Date: 2003-10-11
From: The Gathering - Hanover, Me.

To: The Gathering - Hanover, Me.
Miles today: 0.0

Okay,so there is condensation everywhere this morning. The chill in the air ,along with the wetness serves to remind me of what life on the trail can be like. I sit up and promptly get my air wet from the top of the tent. My watch has stopped because of the humidity,joining my electronic Bible which died days ago. I crawl out of the tent and make my way across the field to the porta potty. I like the woods,where the nearest tree is as far as you have to walk. The trees also never smelled this bad. Back at the tent,I start up my stove and before long Papermaker and I are sipping hot beverages as we watch tent city come to life. I fix oatmeal and bagels for breakfast for us. Everything is damp and sticky,Ialmost cave into the thoughts of seeking refuge in a motel,but I don't. We have more options than we have time of things to do today,so we slpit up and go to different seminars. Papermaker decides to go to a photography workshop while I chose to go to a workshop on hiking for a cause. My presenter decides not to show herprogram because of lack of attendence. I am aggravated because I missed out on going to another program to attend this one. I head down town and a cinnamon bun puts me in a better mood. We run into Mudbutt who has chosen different seminars to attend. We make plans to m! eet for lunch and head off gain in different directions. By mistake Papermaker and I get in on a program about hiking shorter trails instead of a trail in Peru that we were interested in learning about. The afternoon held even more choices of things to attend. I headed over to the hiker fair where I met Bill Irwin. He is blind and hked the AT in 1990. Just talking to him was inspiring and motivating. I bought another couple of books by people who have hiked the trail. I only hoped people will be as quick to buy my book when I get done with it. I attend a hikers question and answer session that the 2003 hikers have for the dreamers. Iam not in there but a few minutes before I felt really led to leave and attend a workshop on Women hiking the trail. It was a sensational workshop,addressing numerous issues that come up when ever a woman voices a desire to hike. From hygeine to safety. From ability to acceptance. It was very rewarding to me and I got the chance to share some of the healing that I had on while on the trail,along with some of my adventures. I feel like I really connected to yet another group of people. i hope I was of some encouragement to them as they were to me. It felt great to get some validation from my peers,and to meet other women who share a passion for hiking. We met for supper,joined by Trish who we had met weeks ago and spent some time visiting with. For some strange reason,food does nothold the glamour that it did just a few days ago. I am tired of restaurent food.I want mashed potatoes or mac and cheese.I want simplicity. After a lenghty but enjoyable time around the table,Paermaker and I decided to forgo the Contra Dancing even though Ithrougly enjoyed it last year. We headed back to our tent and was asleep before it got good and dark. We were awakened early by the sound of an owl,perched just above our head in the trees. Too soon he flew off,and we could hear him getting fainter and fainter. We dozed back off ,snug and warm albeit slightly damp with humidity.