Contenders come, contenders go. There will never be another.
I got a PM from Matt. I know it is not considered Kosher to reveal the contents of PMs but, hey, I'm not Jewish so I can translate it enough to report that he is somewhere tonight and plans on being somewhere else tomorrow. The next day he will be somewhere different. I would provide more details if I were able.
By some on-line translation programs he may be hiking the Approach Trail but his contingent of Hiking All-Stars will be starting at Springer so the plan (...and you know how loosely I use that term...) is for Matt to hike the Approach on Monday and meet with a group of
Hikers Who Wish to Remain Anonymous at this Time that will be secretly starting from Springer on Tuesday.
If he were to arrive in GA earlier I'd arranged for him to join the GATC on a work day this Saturday then a BBQ at C9 but that apparently ain't happening. He & crew will walk past our efforts sometime next week.
I am able to report that he would also like a MS-style hiking staff. I have a miniaturized (..aka 'human sized'...) version of
The Stick that I customized by figuring that Matt is about my wife's height so I used her measure to attach a strap to the soon to be legendary
MatthewStick. It's made of solid Dogwood (...because I'm not into laminating...) about 6 feet long, padded handhold area decorated with bands of purple, orange, and red electrical tape.
I was considering gluing a
balero to the top of the staff because I have, like, 3 sets of them. I even had out the saw and the glue but I didn't. Even Matt has to have his dignity when striking a Moses pose.