The Report

“more than zenhiker, apparently.”

“Between Chip snorring and the mouse football game going on next to me. It's a wonder I got any sleep.”

“Whats a good trail mix without some nuts?”

“Zenhikers name is Chip.
Chips must can snore real good. hehehe”

“I think this Thread should have been called:
"Rad & Dude's Bogus Journey"”

“lol”

“I got my pictures today. I gotta get my scanner going and I'll post some.”

“"Dude and Rad's Excellent Adventure!"

Bogus, Dude!”

“I got my window fixed. No more trash bag Duct Taped over the hole.”

“Way to go Dude!”

“sweet, dude!

party on!”

“That was a good story.. I enjoyed reading of your adventure.”

“My son 'phoned last night. He said he was doing well and still had his job at the clothing store. This is good news. Charlie is a good talker, is very presentable and bright. He is also manic-depressive.

He was always a difficult child and often in trouble at school. Although extremely intelligent, he didn't complete high school, which was hard for me to take, being a hogh school teacher. I didn'trealize that by his senior year, he could no longer control his thoughts to read a book or concentrate on math problems; he had been fighting and hiding his terrible secret for many years, too long then for him to seek help. I couldn't figure it out and thought it was because I had tried too hard to be the perfect father or that it was because of an unhappy marriage and a difficult divorce.

When his mother couldn't handle him any more he came to live with me and it was a stormy relationship to say the least. He left for a while at the end of 1998. Meanwhile my daughter, whose mother signed a lease for her in Montreal a week after she turned 16 so that she could live with her boyfriend (she being both of them) had fallen on hard times. Suzanne, my daughter had dropped out of college (she had finished high school on her own in the city) and was practically homeless, living with a succession of friends.

Well, things had been rough between her and myself, because I had had child welfare people on their a$$es a few times along with the principal of her school and she saw me as the bad guy who was trying to stop her from doing what she wanted. I got a call from the hospital Christmas, 1998 and she came to live with me for the next six months to get back on her feet and back into school. She's doing fine now.

Anyway, when that was all over (I thought), I got away into the Dacks to bag a few high peaks with my buddy John and we had a great time. When I got back on my birthday, 8 July, 1999 I had a call that my son had been hit by a car and was between life and death. Well he was nuts on medication and when he wanted to convalesce at home with me and the hospital couldn't get rid of him fast enough. Throughout the summer, I got up several times a night to bring him his pee bottle or to change his postion. In August he could sit in a wheel chair if I dragged and lifted him into it. Throughout this ordeal, I had to endure endless verbal abuse and when he could walk on crutches he left to stay with friends in the country. I took sick leave with depression.

Bell's rung, gotta go. To be continued...”

“well, i can tell you right now that wherever this story is going, it will not change my mind about Chip. it tragic that he has a problem, but i refuse to accept that type of annoyance and belligerancy. there were two choices: kick his ass out, or leave. i should not have had to leave, but i did. if he has such a problem with people, maybe he should get a tent.”

“It's great that you had the option of leaving. It's a whole nother story when it's a family memeber who's mentally ill; esp if the rest of the family has already abandoned them.

Chip probably doesn't think he's in the wrong. I would've left the shelter too.”

“Cool. My son had his first, and so far only, major psychotic episode last spring. He was in the hospital for over a month and often restrained.

Rad, I have taught high school seniors exclusively for the last ten years - the absolute cream of the crop of young adults. I don't tell them that, of course, I call them ugly pre-humans. For years I taught special ed. either full time or some classes - rugby coaches tend to get the difficult classes. I coach boys' and girls' rugby and volleyball. We are a small community, more like a large family and when one of my kids has a problem, I'm often the one he or she comes to see. I can usually help them or find someone who can. With my special ed. kids I could understand their frustration and anger at being eternal losers in a world they could neither understand nor control in spite of normal or above average intelligence, but I could not see it in my own son and shall carry that with me to the grave.

All this, Rad, just to say that you guys did the right thing, whether by accident, design or inspiration. That you were warned about Chip's presence indicates that others did not do as well and that there had been previous incidents.

When my son was hospitalised, the chief psychiatrist took me aside and told me that whatever he said or did, somewhere inside, my son knew he was terribly ill and was very frightened.

Of course Chip ought to take his medication, or buy a tent, or not disturb others, or stay in the city, or be locked up, or, or, or.... Or what? Exclude from parks? Maybe.

Maybe parks are his only way of surviving in his own, tortured world. Who knows? I certainly don't; but you guys did the right thing and I believe in my deepoest heart that what we do comes back. Anyhoo, that's enough of being serious, bell's rung. God bless and happy trails.”

“I stayed in the shelter cause I was too tired to get up and pack. Chip didn't really scare me. He seemed to like me & Rad. The whole time he talked to us, he never really got hostile or anything. He Just talks with a loud volume. The way he treated the photographer was TOTALLY uncalled for but he never treated us like that. Somewhere down the line though, Someone's not gonna want to put up with sh!t and beat the Hell out of him. And I won't blame em' either!”

“I finally got my stuff in the mail today that was taken from my truck. Now I can listen to my new Motly Crue tape again! COOL!!!!!!”

“whew! i'm glad you got all of your stuff back. i felt rotten about that whole ordeal.

yeah, it was almost more disturbing to me that chip liked us alot, yet hated the photographer.

we are all out there for our own reasons, and chip does not have the right to try to deny anyone the experience of being there.”

“Of course he doesn't but he doesn't think the same way you or I do. It's the most frustrating thing in the world to have a close relationship with someone who's mentally ill. You wonder constantly why they do the things they do but there's no reason for it aside from their sickness.”

“Dude, I`m glad you got your stuff back! I can`t wait till you and Rad get back from your next adventure and see if it can top the last one.LOL”

“SHEEEEEEEEW!
I can take most things but I hope Break-ins never are a part of anymore Trips. I thought the "Chip" part of the story was kinda entertaining.”

“Chip may have selected the pix guy because he was solo. .”

“Here ya go.”

“well”

“wally~ and i did this same hike, just this past weekend.

it was a very pleasant, uneventful trip.

except when the ninjas took wally~ away that second night.

i'm gonna miss him.”

“I was out hiking when y'all posted this report. 'twas fun reading it this morning. Thx, Mary”

“Usurper posted on the "Blood Mountain Incident" thread that they wanted to see the trip report. That's why I brought it back up.”

“chip had tea for dinner.

or did tea have chips for dinner???”

“This is the best trip report EVER!!!”

“those guys ROCK!!!”

“I like my report better!”

“too funny

I miss milk more than beer too”

“WD-Motley Crue is my all-time favorite band!
They have a new albumn out?

Man, i gotta get off TT and listen to the radio..”

“Biz
The last one I know of in "New Tatoo"
Motley Crue is my all time favorite band too!
I got "Motley Crue Live - Entertainment or Death" in the cassette player in the truck right now.

You got good taste in mucic Biz!”

“"New Tatoo?" don't have it, might have to make a trek over to Wherehouse to get it..

thanks WD!”

“Seems this lady came up with the perfect 'Chip' repellent: Flattery.

From: janet hensley
To: AT-L@mailman.backcountry.net
Subject: [at-l] "Chip" Leonard sighting
Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 07:50:26 -0800 (PST)

I just had a completely weird experience in my front
yard. I saw a hiker coming towards me and waited to
greet him. When he approached me I saw it was the man
I had been told was Ward or "Chip" Leonard during a
recent visit to Hot Springs. He stopped and rubbed
his chin and said "I know you!" I explained that I had
never met him but that I had heard alot about his many
thru hikes and the records he has held and would enjoy
talking to him and would be glad to give him a ride
into town. He backed up, gave me a strange look and
said "Well, Miss Janet, flattery is the first sign of
deceit so I will just walk!" I am glad I don't scare
all my hikers off that easy! Talk about a lick at my
ego!
So that was my meeting with the infamous
"Chip" Leonard.

Miss Janet”

“Yep. Sounds like our buddy Chip.
One wierd motherfuc#er.”

“Just bringing this one back to life for some people to read from the Ocala trip.”

“Thanks for bringing it back to life. What a great trip report read. How amazing that you got your things back, WD. Shame about the window. That poor Chip fellow, he must have a bit of a hard life. Brought on by his own strange actions, I would wager, but still quite sad for him. Glad you fellows had such a good hike after all.”

“Developing pictures and Motley Crue on tape - we've gotten old in a hurry!”

“No kidding. When he mentioned getting the film deveoloped, I had to do a double take.”