#this is less so an anti stede crusade and more so a self callout post for thinking up a role for hornigold before main crew members

[dumbkiwi]

i just saw an ofmd climber au and i think that an ofmd appalachian trail thru hiker au is actually very sensible.

izzy and ed are very experienced backpackers and also insane for having done the AT several times. they happen to work for a popular hiking magazine and are counted on to write AT guides and cute little stories abt hikers and events every couple years. izzy adores it and ed is, ofc, bored out of his skull. jacks never done a complete thru hike but he does segments of it all the time cause he lives near a trailhead. (hornigold maybe was their childhood boy scout troop leader or smthn.) also jack saved ed's life by bear spraying a bear. izzy secretly is pissed that he doesnt get a fun trail name and hes just called izzy when even jack got one. ((eds like he's not into that kinda stuff. he's just izzy. he is so sad when the gentleman hiker got a cool moniker before him))

stede has very little experience. he joins a local outdoors club and he was like you know what! i heard tht this is a life changing journey and a valuable experience. i shall sponsor anyone whos interested in hiking in a group with me. maybe hes a professor from a rich family or something and is on sabbatical. he brings wayyy too much gear thats also overpriced.

not everyone on the crew is inexperienced!

buttons did the thru hike right after he graduated college or smthn during the 70s and was thus selected to be their "guide". karl is his dog. jim does a lot of hardcore climbing/bouldering stuff so like outdoors but different skillset. pete is a decent and fairly frequent backpacker as well as a fanboy of the magazine (perhaps ed and izzy have done other impressive feats) but frequently overestimates his own abilities. frenchie brings a ukulele (or other light string instrument). roomies share the two-person tents. and of course, this is an /massive group

olu is sick of hearing pete talk abt other trips since the AT is like. wildly different from basically any other kind of backpacking. instead of getting scurvy idk the swede gets bitten by a tick and gets something thats not lyme disease.

i do not know who the badmintons are. spanish jackie runs a bar in north carolina. it is pirate-themed because i said so.

#sel speaks #it's 6 am #i miss backpacking #this is the result #i hope i get to do a thru hike someday #i think itd be fun and i really liked the parts of the trail ive been on #also can you tell by the order with which i presented this who i think is important nd interesting #this is less so an anti stede crusade and more so a self callout post for thinking up a role for hornigold before main crew members #in this au mary prefers beaches to mountains