Date: 2005-04-23
From: Laurel Creek Shelter

To: Niday Shelter
Miles today: 12.5
Weather: broken clouds

I've had the most wonderful day-the trail's given me some really special memories to take home with me and today is one of the best. I keep hiking under the illusion that I can do the big miles that I know I CAN be doing right now given my muscles and my mindset almost 700 miles into the trail. My feet, however, keep taking me out. I can't even write down how much Ibuprofen I took today because my mom will yell at me when I get home (she's a nurse)but it was a lot and my feet still hurt like hell. We stopped at Niday and I took off my shoes to look at a hot spot before we did the last 10 miles and my hiking buddies literally gasped at my feet, which if you've seen the average thru-hiker's feet, you'd realize that eliciting shock from another thru-hiker over the condition of your feet is a big deal. Chris (Corduroy) had just pulled up at the shelter, and the wild card that he is suggested an alternate adventure to hiking ten more miles down the trail. Many AT hikers are aware of the infamous Homeplace restaurant in Catawba, VA that serves family style all you can eat but is only open thurs through sunday. Chris has been salivating over the meal for days, but given that it's sunday and we were at this point 30 trail miles from Catawba there was no way we were making it there for a meal. So Chris, having heard from a sectioner that Catawba was 20 miles from the next road crossing proposed hitching into town, eating a meal, and staying at the bed and breakfast in Catawba. We also heard from a sectioner that the temperatures were supposed to plummet during the night and snow was forecast-and we all know how much I love snow. It took me about 30 seconds to buy his pitch and Heidi and Maruchan quickly joined me. So we hike another mile and get the most improbable hitch of all time-sweet talker Chris convinced someone going the OPPOSITE direction from Catawba to bring us into town. We rode in the back of a pick up truck freezing for 20 miles in one of the most gorgeous valleys we've come across yet on the trail with beautiful spring colors everywhere and a wicked cold front on the way. The Homeplace was insane and wonderful-a bit of a rip off for vegetarians, but I had my fill of biscuits and apple butter. It's a beautiful restaurant and the hikers stood out like a sore thumb. I was really shocked by many of the women there-they were all very well put together and meticulously dressed with unbelievable amounts of makeup on and stuff in their hair to make sure it didn't move a whole lot. They were beautiful women, but beautiful in a very different way than the women I've seen out on the trail, and I told Corduroy later that night that I didn't feel like I identified with a single woman there. Strange thought, I know, but going back into the "real world" I wonder how different I'll be in simple and complex ways and look forward to the challenge of holding on to all I've learned in a new context...anyway, this bed and breakfast is great-special thanks to dave and lucy for their hospitality. It's a little pricy and I normally wouldn't have stayed here but hiked the one mile north on the trail to the next shelter if it weren't for my bulging belly full of heavy food and the snow forecasted for later tonight. So now Chris, Billy, and I are going through the home's excellent vinyl collection and sitting in the darkness listening to simon and garfunkel and bob dylan. We've pulled out the Princess Bride to watch later before bed and are having a great time talking about our journey so far-what we've learned, how we've started taking it for granted, and how to keep our hikes positive and fresh from now on (yes, more and more I'm confident of the fact that I will be back to my homeless home on the AT very soon) One of our most important conclusions was embodied in exactly what we did today-there are no rules on the AT. This is an experience not only for your body, but for your mind and spirit. It's hard and it's exhausting but if you let go and journey where the trail leads you you'll find that the AT is a fountain of life and experience and we're lucky for any amount of time to be in contact with it's lessons, beauty, and wonder. The AT has made me more alive than I've ever been and I'm profoundly thankful for being able to have come so far.