Date: 2012-02-28
To: No rain, no pain, no Maine!
Miles today: 0.0

"No rain, no pain, no Maine!" -- beloved AT aphorism11am, hurtling through Connecticut:I'm thoroughly exhausted, and it's only the first 4 hour leg of a 22 hour train ride to Gainesville, Georgia.  Someone's gonna pick me up tomorrow morning and shuttle me to the trailhead.  But first I'll overnight in a sleeper car after I make my connection in NYC at 2pm.  The  nice thing about a 22 hour train ride -- it's not as if I'm oblivious to the advantage of only being in transit for a couple of hours via airplane -- is that there is a wealth of time to think about where you're going and (equally important!) where you're coming from.  Someone at OB, a person I admire deeply, called this hike a "block" -- as if I'd just thrown my crossed arms up at a General Assembly -- a walk away from the movement, albeit a short one, and I must admit I was floored by that exegetical take... there's a good reason she holds a PhD.  It had never occurred to me in that fashion, and I'm not going to say that she's correct, but I will say I haven't been able to shake that thought over the past 5 days.  It continues to impinge on my mind during this surplus of travel time.1:15pm, waiting in New York Penn Station:On another note, I'm trying to figure out how often I'll be posting journal entries.  I know I'll be writing every day, and I'm prepared  to post daily, but I'll be beholden to cell coverage in the wilds, including the massive Nantahala National Forest early on, so it might be intermittent for a few days and then a flurry of entries may come in at once because I'm doing a trail town resupply.  I'll be able to post pictures directly to Facebook when I have service, but otherwise the trail entries will go in first unadorned, and then Pattie will add the pictures later (within a few hours or days). Anyway, who wants to be tethered to a phone (which will be off 90% of the time) during a long distance hike...2:58pm,  a blur through Jersey:I know exactly what to expect, and I also have no idea what to expect.  It doesn't matter how often one has undertaken a long distance hike on the AT, every time it's different and yet the same.  Cool new people to meet and bond with; some scene framed differently than when you were here last; blizzard conditions obscuring one of your favorite vistas; a surprise spotting of a bobcat or bald eagle where you never expected one; and some new trail section -- invariably added -- 9 new miles since I was out last in 2010.   Then there's the stuff you know all too well: the sometimes seemingly interminable rain and inability to get dry (great for the water sources but will beat down your morale if you let it); that heart pounding moment when you hear the rattling and you realize you planted your foot much too close to that rattlesnake you didn't see; the black flies, mosquitos, horse flies, deer flies, ticks, and shelter mice that make the challenges challenging; the dry water sources in mid-summer; the "Virginia Blues," the mid-summer doldrums;  the aches and the pain; seeing the people you've come to know and appreciate walk out of your life as quickly as they appeared -- someone walks slower or faster, stays in town longer or goes home.  The rain, the rain and the rain -- nothing does it to me like that 40 - 50 degree rain that doesn't cease for a few days or a week where nothing dries, the clothes you put on and off freezing and wet, the wet tent, the wet sleeping bag... the crotch rot, the wild boar stomping at you, the bear that doesn't run away when it's supposed to because its cub is nearby, the hot hot heat...I can't wait to tackle this sucker again tomorrow... oh yeah, a 70% chance of thunderstorms and high winds throughout the day.  I long for you!No rain, no pain, no Maine!