When’s the last time anyone seen Ward Leonard? He still cranking out the miles?
Just reading about him in Walkin on the Happy Side of Misery, seems he is a real steam locomotive of a hiker. Not to mention a caustic critic of your gear.
Wondering
Ward Leonard - Appalachian Trail
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#2
He’s still out. I saw him a couple years ago in Mass. He mainly hikes in the northeast. He suffers from paranoid schizophrenia so it’s always interesting when you run into him.
Lone Wolf
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#3
I ran into him in at Deep Gap, GA in dec. 2000. We ended up sharing a shelter at deep gap and tray mountian. Ward or Chip as he was calling himself talked no stop for several hours both nights. He was hiking SOBO from Virginia. I’ve heard he can’t hike in several new england states any more. He lives in Conn. so you might find his enteries in registers in that area. Yes, Ward is a hiking machine. He carries a full load and covers the miles. No ultra light hiking for Ward.
Darth Pac-man
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#4
When Ward is on his medications, he’s a decent sort of guy who you don’t mind sitting and talking with–tho I’d NEVER try to keep up with him hiking.
When he’s off the meds–watch out!
I’ve encountered him both ways and it’s like two different people. Several years ago, he was allegedly banned from the Trail for some of his behavior, but that banishment has expired I think (not that one could ever imagine how such a thing could be enforced).
skyline
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#5
I heard nothing about him last year on the Trail, wondered about this legend. As a solo hiking female, think that’s probably a good thing. 
Bluebearee
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#7
What about Queen Anne, the deposed Queen of England. There are many stories about her antics around the Roanoke area in Virginia…Special people, we meet on the AT.:evil
Maintain
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#8
Yes! Brandon. I wrote quite a bit about him in my journal (AT2000). I had to step over him when I first encountered Screamer in the Smokies. He was sitting against a rock, with his legs outstretched across the trail. Everything he owned was lashed to his back with a piece of rope. At first, I admit of was leary about that young man, but over the course of several weeks I got to know him a bit better. Yes, he’s quite a character, but he seemed like a good person. I’d asked about him a number of times further on in my hike, since I’d gotten ahead of him, and I was told that Bob at Kincorra had given Screamer a backpack and boots. And I was there when Sailboat gave him socks. The guy’s feet were raw, after hiking in sneakers but no socks for weeks. Well, I could ramble on, but if anyone knows what ever happened to Screamer (Brandon, the man I at first called Red Pants), I’d be very interested to hear. Did he actually hike the whole trail???
ramkitten2000
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#9
I last saw Screamer in the Shenandoahs in 2000. Met him at Trail Days that year. He was in a roll-off dumpster having a ball! Hiked with, near and around him for awhile. Great guy.
Lone Wolf
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#11
I first saw screamer at Trail Days 2000 scavenging through the dumpster in a cotton hooded sweathirt. It was about 95degrees and he was wearing the hood.
The next time I saw him was at the Holy Family Church Hostel in Pearisburg.
There was a beater guitar hanging on the wall in the Hostel Library for years. Silence and a few other hikers had cleaned out the mouse nest, put on a makeshift- clothespin bridge and new strings.
I picked up a bridge at the local music shop,glued it on and started playing…
Screamer waited until I was finished and picked up the out-of -tune piece of trash and proceeded to pluck the instrument beyond it’s eartly capability…
Yellow But Proud
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#12
I’ve heard he got his start on the A.T. several years ago when he was wandering around in north Georgia. The local sheriff questioned him and he said he liked to walk. So they brought him to the A.T. and said this trail goes all the way to Maine, you can walk all you want. And he did.
Wondering
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#13
Ward has been on the trail since the mid 80s. Screamer was dropped off at the trail in 2000.
Lone Wolf
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#14
Spent some time in MD/PA with him last year. Harmless, knowledgeable about the trail, but a little strange…:tongue
Bluebearee