On the road to Tebbetts

Left N. Jefferson today. The view of the capital from the trail is stunning. It was a nice cool day, great for hiking. My feet hurt bad but were better after a 1/2 mile down the trail. Gotta be old age. I met 2 other backpackers on the trail today. These are the first backpackers I've ever seen on the trail. They were going from Hermann to Sedalia and back via Amtrak. The older guy was nice but the younger one was a real piece of work that looked like he just came off the cover of Backpacking Today. He made it a point to convince me that I knew squat about hiking and totally ignorant about the proper equipment essential to all backpackers and how only a total idiot would use the equipment I had. He showed me his pack and gave me the make, model, and year of manufacture of his. Of course it just came out last year. I bet that baby ran him about $500 bucks. Of course my external, aluminum frame pack was all-wrong even though I bought it 2 years ago for $50 bucks. His new water bottles were also the only way to go. Probably $ 15 per bottle. I used Gatorade bottles wrapped in duct tape. Price: about $2 last year. He couldn't believe they were even remotely durable. I mean how was I supposed to know that experienced hikers don't use hiking staffs anymore? I thought mine had a 1001 uses but I guess I was still an idiot. We went our separate ways, the old guy waved, the young one sneered. What a butthead.