Muscles & Cinnamon Bearr

Muscles & Cinnamon Bearr

Mile 0015.7: Gooch Mountain Shelter, Georgia

May 2017:

Meet Muscles. And her husband, Cinnamon Bearr. That's Cinnamon Bearr; throw a few R's in there. And a long southern drawl. Sounds more like burrrrr then bearrrrr. The trail name derived from field work in Utah. Ian tells the story of his trail name with a wry smile. A look in his eye that he's not fully with you, but transported far away, to a better place and time.

Ian once oversaw a small crew of 20-something's for the Civilian Conservation Corps, doing trail maintenance for months at a time. One season, a particularly eccentric member carried around a piece of moose poop with him. [For clarification, it was dried. And don't ask Ian why. He doesn't know. The kid just thought it was cool] One day - this kid decided to communicate with his crew leader by 'truck radio'. "Moose Poop to Cinnamon Bear. Moose Poop to Cinnamon Bearrrr. Come in!". Ian was a bit lost. But he responded to a third repetition of the call for Cinnamon Bearr, "Is that me?". His Moose Poop companion nodded and called again, apparently repeating the gag for weeks on end. The name is fitting - Ian rocks a blonde beard and unkempt cinnamon-colored hair. He laughs, he grumbles, like any Grizzly, he can be aroused to passion in an instant. And so the name stuck. The trail crew came to calling their leader, Cinnamon Bear, and his buddy became (self-chosen) Moose Poop.

Cinnamon Bearr met Muscles during the following trail season. Though Angie was not known as Muscles quite yet. She earned her trail name in the field. Angie is 5'2", thin, easygoing, and exceptionally positive - you might say, the antonym of a competitive bodybuilder. But trail work for days-on-end builds muscle. And Angie soon felt her rippling biceps emerge. She was worried about becoming TOO buff. And voiced her concerns to the group so often that the crew took to sarcasm, "Yeah, OK, Muscles." And the name stuck, her trail name was born.

Muscles and Cinnamon Bearr ultimately became a trail couple - a relationship that stretched well-beyond their field days. I attended their wedding on a beautiful spring day in South Carolina. They enjoyed their time living in North Carolina, close to Ian's childhood home, close enough to the Appalachian Mountains for weekend getaways like these.

I hiked the AT's first 30 miles with this happy couple, their dog, and a few more friends - NOBO from Springer Mountain's summit towards Kathadin. Their love of the outdoors was readily apparent. You could see the stress fall from their shoulders, office day jobs left where they belong. And while the Appalachians were a nice respite, it was always clear they belonged out west. Even on this trip, they reminisced over their trail days in Utah, committed to make it back one day. I'm pleased to say that 3 years later, they have indeed returned west. If you frequent the Salt Lake area, you may find Muscles and a Cinnamon Bearr roaming free.