THE POX and PUSS PODCAST : An Appalachian Trail Thru-Hiker Experience Pox Holiday & Puss In Boots

We are only a few days away from celebrating the Pox & Puss Podcast's 10th anniversary. So, in honor of that day, we bring you b-b-b-b-bonus content from In The Pines, where Pox talks about his 1998 thru-hike and the cast of fugitives and bandits he met along the way.
During the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, GA, Eric Rudolph detonated a 100lbs pipe bomb in Centennial Park. One person was killed and 111 were injured. Three more bombs went off in the weeks and months following the Olympic bombing.

What took place after that was an all-out manhunt along the Appalachian Trail and in the Nantahala Gorge. The FBI was looking for Rudolph as far away as the Appalachian Trail in Virginia.

Pox Holiday was thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail in 1998, around the same time Eric Rudolph disappeared into the mountains for almost 7 years. Pox was even questioned by a member of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park because he looked like a fugitive.

In this episode, you will hear untold stories about the search for a domestic terrorist and his accomplices that never made it into a newspaper article or a television report.
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Sources
https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/eric-rudolph 
https://www.smokymountainnews.com/news/item/27038-2003-the-end-of-eric-rudolph-s-run
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Rudolph
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centennial_Olympic_Park_bombing 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nantahala_School
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocoee_Whitewater_Center
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kaczynski#Incarceration
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Jewell 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/rudolph/bio.htm
https://www.blueridgeoutdoors.com/features/the-hunt-for-eric-rudolph/
https://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/fbi-probes-unabomber-connection-tylenol-killings/story?id=13638602
https://www.ourmidland.com/news/article/Eric-Rudolph-Timeline-7106329.php
https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna7398701 
https://history.capitolbroadcasting.com/media-assets/into-these-hills-documentary-about-the-hunt-for-eric-rudolph/
https://www.police1.com/police-heroes/articles/former-security-guard-richard-jewell-memorialized-a-hero-ivkeQ57uGKNAQuVw/
https://baxterstatepark.org/general-info/
https://www.operationmilitarykids.org/types-of-military-discharge/ 
 

On August 16th, 2016, a man covered with desert dirt, who looked as if he’d been hiking for days, walked into a rural California convenience store and bought $100 worth of junk food and water. Located near the Pacific Crest Trail, the convenience store owner was no stranger to dirty hikers. However, this man happened to match the description of a suspected murderer wanted by the police. In less than an hour, the man would be shot dead as he was walking back to the Pacific Crest Trail.

This is the crazy story of how Benjamin Peter Ashley terrorized the remote canyon communities of Central California and used the Pacific Crest Trail to elude authorities for weeks.

Sources: How a suspected killer eluded police on Pacific Crest Trail - CSMonitor.com

Exclusive: Benjamin Peter Ashley's Hostages Explain How They Were Able to Escape - ABC News (go.com)

Benjamin Peter Ashley: Desert Trip Almost Turns Deadly For California Teens Held Hostage By Drifter Tonight On 'Dead Silent' - Inquisitr

This week, Nikki and Pox dive into the 2013 disappearance of Appalachian Trail hiker, Geraldine "Inchworm" Largay. We also have our first guest: Puss In Boots from the Pox & Puss Podcast.
Sources:
https://www.centralmaine.com/2013/07/28/over-rugged-terrain-a-mystifying-hunt-for-missing-hiker/
https://www.pressherald.com/2016/05/25/report-geraldine-largay-kept-journal-during-weeks-lost-in-maine-woods/document/
https://www.warrendoyle.com/blog

Lake Sidney Lanier is an artificial lake that was created in the 1950s by building Buford Dam on the Chattahoochee River in northern Georgia. The 38,000-acre lake lies on top of the ruins of towns and farmland of over 700 families. Today, the lake has over 11 million visitors every year, about the same number of annual visitors as the Louvre. Lake Lanier is also one of the deadliest lakes in the USA. 500 people have drowned and many of their bodies have never been recovered. What is killing so many people in this lake? Underwater debris? Crazy currents? Could it be the ghosts of the Cherokee Nation who were driven out during the Trail of Tears? Maybe it's a curse caused by the people of Oscarville, whose once-thriving town is now at the bottom of a 200' deep lake.

Sources:

Water levels and elevation above sea level: https://lakelanier.com/lake-lanier-water-levels/

Sherpa Guides: https://www.sherpaguides.com/georgia/wildlife_viewing/northeast_ga_mtns/22.html

Alan Jackson – Chattahoochee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW5UEW2kYvc Things I Learned Last Night: https://tilln.com/season-4/lake-lanier-haunted/#:~:text=The%20History%20of%20Lake%20Lanier&text=Originally%20built%20in%201956%2C%20the,charted%20to%20become%20Lake%20Lanier
The Haunting of Lake Lanier: https://www.oxfordamerican.org/magazine/issue-113-summer-2021/the-haunting-of-lake-lanier
Lake Lanier: A Georgia lake's deadly history has some people seeing ghosts - CNN
Oxford American | The Haunting of Lake Lanier
The truth behind Lake Lanier – The Lanier Times
The cursed Lake Lanier in Georgia — StrangeOutdoors.com
Mysteries and Death at Georgia’s Cursed Lake | Mysterious Universe
OSCARVILLE: Uncovering The Black City Buried Under Lake Lanier | NewsOne
https://newsone.com/4185919/lake-lanier-black-city-oscarville/ 
https://justice.tougaloo.edu/sundown-towns/using-the-sundown-towns-database/state-map/     SUPER INTERESTNG LINK/SUNDOWN TOWNS AND COUNTIES MAP
 
https://www.history.com/news/georgia-racial-expulsion-stacey-abrams 
https://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/history/truth-behind-oscarville-once-prosperous-black-town-now-covered-lake-lanier/ 
 
https://peachatl.com/the-city-beneath-the-lake/ 
https://lakelanier.com/history/ 

Welcome to Pox Holiday's newest podcast: In The Pines. We're giving you the premiere episode in the Pox & Puss feed, but you will be able to find future episodes in the "In The Pines" Podcast feed here: https://anchor.fm/inthepinespod
"In The Pines" will be a monthly podcast focusing on the mysteries, crimes, and the unexplained that could only happen in the American Wilderness. Pox's co-host is Nikki from "The Appalachian Crime Trail" podcast.
Our first episode discusses the 1969 mysterious disappearance of Dennis Martin.
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What can we say? It's been a hell of a year, right? Ugh.
We pick right up where we left off, two yahoos just dicking around on microphones, talking about the Appalachian Trail.
- There are people who will drift in and out of your thru-hike.
- Following the Siren Song of slack packing.
- We didn't horde things through the pandemic, YOU DID!
- Dial makes coconut water soap? You're damn right they do.
- Sometimes you have to sit in a bus and do new things.
- Hey Coke Zero and Walmart, are you listening?