Camper Karma

It took two hops to leave the southern Appalachians behind and continue north.
Picking us up just past Big Hump Mountain in Roan Mountain, Tennessee, our friends Sally and Johnny Wilson took us home to Boone.

The next day, they hopped us to Damascus to pick up our maildrop waiting there. They parked in front of Mt. Rogers Outfitters, where Gutsy was hanging out.

We moved our packs to the back of her pickup. A stick shift with a single bench seat, it was cozy.John drove the long miles along I-81 through Virginia: a month's worth of hiking covered in 5 hours by interstate. In the pouring rain.

We had to wrap everything in garbage bags, and the truck bed still looked like a pool in the morning.

En route to Harpers Ferry after an overnight in Front Royal, John spotted a stack of used truck toppers along a rural highway. "Isn't that what you've been looking for?" he asked Gutsy. "Should we turn around?"

Within an hour, Gutsy's truck became a camper, the topper both protecting our mound of gear and hinting at a new future for our traveling friend.

"I can camp anywhere now!" she said, and on her way home, enjoyed that newfound freedom of needing neither motel room nor tent nor AT shelter for a good night's sleep.