All posts by Fitkoh

Working for an individual twice my age (in my 40s) means that death is a constant companion and the infirmities of existence are omnipresent.

Moments of solitude in which I can simply exist without external pressures are still very necessary and appreciated.

While around civilization and not performing any epic travels, I decided to blog about simpler things: like packing up camp.

This video was shot with a new camera and edited with new software, and demonstrates the packing procedure start to finish.

I also did some experimenting with live streams. I was able to successfully stream for 48 seconds. Nothing exciting was recorded. I didn’t have anything planned because I didn’t expect it to work.

I shared a lunch recently with 2 southbounders: Stinky on the right and Turd on the left. Not true to their names they seemed like fairly regular humans. Stinky from Texas and Turd from Northern Virginia, both of them seemed fairly weathered and ready to complete their journey.

Last week I met a weary traveler by the name of Wonder Woman who insisted I had superpowers. Naturally, this irony amused me.

If any sufficiently advanced technology is perceived as magic, I reckon the same holds true in other constructs: once removed far enough from the objective perspective any subject seems magical.

No superpowers were required for cooking chili dogs over a fire on a mountain top. Nor are there any requirements for opportunistic scavenging. Just ask the bear.

Recently I’ve only had time for hiking on the weekends.

My last trip was up Peter’s Mountain to the Rice Fields Shelter with the hopes of finding an old spring.

On the way up.the hill I stopped to repair a water source.

I didn’t find the spring with the water table so low but I found where it usually runs.

I also enjoyed some spectacular views and an amazing sunset.

Something is causing my image gallery to have a memory leak and crash the server.

For now, images on the site are being served through a cache, but that may expire before I can get it fixed. I’ve submitted a support request at github and awaiting response.

(Edit) Everthing seems to be working again.

Resuming regular programming.

Looking back on the last week or so:

I’ve been camping close to town and doing some light duty work a few days and placing ads on ebay in between, with a trip up to the mountains during the weekend.

On the work front I’ve done some cleaning, some grass cutting, some weed pulling, and some furniture moving.

On the marketing front I created new spaces to promote my eBay store: Save Christmas and Wheat Pennies Shop.

For a personal project I began working on revitalizing an older publication that went by the wayside earlier this year – Dirty News: Watching Big Brother, which I hope will be back in action by mid September 2025.

Outside of the mundane tasks I still like to spend some time hiking and am fortunate that I can still do so.

I met a kindred spirit by the name of Lightwalker and he is the first to join the LostOnTrail family with his own personal blog.

I also met a section hiker named Mellow who hikes 2-3 weeks a year and has been working slowly up the Appalachian Trail. It has been very quiet on the trail, enough to make even simple conversation with a total stranger enjoyable.

Other than that, fire makes a great companion, especially after a rain.

The Holy Family Hostel is one of the oldest on the trail that is still in operation. It has a full kitchen, shower, washing machine, sleeps 12- 18, and is within walking distance to wal mart.

Recommended donation is still just $10.

The barn was given new purpose in 1977 and continues to this day in 2025, nearly 50 years.

The church property has some of the biggest and beautiful trees in the area.

It’s currently managed by caretaker Twig, who has been there during the season since 2015 after LASHing from Georgia to Virginia. Twig is an avid bicyclist and snowbird who spends the colder months down south. Twig also had a cameo in the movie “A Walk in the Woods”

I slept good on top of Pearis Mountain, and decided to take an impromptu day off.

I had a late breakfast followed by a visit from a very friendly doe.

This site has some of the best water on the trail, an artesian spring that I’ve never seen dry at the top of the hill, and pours cold water even on the hottest days of summer.

I found a tree to make a decent bear hang. Not my best work but it fits the recommended specifications.

I cooked dinner in the evening over a fire: always a good time

Aftet dinner my doe friend came back to visit me.

I set out late and didn’t go far.

Since I’m climbing the Angels Rest and not going very far, I can take lots of rest breaks, including one on an earth couch.

I found a few opportunities to do micro trail maintenance

Near the top I stopped for a breather.

I stopped to admire a big tree.

I admired the big kaduna rocks.

I took a break at the camping area near the overlook.

A recent change in the operating schedule of the train behind my camp I decided it was time to get off the river. Three days of no sleep was really rough.

Not to mention my relative inability to catch fish. I may stay near town a little while longer and I may even try the river again, but the trains have made the situation intolerable for the time being

Getting back on trail after nearly three weeks is always fun.

Many of the pictures and videos, as well as the tools of LostOnTrail are hosted off site to distribute load and resource consumption.

If you have trouble accessing any features you can check the status of all servers at status.lost.ws

If you notice any significant down time please contact me so I can check out the issue.

The servers are much more reliable than they appear; often I am off grid for an extended period of time and unable to bring services online until I get close to electricity and cell phone signal.