Date: 2008-05-25
From: Pearisburg, VA

To: Pearisburg, VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Today is recovery day. A day to let the leg and foot muscles, ligaments, and tendons recover from the daily hiking grind and let the energy reservoirs be replenished. You don¢t realize how tired you¢ve become until you stop for a rest. I went to sleep about 8:00 last night and didn¢t wake up until 8:00 this morning. As always, the legs were stiff and sore as I struggled to get out of bed. They warm up quickly but also quickly stiffen when inactive for 10 minutes or more. When on the trail, the endorphins keep the legs going. Rest days are useful in refilling the endorphins banks in the body and let those micro injuries in muscles and connections heal. The major activities of the day are resupply at the food store and search for a UPS pick up point to try to mail some more things I won¢t be needing as the temperature increases. The most significant change I¢ll attempt is to go without a stove, cook pot, etc. I¢ll try eating dry food, simplifying clean up and reducing weight. I won¢t need hot meals to warm me up until September in the north. I can get out of camp quicker in the morning and reduce the evening meal time. Taste is not really an issue for me, since all trail meals are not very attractive to me anyway, but only serve to eliminate hunger and restock energy supplies. My objective today is to minimize time on my feet and taking care of them by lubricating sore spots and massage. I think zero days show the predominantly physical nature of long distance hiking. You don¢t see hikers spending their zero days on the nearby trails on day hikes. They are all laying about enjoying comforts they do not have on the trail. These comforts become more and more important the longer you are deprived of them. The opportunities to lay around, take a nap, make phone calls, watch tv, eat vast quantities of food, and seem priceless for these brief interludes. Although everyone knows that the journey must continue shortly. The seasons drive us north before the snow begins. We are like the ancient nomads, following our food source across the continent. The differences is that our history has not equipped us for this lifestyle. There is something deep in our psyche that impels us to rise every day and walk. We are quickly bored by the current scenario and need to seek new environments. The actual experience of the trail is, however, often unchanging. The trees, both standing and fallen, the rocks, the leaf or needle covered path are often indistinguishable as we trek. The view from inside my tent never changes. My point is that it¢s not the changing visual environment that drives us forward. No, it seems to be the forward momentum that satisfies some deep need in the segment of the population. Every day we get a little further up the trail. We are like the ancient herds moving in a common direction together until nature tells us ¢this far and no further¢. If this were truly our lifestyle we would then reverse our direction and continue the journey. Instead, we pretend to the migrating herd, will disperse and return to our desperate life journeys across the planet. But, for now, we all linger, as if by the oasis by the long path in the desert, resting before the call of the wild impels us forward.