Date: 2018-04-28
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

I witnessed two miracles of modern transportation yesterday: My flight from Burlington to Washington National arrived 35 minutes early, and the Amtrak train from Union Station to Harpers Ferry left on time and arrived as scheduled. Not exactly curing a leper, driving out demons, or the loaves and fishes, but miraculous nonetheless and proof of the existence of God. I am truly grateful. Cousin Debbie¢s flight from Albany was on time. As always I had to ask for help to figure out the Metro card machine. It is not at all intuitive to me. The bag check service at Union Station used to be handled by a private vendor and was frightfully expensive. Now Amtrak does it for $10 for up to 24 hours, definitely worth it compared to lugging a backpack around the Mall. After mailing our pack duffels home, we toured the Museum of the American Indian in the morning. It¢s not set up as a typical White European museum with rooms devoted to textiles, sculpture and artifacts. Instead there are exhibitions of various Indian nations, designed to showcase that particular culture¢s spiritual values as expressed in their stories, art, and concept of nature and relationships. Often side-by-side text panels were used to relate stories from Indian and white perspectives. There was less about culture clash and more about celebrating the living nations.  Hard to express and more powerful upon reflection than while walking around. After lunch, we walked to the new REI store and bought gas canisters. I hosted a celebration of my hike at the Bavarian Inn in Shepherdstown last night. Debbie and I each had the King Salmon and my friend Stacey chose two wonderful Pinot noirs, one from California and the other my favorite St. Innocent from Oregon¢s Willamette Valley. Stacey is the CFO of Appalachian Trail Conservancy and we worked together many years during my time as treasurer. She is Earth Mother and I love her. We were joined by Sandi Marra, the current chair of the ATC board. We suffered countless meetings together. Sandi¢s husband Chris oversees maintenance of the infamous Roller Coaster section of the AT in northern Virginia, our party was made complete by Steve, who served as COO of ATC and thru-hiked in the early 1990¢s and his partner Lisa, a skilled ceramics artist. Debbie fit right in and even if I don¢t finish my thru-hike (bite my tongue), I will still have celebrated it. ATC is holding a Flop Flop Festival this weekend to encourage thru-hikers to start their hikes in places other than Georgia. About eight of us were greeted by ATC¢s new president and CEO Suzanne Dixon at a small reception this morning. Her energy and enthusiasm filled the room. She has a vision from for a much more visible ATC and is willing to make changes to protect and preserve the Trail. One of her first acts was to open an office in Washington in space rented from the Wilderness Society. Before its move to Harpers Ferry, ATC was in Washington, and that¢s where it incorporated. Benton MacKaye, who founded ATC and whose vision continues to inspire it, was also a founder of the Wilderness Society, so it¢s a nice symmetry. Laurie Potteiger, Director of Information a/k/a Trail Mom, led us in a discussion of our hopes and fears. We attended one workshop on health and hygiene that scared the bejesus out of me - more tick stories!  In the evening there was a reunion of past classes if thru-hikers who started at the three prior festivals and a celebration of this year¢s class. We really had a chance to get to know each other over beers. I particularly got to know Willow and River. River has shorter hair than I do and she¢s now my new adopted Trail sister. It feels like we will be starting our hike as friends!  REI had a photo booth. I chose to pose with an old trail friend as a reminder of why I¢m carrying a bear canister. We must look out for our friends!