Sarasota had won a “Mean City” award for how it deals with people that are homeless. Today there was an editorial in the local paper, The Herald-Tribune, that shows at least a few people in this city have a heart, at least the editorial writer, Eric Ernst, does. The writer was pointing out that the City of Sarasota is now removing the park benches so the homeless will have no place to sit.

One line in the column caught my eye: 
“They don’t want their grandchildren, visiting from Up North, to be subjected to folks who haven’t bathed in a week, who walk around muttering to themselves and swig alcohol from bottles.”
That could have probably described a few folks I was hiking with as well! I muttered to myself on at least half of the trail, and still do. Last year there was a proposal to play loud, classical music, in the parks to drive the homeless away. In another move, they made it illegal to sleep in public, forgetting that we have wonderful beaches where people fall asleep sunbathing. Maybe they were concerned about sunburn victims? Go figure. 

Sadly, these simplistic, childish solutions, do not remedy the problem. They’re band-aides, not solutions, and not even very good band-aides. I often wonder if my brother had not died of his wounds in Vietnam and instead survived and came home and ended up homeless because he couldn’t support himself, I wonder would they be taking away his park bench? Many of the homeless are veterans. We can have a parade to honor them, but take away their bench to watch the parade.

Surely, as a nation, we’re better than this?

Dennis “K1” Blanchard

Podcast of WSLR Local Matters interview of Dennis Blanchard

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This is a recording of the interview on 2 May, 2011 with Sharon Fitzpatrick and Dennis Blanchard on the WSLR show, LOCAL MATTERS. The theme of the discussion is both about specific works of the authors as well as more general discussion around what it takes to write, edit, publish and market a book in todays changing publishing world. 
The staff at WSLR love to receive critical comments on their show productions, so let them know how they’re doing, even if just a one liner. Feedback is appreciated.
Dennis “K1” Blanchard

Were they practicing on hikers for Bin Laden?

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During my hike of the Appalachian Trail, in four separate incidents, I suspect I may have been a “target” for Black Ops helicopter crews. Let me explain…

As many already know, I hiked the trail over a two year period, 2007-2008. During that time, strange events would occur during the night. Usually, between midnight and three in the morning on a moonless night, a helicopter would appear out of nowhere. Well, maybe “appear” is a poor choice of words. The chopper had no lights on whatsoever and being so dark, it was difficult to see any identification at all, if there was any. On the last visit, the chopper didn’t even wake me up, and it was right over me. 
The craft would hover right down into the trees, the bottom of the helicopter actually in the leaves and limbs of the trees. It would hover for maybe a minute or two at the most and then quickly dart away and disappear. 
Since the incident in Pakistan where they finally took down Bin Laden I’ve wondered if they were practicing on me and other hikers along the trail? We make perfect targets for such an operation: mobile, in a different location every night, difficult to identify due to tree cover or being inside of a shelter, and located far from things that are dangerous to fly around in the dark, i.e. telephone poles, towers and the like. I speculated that they (whomever “they” are?) were working on a personnel identification system, maybe I wasn’t that far off. I wonder if they knew exactly which room Bin Laden was in?
Since I am tall, bearded and “Bin Laden” like, I’ve often fancied myself a useful target for them to work with. I’ll never know of course, but I can only hope that in some way, maybe I played a role. 
Starting on page 175 (Kindle = 52%) of THREE HUNDRED ZEROES I discuss the incidents in some detail and even at that time speculated that maybe this was what was going on. Of course, I can’t help myself, there is some humor in there as well, but maybe, just maybe, it was far more serious than I knew.
Comments?
Dennis “K1” Blanchard

A book’s far reaching consequences…

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Occasionally, I receive a letter that is so heartfelt, that it goes deeply into my psyche.
When I wrote THREE HUNDRED ZEROES, it was my intention to tell a humorous story, a story about my adventures on the Appalachian Trail. Chapter six of the book deals with my heart surgery, it is funny, but at the same time it is serious, telling us that  we all need to pay attention to our health. The following letter moves me as a writer, it is so rewarding to know this story has made a difference in the lives of others:
We’re Elizabeth and Josh from, Arkansas, and we’re on our second read of your book, “Three Hundred Zeroes.” When we got to your chapter by that title, where you challenge the reader to get active and do something, I remembered that I’d intended to write to you about how your book provided some great inspiration for us. Your book is witty, optimistic and just really fun to read. We sure begin to feel like we’re really out there on the trail, which is where we want to be someday.
 
We’re in our thirties with four kids and a dream of one day hiking the A.T. together. Josh says he won’t go without me! We’ve already read a pile of good books about the trail, from how-tos to personal accounts. We first read your book in early fall of 2010. It added significantly to my husband’s realization that, if he was going to be healthy enough to hike the A.T. in 15 years or so, he needed to make some lifestyle changes. He’s a biology teacher and has always loved the outdoors, and he always has some project or new hobby going, but he wasn’t taking care of himself, and diet fads and new years’ resolutions weren’t sticking.  
 
Last summer, one of his groomsmen was diagnosed with diabetes, another family friend in his sixties made some major life changes and told us his story, and we read your book. In the past nine months, Josh has lost 63 pounds and exercises regularly – especially if I go with him! We’ve also begun to work out weekend backpacking trips while the kids go to grandparent camp, and Josh loves how he’s able to eat whatever he wants on the trail and still lose weight! He was already a great guy; I’m just so proud of him!
 
Josh will be eligible for retirement the year our last two kids graduate from high school. It’s still a ways out, and we don’t know what will be going on in our lives, but we want to be really intentional now to do our part to make it possible, and your optimism and perseverance continue to encourage us both.
 
Thanks for writing your book!
 
Sincerely,
Elizabeth
Thank you Elizabeth! It is so gratifying to know that I’ve been able to contribute something and that one day, you and Josh may hike the Appalachian Trail. With any luck you may find some of your kids wanting to do it as well. Happy trails!
Dennis “K1” Blanchard

Interesting Kindle feature for favorite lines in a book.

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Amazon has added a neat feature to the Kindle. While reading a book, the reader can highlight a sentence by clicking the Kindle control “5-Way” button at the start of text and then again at the end of a text section, or sentence and then share that line with the book’s site at Amazon. (The sharing feature has to be enabled in the Menu…settings.) The highlight also shows up when someone is reading the book on their Kindle (if enabled). 
I happened to look at THREE HUNDRED ZEROES today and when I scrolled down I saw the following quotes from the book listed:

&quote;

The mice rule the shelters, and if there are no mice, that’s because there are lots of snakes eating the mice…take your pick. &quote;

Highlighted by 7 Kindle users
&quote;

“I like to stay at a certain low level of pissed-off at all times, that way I never lose it and blow my top!” &quote;

Highlighted by 6 Kindle users
&quote;

As a rule of thumb, the pack should weigh about twenty percent of one’s body weight, &quote;

Amazon has hit on something very interesting. It is creating a community of readers that are “voting” on favorite lines from the book. I started hunting around and here are a few other amusing ones. The first are from Bill Bryson’s, A WALK IN THE WOODS:

&quote;

If there is one thing the AT teaches, it is low-level ecstasy—something we could 
all do with more of in our lives. &quote;

Highlighted by 52 Kindle users
&quote;

What on earth would I do if four bears came into my camp? Why, I would die, of course. Literally shit myself lifeless. I would blow my sphincter out my backside like one of those unrolling paper streamers you get at children’s parties—I daresay it would even give a merry toot—and bleed to a messy death in my sleeping bag. &quote;

Highlighted by 52 Kindle users
&quote;

I was beginning to appreciate that the central feature of life on the Appalachian Trail is deprivation, that the whole point of the experience is to remove yourself so thoroughly from the conveniences of everyday life that the most ordinary things—processed cheese, a can of pop gorgeously beaded with condensation—fill you with wonder and gratitude. &quote;

Highlighted by 45 Kindle users
Here is one from WATER FOR ELEPHANTS, By Sara Gruen:

&quote;

Nothing happens to me anymore. That’s the reality of getting old, and I guess that’s really the crux of the matter. I’m not ready to be old yet.&quote;

Highlighted by 458 Kindle users

This one is from PENTECOST: A Thriller, By Joanna Penn:

&quote;There is evil that humans conjure and use against each other. There are words of power that can be used as weapons. Myths that have spanned millennia are based on strands of truth. &quote;
Highlighted by 3 Kindle users

Here you can look at the top rated Kindle book favorites: Books with most public notes.
What will they think of next?

Dennis “K1” Blanchard