Date: 2004-10-30
To: The Gift that Keeps On Giving
Miles today: 0.0

Recently I gave a presentation on thru- hiking the Appalachian Trail to a wonderful group of 3rd, 4th and 5th graders from the Alpha School outside of Pittsburgh. But I¢m getting ahead of myself¢¦¢¦In May, Leapyear and I drove to Damascus for Trail Days. I stayed at Suzanne¢s Hiker¢s Inn, Leapyear stayed in the yard at The Place Hostel with Spunky and many others. It was so good to see Loser, T-Bird, and Moonshadow. I also got to talk to Jenn, Mothman, Wrong Way and Dimple Rock. I met Songbird and DeJeVu, Skeemer, and Robert, who was in the process of writing his dissertation on thru-hikers for his degree. He interviewed both Leapyear and me that weekend. I am eager to read his work when it is finished.We left Sunday morning and drove to Rockfish Gap, where I left the Jeep at the outfitters and we got a shuttle up to Dripping Rocks Parking area on the Blue Ridge Parkway. I had 14.5 miles to do that I had missed last year when Jack came to Waynesboro to see me for the first time since I had left for the trail. Spunky joined us for the 14.5 miles.As the shuttler pulled away from us and we shouldered out packs, the raindrops started to fall. How fitting that I would be doing the miles in the rain after last year¢s record-breaking spring rainfall. As it turned out, it only rained for about 10 minutes and we had such a thick cover from the trees that it didn¢t really faze us at all.Boy did it feel good to be back in the woods with all of my daily needs hanging off my back. The air smelled clean, the spring flowers were blooming and the birds serenaded us as we hiked.The trail was kind to us, and the 9.5 miles passed quickly. We spent the night at the Paul C. Wolfe Shelter where I chose a top bunk, spread out my sleeping bag and headed off to get water. The routine came back to me like I had been doing it daily, when in reality it had been 8 months since I had climbed Katahdin on that beautiful September day.Dinner was a Mountain House meal and a cup of tea. I headed to the comfort of my sleeping bag early and enjoyed listening to the soft guitar music from a thru-hiker that had joined us earlier in the shelter.The peacefulness was broken when an older hiker in a lower bunk asked miserably, ¢How long are you going to be playing that thing?¢ The young fellow finished his song and put the instrument away for the night. It¢s funny that having music at the shelters was always a high point on my hike last year. If I ended up in a shelter with Loser, T-Bird, or CC, I knew that the evening would be pleasant. One of my favorite memories is of a shelter in New York. It was dark, and the shelter was full of hikers nestled down in their sleeping bags. Chicken Legs and CC had made a late dinner and were still sitting around the fire. After they had finished eating and cleaned up, CC picked up his backpacking guitar and started to play a quiet, mournful song. It gives me the chills now thinking about how beautiful it was. I lay there and listened until he was finished and as he slowly walked away to his campsite, I quietly called out, ¢Thank you CC, that was beautiful¢.Flash forward¢¦¢¦¢¦¢¦.We hiked out of the shelter early the next morning and finished the 5 miles to Rockfish Gap. After getting a shuttle to the outfitter to collect my car, we drove north, back to Pennsylvania. My feet behaved nicely, but they weren¢t tested much on the easy terrain of the previous 2 days. My hips and legs were another story; they were so sore and tired. I had not done any hiking since returning from Maine last September to give my feet a chance to heal. I also had huge purple bruises on my hips from my backpack. I had forgotten how difficult it is to get in shape for the trail and I had a new respect for section hikers who go out year after year and have to go through this.Several weeks ago Leapyear was down to visit again. We have kept in touch; instant messaging each other often and the conversation always seems to go back to the trail.The 22nd of September was the one-year anniversary of my summit of Katahdin and the 24th was Leapyear¢s. I got email messages from Babysteps, Constant Motion and Millipede congratulating me on the special day. Millipede said that he counted me as a friend even though we had only hiked together for several days way back in Jersey. Such is life on the trail. Karen from Boston, who hiked up Mt. Washington to meet me on Labor Day weekend last year, and I write often. Karen helps keep me grounded and peaceful with her poetry and beautiful pictures from her travels around the world. Plugger and I keep in touch too. This fellow that was completely disabled from a stroke 5 years ago and has just completed another 150 miles of the AT in Maine, continues to amazes me. I keep in touch with Scubaman who I hiked with for 5 weeks through Northern Va. and Pennsylvania. He always makes me laugh and feels more like a little brother than just a friend.So, it¢s been a year since I returned from my adventure and I¢m still talking about it, still dreaming of it, still benefiting from the lessons learned from my 6 months spent in the woods. I call it my Appalachian Trail Thru-Hike, the gift that keeps on giving.