Date: 2005-05-22
From: Campsite north of Pearisburg

To: Pine Swamp Branch Shelter
Miles today: 14.9
Weather: clear sky

Here's Hopeful... Red Wing had a hard time getting up this AM. His warm weather sleeping bag isn't quite warm enough for the extent to which temperatures dropped last night, so, he didn't sleep very well. We'll try a different system, and somehow put our bags together tonight. Hiking today was awesome! There was a cool breeze so we didn't feel all sticky and sweaty. Within a half mile we were up on a ridge and it soon opened up to a field with an incredible view. When we first came out of the woods to the open view, it made my heart leap... you know how sometimes you might gasp in amazement that you're actually seeing what you're seeing, and standing where you're standing. The line of a song that I love same to mind, "And my soul wells up, with hallelujah". It's nice to have spots like that near the beginning of the day, too, when I'm no too exhausted to appreciate it. There are lot of rocks to step on and over while we're up on Virginia's ridges. To get to the shelter tonight we had to go way back down to where there's a stream. Trip and Marcello have their hammocks hanging inside the shelter. Curly, Patch, Mr. Sweepers, Jersey Fresh, Bluey and Tex are here as well. In fact, Tex came in kind of late and she saw a mama bear and 2 cubs crossing the creek about 0.2 mile from the shelter! I'm so jealous! A common question among hikers is, "What are you reading?". It's interesting to hear the variety of responses. It seems that a high percentage of thru-hikers are readers. Red Wing and I both carry Bibles, which we are enjoying time with each day. Sometimes it's just a little time, since we're often ready at night to just go to sleep, but sometimes there's more time and energy to read. Red Wing also currently has some short stories by Leo Tolstoy, and I have a book that I really like called 'Blue Like Jazz' by Donald Miller. Another that's on my list to read is 'Travels with Charley; In Search of America' by John Steinbeck. Snowbunny had a copy and I liked the preface so much that I copies it down. I love how aptly it describes the type of the 'journey' that hiking the AT is. In particular, I love the phrase, "We do not take a trip; a trip takes us." How true it is that as most plans we make change (even tonight, we're staying at a different shelter than we had originally planned), but the less I try to contril it, the more I can relax and enjoy the unexpected. This is obviously a good lesson for the journey of life as well! Here's the preface to Steinbeck's book. It's worth reading, I promise. "Once a journey is designed, equipped and put in a process, a new factor enters and takes over. A trip, a safari, an exploration, is an entity, different from all other journeys. It has personality, temperament, individuality, uniqueness. A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us. Tour masters, schedules, reservations, brass-bound and inevitable, dash themselves to wreckage on the personality of the trip. Only when this is recognized can the blown-in-the-glass bum relax and go along with it. Only then do the frustrations fall away. In this a journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you can control it. I feel better now, having said this, although only those who have experienced it will understand it."