Date: 2008-06-04
To: Section Hike Therapy
Miles today: 0.0

It's official! I have a plane ticket! I'm going hiking! In just a few weeks, I am heading out to meet up with Melk and hike a small section that we missed last year. She will be out on the trail for a month and I will be joining her for a few days of terrible yet strangely satisfying food, rocky beds, smelly clothes and wonderful scenery. I'm getting out of The Cube! I figured I'd share my excitement here. It's just a short hike but it's part of the AT experience for me nonetheless so I'll be posting some journal entries here when I am back.For those who've asked what I've been up to (mainly Sheri from CT), I've been thinking of the AT daily since October 5. Well, that's not true. I've been thinking about the trail daily since about June of 2006 but now it's more akin to what Talker Man dubbed "Post Trail Stress Disorder" flashbacks - random moments along the way that pop into my head out of nowhere. I will just be chugging along my day one minute and, BOOM, I'm sitting in Dick's Dome Shelter eating FruitSplosions with the A-Team and the B-Team the next! I'm almost convinced that I can reach up and catch what Mayo just threw at Cobweb. I can't stop it. I wonder how long it will last. So I try to cope and remind myself that I never want to hike for that long again. But for some reason, I'm still addicted. So, I read TrailJournals.com...scarcely allowing myself to read PCT journals for fear it might get me. I've even begun transcribing for Certain which I am really excited about. I send mail drops. I read WhiteBlaze. I converse with those I hiked with. I follow news stories related to the trail. And in my spare time, I have a full time job and am going to school for photography. And I just recently started hiking again.I miss hiking every day. Well, I miss being active every day. I loathe trying to find time to get to a gym - time that really doesn't exist - and then moving in the same spot for the next hour with the glare of the red numbers on the elliptical machine staring back at me. There are no natural springs to refresh me on that journey. No notes left by hikers ahead attached to trail signs with duct tape. No heavenly jasmine lingering in the air. No trail magic, no surprise packages. No register puns. No sense of accomplishment when I arrive in a new place at the end of my exertion. I miss eating whatever I want, whenever it is available. After discovering a wonderful dairy store near our home and getting a little out of control with my consumption of ice cream, I've had to cut myself off for a while. It all counts again.I miss trail friends. There's no BigBy or Mayo to lighten the mood, no Cobweb to keep me focused. There's no Talker Man to shine light on life, no Google and Sunshine to kick back with. No JB to crack me up, no Mate'/Coach/Genesis to provide background music. I could go on and on. So I miss the trail but I still lurk. That's the thing - there's a fabulous AT community that helps to absorb the aftershock of the experience. And, let me not only romanticize the trail. I'm glad to be home. I'm glad to smell good. I'm glad to cook with fresh produce. I'm glad to not be in constant pain. I'm so glad to be comfortable...But I can't wait to get back out there!