The Appalachian Trail Figures Into My Daily Life

 Some people walk the 2,200 miles (3540.5 km for my metric friends)
(I SWEAR! I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP!!)
from Springer, Georgia to Katahdin, Maine.
Thru-hikers - those addled souls walking all the way through from Georgia to Maine -
stop in the store throughout the summer.
 Most come in looking a bit dazed.
A few come in bouncy and manic.
They all smell.
Geography Lesson

An Example Of The Thru-Hiker Presence 
  This feller hails from just north of NYC.

He left Springer, Georgia 4.5 months ago.

He smelled ripe but looked fairly clean.

He seemed totally perplexed about EVERYTHING. He was so disoriented that it rubbed off on me and I forgot to ask his trail name.

Some come in with esoteric camping/hiking needs that we can't fulfill, like bulk stove fuel. But mostly they look for little things to make the last leg of their trek north feel more comfortable, like corks, odor neutralizer, ripstop nylon mending tape, jar lids, stove fuel canisters, bar shampoo (oh, am I ever ready for THAT request now) and, the thing for which Dan & Whit's is known on the trail, free day-old sandwiches. Those sandwiches don't appeal to me even when they are fresh, because I was a Deli Slave for an entire Year Of Deli Hell when I first started working at the store. But I digress. So... The End.