Date: 2005-04-07
From: Blueberry Patch

To: Blueberry Patch
Miles today: 0.0

HEY EVERYONE!Today I am taking a much needed zero day! (A zero day is when you don't hike and get to rest!)I am having such an insanely awesome time out here!Each day I learning how to cope with this new life and enjoy it, and it seems like I am being guided by some mystical force to teach me when things are miserable they can quickly become great! My entries for the past few days might help to clarify what I mean!Monday:I left the Walsi-Yi hostel with high spirits after a ridiculously long and tiring day the day before. I had major foot pain the previous day but in the morning I felt better and so I decided to leave the hostel and make a slow day only planning on doing maybe ten miles or so! I ended up doing much more than I planned on because the views that day kept getting more and more beautiful and although my feet were in excrutiating pain I was in the process of developing a new hiking technique that helped to aid in easing the pain. I began to focus on each step that I took. I carefully decided on where I placed each step I took. I felt the ground beneath me like I never have before. I poured every ounce of concentration into walking perfectly. My job that was to hike and I wanted to contain perfect form and focus walking through the mountains of north eastern georgia. I thought about the sounds my feet made as I walked and the sensation of each muscle moving to develop the step I was taking. The sounds around me enveloped me as I heard each branch or twig or pine needle move or break beneath my feet. I listened as the mud squished and while all of this was going on, I hiked. I hike more miles than I planned on and I had a fantastic night that night with excellent company at the shelter. The shelter I stayed at that night was called Low Gap and there was a lot of people there from the hostel that I stayed at the previous night. There was hikers named Greatful, S.W.I.F.T., Bob, Ron, Ray, Wandering Bull, OMA, OPA, Big Sweety (A Golden Retreiver), and others. These people were great company and have since become my friends.Tuesday:Tuesday was the greatest day ever. My feet were once again in crazy agonizing pain but the trail magic and great company of the day carried me through and left me in awe that night of the awesomeness of this incredible journey. Tuesday I was planning on going only a few miles but I couldn't stop hiking I was having such a blast among the massive mountains of northeastern georgia once again. That morning I hit the next shelter in only a few hours and so I stopped there to eat lunch with some other friends I had met from Low Gap the night before and I also met a new friend named Grasshopper who is a girl from Indy. After lunch I had a huge descent I needed to make and at the end of it I was completely pooped and exhausted, well, I wasn't but my feet were.Wait a minute, before I go any further I will explain my feet situation. People say that the only way to prepare for the trail is to hike it. I slightly disagree. I feel in terms of legs and muscles and lungs I am in amazing shape due to my cycling. My muscles are NEVER sore. I never get tired climbing really big mountains and I am never really winded after huge ascents. What I WAS NOT PREPARED FOR was, THE TOLL IT WOULD TAKE ON MY FEET! My feet are completely wasted compared to a lot of others. My feet are in agonizing pain after only about ten miles and it shoots through the rest of my body like fire and bullets, but I am making it and I am in the process of fixing the problem. Once my feet get better, I will be UN-STOP-ABLE, and INDESTRUCTABLE. WHOA! That was REALLY COCKY, I should rephase that to say that I will be a much better hiker once my feet toughen up and it will take another unforeseen problem to get me off of the trail again, which could happen!Anyways! At the bottom of that huge downhill climb, There was just what I needed. On my way down I was thinking, if there was ever trail magic for me, this is where I NEED IT! Sure enough, feet pounding, and at the bottom of the descent, there was a road crossing that I new would be there, and at this road there was a mini-van with its rear hatch open! The man and wife waved me over to this OASIS of goodness and slendor, with COKES AND DORITOS AND NUTTY BUDDYS, and EVERYTHING ELSE I WANTED! IT WAS FANTASTIC!@ One of the reasons that I really needed it then was that after that particular downhill I new that I had another HUGE CLIMB AHEAD OF ME!After that trail magic I had the enrgy to make the next climb only to be greeted by more trail angels and trail magic only a few hours later! I was nearing the top of my highest climb yet which was Tray Mountain in Georgia and at the top there was a truck with coolers and pizza. I thought, "Cool, more trail magic and trail angels..." but what I didn't realize was what was inside the coolers, and it also made my day. Inside the coolers was the last thing I would have expected! There was a cooler full of Yuenling LAger! My favorite beer from pittsburgh which I can't find anywhere! It was awesome!   Later that night I sat atop Tray Mountain like a king. The shelter was perched at nearly five thousand feet and there was a 360 degree view for hundreds of miles, literally. The towns lights glistened in the distance, as we sat in the shelter far away from civiliazation, but our eyes could spy the glow of far away lands and cites like atlanta. I saw millions of stars, and the shelter was perched perfectly near a cliff, so in my sleeping bag, I could look up into to sky at the stars twinling or look far, FAR, FAR, away at the glowing lights of the cities nearly a mile below me and nearly a hundred miles out on the horizon. All of my new friends were at the shelter that night and we had a grand time. I think I was the youngest and we ranged in ages from me at 24 to probably around 65 years old. I saw everyone else setting up tents after the shelter was full, and it looked like an advertisement-All of us in our new gear, with our headlamps glowing with blue LED lights, and it was UNREAL. I said over and over, 'god this is amazing. GOD THIS IS AMAZING! THis is the greatest night. God THIS IS AMAZING!'The headlamps glowing that night as we talked were more beautiful than diamond and crystal chandalears,(sp?)It was awesome.I changed my name that day to, "Bottle-Rocket". So that is what I go my now.The name will remind to slow down and not race through to only blow up somewhere early in a flash. I am in this for the long haul, and as I learn, I will continually adjust my attitude to reach my GOAL.Wednesday was hard:I had a lot of pain still in my feet so I barely made it to the hostel I planned on staying at, The Blueberry Patch. It was another VERY PAINFUL DAY. This place is AWESOME! Gary is the owner and he invited me and the others to go to his church that evening and check out their Wednesday Night session. So off I went to the Macedonia Southern Baptist church with three of the ten guests at the hostel to see what was going on at the church service! I am in this trip for new experiences and I am having a blast! It was my first time in a baptist church and they were awesome! The food was great for dinner. It was kind of like a buffet that someone makes and we ate until we were STUFT. It was GREAT. I met SO MANY NIce PEOPLE! They embodied what christianity should be. They are truly great people, and are serving in great ways. They had a mission night that night where they talked about missions and so Gary talked about his missionary work and his work at the Blueberry Patch which was enlightening.It was another excellent night that surpassed every expectation. The company was amazing as my new friends wand I chatted the night away.Right now I am sitting at the mountain town of Hiawassee, Georgia library on a rainy day with my friend S.W.I.F.T. who is hitting the trail later today. It was a grat day for myself to take a zero out of the rain! I am staying another night at the Blueberry Patch, getting new insoles, and hitting the trail again tomorrow for more adventures, hopefully less painfull hiking and the same great nights.Take it easy everyone