Date: 2003-03-04
To: Trail Magic
Miles today: 0.0

Trail Magic   I just had what was possibly the best two days of my whole life!!! On Sunday, I took two of my friends, Maria and Christine, and went up to Woody Gap with a veritable mountain of Oreos, Moonpies, and candy bars!!! Along with cases of water, and a bunch of lawn chairs...we set up for a day full of fabulous people!   Our first victim.....I mean, thru hiker :)..... was Evening Stroller, a wonderful young man. And from then on, they came parading through. That first day we saw tons of wonderful hikers, all of them but one, men. Soldier, the lone woman was quite a character! She came stomping up muttering every single cuss word that I know, and some that I don't!! It seems that she left Springer with a 65 pound pack!!! She said, "I have been throwing @#*&@ out all morning long!!". An hour later, a guy walked up and said "Man!! Look at this brand new Therma rest I just found!!!". I just laughed and laughed!! We all knew who that therma-rest belonged to! :)   Then there was the group of guys that all camped in Gooch Gap together the night before. They had all settled in for the night when up came a bear! They said that the bear roared, and that the next thing you heard was a bunch of zippers being opened on tents and the plop-plop of food bags as everyone threw what they had as far away as they could!! I know it is bad conditioning for the bear, but if you could have seen all those big strong hikers telling that story, you would have laughed as hard as I did!! Ahhh...I love the smell of testosterone in the evening!!! :)   BearKat, CrumbSnatcher,Soldier, Trooper, Evening Stroller, Trapper Mike, and a ton of other smiling thru hikers walked through our day. A bunch of them ended up camping there for the night, and we left them with a bottle of wine knowing that they had filled our spirits more than they could ever imagine!   The next day, I came back with more mountains of food and a bag of hot biscuits, ready for some more!! Unfortunately, due to work, my friends couldn't come. And that was a shame, cause this day was even better then the last!   If Sunday had been 'testosterone day', then Monday was all about the women!! I have been reading that this is the year of the female thru hiker and if Monday is any indication, then the guys better look out this summer!!! As with yesterday, hikers were pouring out of the woods by 9:00. Swallowtail, a woman from the WomanHikers list, had shown up and fired up her camp stove to provide hot chocolate for the hikers. Before long, it looked like there was a big 'ole party going on!   Now this was all well and good, but I was waiting for a specific group of people!!! Pack 31! They are all hikers from an internet list, (HikersRUS) that we share and they had all started two days before at Springer. Among them were Jan (lite shoe) and Bumpkin from my last journal entry! When they all started coming out of the woods, I just stood there yelling like a big old idiot!! You could see them all looking at each other going 'who the heck is that?". It didn't take them long to realize that it was me, and it was hugs all the way around!! I also got to meet a bunch of other hikers from the list that I had not met earlier. It was truly old home week and it was the highlight of my month!!   On a more somber note, one of our friends on the HikersRUs list, Ted "Soleman" Anderson, was supposed to be with them all. He passed away a week before his thru hike was to begin. It was a devestating beginning to everyones hike, and Ted was so missed. However, the group is carrying his American Flag to Katahdin for him. It was really special to me to get to see the flag. Also, they had printed up a bunch of towels with his pictures for hikers to use during the season. I was lucky enough to get one from Wench, so I will join in carrying Ted all the way to Maine.   Can you see why this was such a special group? :)   Liteshoe, Bumpkin and her son Sniper, Hot Dog, Wench, Jenny, Speck and all of her friends, Lumberjack (cutie patootie!!), Johnny Walker, Andele, Denmark, Amy, Cathy, Braveheart, and many, many others walked by that day. Once more, it was a beautiful day!   This did end up being the day that I officially decided to keep my old trail name, Mud Butt, for this AT hike! I started explaining to different hikers that I was going to get a new one this trip but each time I told them the old one, they all laughed and said, 'that is so cool!!' Well, far be it for me to walk away from something that has that kind of cool potential!!! :)   I have to say that as much fun as the trail angeling was, I got so much more out of it then the hikers did! The most wonderful thing that I got was a sense of relief. I have spent many sleepless nights worrying about hiking without a partner. What was I going to say to the other hikers? What about approaching a shelter? What if everyone already knew each other? What if no one liked me!?! What if......I think you get the idea!    Well it didn't take me long to realize that everyone is soooo nice!!! And when I told them about my insecurities, each one of them said that they had felt the same way! It was kind of the last little thing that I needed to take care of mentally. Now, I a REALLY ready!! :)   I also feel like this was a great way to 'pay it forward' into the karma bank if you will!! I know that I will get tons of trail magic on the trail and it makes me feel so good to put a little out there myself! So, I am going back this Sunday!! If any of you want to come join me in handing out Twinkies, by all means, come on!!! Same time, same place! And if any of you hikers are leaving Springer on Friday, then keep your eyes open for me at Woody Gap! I will be the one waving Moon Pies at you!!! :)