Trail Angel's Story

The Reading (PA) Eagle newspaper correspondent Rita Floriani writes on 26 January 2007 about a "Hike to William Penn Shelter Borne of Necessity".

She tells a number of stories about her Trail experiences including one that starts "One very warm summer day I received a phone call from my friend Scott in the Blue Mountain Eagle Climbing Club. He told me that a day or two earlier a thru-hiker had become seriously ill and had to be transported off the trail via an all-terrain vehicle." Ouch!

Floriani and a friend hiked up to the William Penn Shelter, gathered up the un-named hiker's gear and hauled it all to the hospital in Lebanon, PA where he'd been lodged. Talk about a trail angel!

"He wrote to me a short while later and let me know that he had recovered from his illness and that he was so grateful to have gotten his things returned to him."

It's nice to hear this kind of story from the trail angel's point of view for a change. Check it out.

Floriani, by the way, is listed as the papers "hiking columnist."