beginning of summer. It's a day celebrated in various ways in the Northern Hemisphere.
Druids gather for ancient rites at Stonehenge in England. Sun lovers vacation on beaches everywhere to play in the sand and splash in the surf.
And here on the East Coast, among some backpackers on the 2,200 mile-long Appalachian Trail, the day has unofficially become "Hike Naked Day." Or, now that the trail extends hundred of miles into Canada to Cape Gaspe, "International Hike Naked Day."
"It just gives the bugs more places to go," added Jack "Archaeopterix" Magullian, a native of New Jersey who lives in New Zealand.
Veteran Appalachian Trail thru-hiker Jack Tarlin, who has hiked the trail eight times, said the tradition probably started about 10 years ago, on the whim of a few sweaty hikers.
A resident of Hanover, N.H., Tarlin is working in Harpers Ferry at a hiking store near the Appalachian Trail, the Outfitters at Harpers Ferry, this summer. There a T-shirt labeled "Hike naked -- it adds color to your cheeks " is a best seller.
Tarlin added that many hikers who hike naked post "outriders," hikers who walk a ways ahead and behind to watch for unsuspecting hikers or families and children.
http://www.zwire.com/site/tab1.cfm?newsid=12058686&BRD=2553&PAG=461&dept_id=506035&rfi=6
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