Sanford may have been naked hiking???

From The Palmetto Scoop:

The governor who dropped off the face of the Earth for five days was reportedly found Monday night by his staff hiking along the Appalachain Trail.

That explanation of Mark Sanford’s disappearance has puzzled many folks in South Carolina and across the country. Why would a sitting governor just up and disappear to the mountains without telling a single soul — including his family?

Well, The Palmetto Scoop have discovered the answer to all the secrecy: the governor may have gone for a naked hike.

No, really.

An Associated Press article from last week heralded Sunday — Father’s Day — as “Naked Hiking Day” on the Appalachian Trail. Yes, Naked Hiking Day.

“There’s no way to explain it until you experience it,” said Andrew Williams, 28, a machinist from Warren, Pa., who first hiked naked six or seven years ago. “It’s not about being lewd and crude and all that. It’s just enjoyment.” [...]

Rangers and police warn that people caught outdoors in the altogether could be charged with indecent exposure. Managers of the Appalachian Trail, where the tradition is sometimes observed by those trekking from Georgia to Maine, also discourage nudity.

“It’s just rude,” said Brian King, spokesman for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy in Harpers Ferry, W.Va. “People are out there hiking with their kids and families, and there are Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts.”

Could it be that Sanford just wanted to go au naturel in the middle of the woods and was too embarrassed to tell anyone?

Or perhaps he was one of the nudist hikers arrested be police and they had to work out a deal to quietly get him released.