Date: 2007-12-15
To: Mostly sunny, 15 degrees
Miles today: 0.0

Its probably the same for people who have booked a cruise, or set up a nice long break in the FL keys, or maybe are anticipating a trip overseas for some tourism and r and r. Once they have the dates down and the tickets purchased, it becomes a beckoning presence. No matter what the daily patterns present, there¢s always that glowing psychological oasis shimmering in the distance.When Tom decided to hike in ¢07, he thought he was leaving March 26. What he still doesn¢t remember is that he really started leaving a good three months before the trip began. At the time, I swore to myself that, when it was my turn to plan, I wouldn¢t be preoccupied like he was, always one eye on the calendar and the other on a gear decision or a training run. Oh well. So much for the noble intentions. I, too, am possessed.If my focus lags in tending to work or home chores, I can zoom right in to my little mental trail-related projects, and BAM, my energy comes right up. I configure and reconfigure weights of major items. I combine and recombine wardrobe items and kitchen gear, rainwear and sleeping togs, the big four and the 10 essentials, all in my mind, and no one is the wiser. Ha! Hardly. So the bad news is, that I am more distracted from the present than I want to be, and the good news is, its delightful to have something so appealing to look forward to.Despite all this preoccupation masquerading as preparation, I would have given a great deal today for a lowly match, which neither Jan nor I had put into our packs for the weekend hike. Although sunny and clear, it never got up past 15¢ today. I was just the teensiest bit reluctant to follow through on our plan to do a 5 mile hike in Camden Hills State Park, given our prior experience with -18¢ windchill not too many weekends ago.Sunday was out this weekend, as a major storm was supposed to roll in tonight and seize things up pretty badly. So today it was, despite it having been one of the busiest weeks on record for me. How busy was it? Let¢s just say I was reduced to a state of hostile, weepy despair by Friday morning, on the heels of a punch list flung at us by the real estate agent who is handling the sale of a small property of ours. The buyer has an FHA loan, so that means that we need to comply with a list of specifications that Farmer¢s Home thinks are important. The problem stemmed from doing the repair/restore work, after already working our ¢real¢ jobs all week. Mr Tom ¢Semi-Retirement¢ Jamrog often can kind of smooth the waters around here when I do 10 or 11 hour days at the offfice. But this week we were both out straight, eating Lord-knows-what for supper and wending our way around the accumulating piles of boxes that we lugged in from the place we are selling. But I wanted to tell you about our hike.This one Jan had figured out, a moderate, rolling incline for about three miles, and a two mile meandering descent down to the State Park car area on the other side of the peak.Well. I brought snowshoes. I brought Stabilicers. I threw a few things in a pack, like a small down jacket, a sandwich and a thermos, and a warm hat. We drove her car to the parking lot there, and then tooled over to Bald Rock trailhead where we left my car. I hadn¢t had snowshoes on in years, so made a little spectacle out of getting them strapped to my boots initially. She and I scuffled over to the woods road and began to ascend, when I realized I was hating the straddled waddle and the dragging metal tails on top of the already slightly taxing uphill grind. Snowmobiles had worked the road surface well enough to walk on, so I practically ripped the little devils off my feet and tucked them under my arm. PHEW! Much better. My mood began to shift instantly. Jan spoke up brightly at that point and told me that I could make a nice little trail around the edges of our property, thus building strength and confidence in my snowshoe skills, like, maybe going out there and doing this a few times a week. I looked at her with a less than charitable gaze, as I told her I hated the damned things and would be doing nothing of the sort! As it was, the trek went very well, Jan moving smartly along with an experienced snowshoer¢s stride, and me, walking with only a few slips and slides, in my hiking boots. The whitest of snow filled the stream beds and culverts, tiny hemlocks bending and waving above the white and shadow-blue surface. We passed one pair of ladies coming down off Bald Rock, cheeks red with that rosy intense blush the winter wind creates. One had a woolen muffler wrapped around her face so many times, I could hardly tell there was a woman in there. They were the only folks we saw en route from 11 to 2:30 today. For lunch we were expecting to get to a place known as the warming hut, about three miles into the walk. Jan saw it first, and when I rounded the bend and glimpsed it there with its outhouse and woodshed, was surprised it was so solid and expansive. We rucked up the snow to make a path to the door around back. Inside, there was a huge stone fireplace, several picnic tables, six varnished wooden bunks against the walls, and to my delight, a stout little woodstove at one end of the room.Well, I thought, this is just the ticket! I¢m pretty good with lighting a stove, lay a pretty good fire, etc., etc. There were newspapers, a few sticks of wood inside, and a whole shed of nicely split hardwood outside. I wrestled off the pack and started in. It was then that I realized I had no matches. I was going to fling the little tool bag into this pack, but couldn¢t find it this morning. Oh well, Jan is always well prepared, I¢ll just wait til she gets in here... Say! D¢you have a match in that pack of yours? Uhhh, wait. Let me just look in the first aide kit... uhhh, no, actually. You mean we don¢t have matches, lighters or firesteels? Neither of us? Nope. Guess not.So, whoever comes along next has a brilliant little fire ready to touch off, and a nice pile of splits there ready to go. We dug into our lunches and of course the hot drinks. I had brought along a leftover quarter of a Reuben that I had had for dinner the night before. As hard and cold as it was, it tasted magnificent. Followed up by a pp+j and a luke warm tea with Tang, I was set for the rest of the walk. It was faintly warmer in the hut than outdoors, but not by much. We didn¢t linger. As the way up had been a woods road, the trail down was a winding one-person path, which cast a whole different light on the mountainside around us. I could feel the stress moving out and dissipating into the cold with every breath I took. As the car came into view I knew I had to get back to this trail again before the winter was over. And I was certain: I would come back there with a match.