Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Thru-Hiker Claims Surviving on Wild Plants

Khristopher J. Brooks writes in the 2 April 2007 Bristol (VA) Herald Courier about a local college student under the headline "Appalachian Trail trekker found his meals on the move."

It's a story about local college student Ben Casteel. "The 21-year-old horticulture student at Virginia Highlands Community College walked the Appalachian National Scenic Trail last spring. He survived the five-month trek by eating wild plants he found along the way."

He also carried a mandolin. Which he sometimes played for food. So he didn't survive solely on the trilliums, ramps and wild greens he identified and ate.

Okay, aside from eating plants that are somewhat threatened (the trillium) he also breaks one of his safe food rules ("don’t want to eat anything that has a bad odor") by eating the ramps.

Whatever happened to the old 'leave nothing but footprints, take nothing but pictures'? Maybe he only ate a couple of these wild foods and didn't really "survive" on them. Sigh.

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