Date: 2004-03-31
From: Fontana Dam

To: Fontana Dam
Miles today: 0.0

Day 183.31.045:30pmMade it into Fontana last night. So much for taking it easy, right? Longest day so far yesterday -- 17.1. Felt really good though. Didn¢t really feel like taking today off. Wanted to push on. Hope I still feel this way after 3 more zero days. Also hope I don¢t lose what little conditioning I¢ve acquired. Right before the Smokies too. Ah well. We¢ll just have to wait and see. Really glad I decided to push on yesterday. Rained most of the day today. Steady. Even tried to snow. Saw on TV that the Smokies got 3-6 in. Wonder what¢ll be like in 4 days. Ran into Just Do It and Turbo Tom at dinner last night. Met Melissa and SlowWalker (Scotland?). Also bumped into Selma, Just Wandering, St. Rick, and Ruby(?). All but SlowWalker headed out this morning. Fontana¢s an interesting place. Not much happening right now. Definitely a summer resort community. Also a definite crossroads for thru hikers. Pilot and V.T. are next door. Saw Zack and 3 others a minute ago too. The motel¢s crawling w/ us. We¢re taking over. I really wish I was heading out w/ everyone else, but it¢ll be good to allow my body to fully heal and recover. My blisters are already well on their way to calluses. And it¢ll be really nice to see Mom and Woody and everyone. And I¢m sure I¢ll see at least some of these guys somewhere up the trail. Seems to work out that way. Beast really calmed me down. He started beginning of March and took nearly 2 weeks off to avoid bad weather. It¢s not a race, and it seems nearly every day I hear another story of someone who had to drop out. Slow Walker (about 1mph) was telling me he attempted last year. Made it almost to NOC, had severe pain in his knees. Took 2 days to go less than 10 miles. Found out he had stress fractures in both kneecaps. So, he¢s rested and back again. Going slow and w/ poles this year. I¢m sure I¢ll encounter him again, maybe even in the Smokies. Trying to figure out where I¢ll (approximately) be in July, so maybe I can go to Bampf. Hah. I couldn¢t even tell 3 days ago where I¢d be today. Heck, I couldn¢t tell yesterday where I¢d be. But, I¢m just guessing about, around, near 100 miles a week. Which puts me at least into CT, MA, even maybe VT. Who knows. I would like to go to Alberta though. And, if I¢m that far by then, I¢ll have plenty of time to make it to Katahdin. Melissa was saying we¢re approaching mile # 174, which means we¢ll be eating into the 2000 mile countdown. These first few weeks don¢t really count, you see. Yeah right. I¢ve hiked close to 170 miles, and I¢m darn proud of it. These feet were made for walkin¢. With all the thinking and clearing of my head I¢ve been able to do lately, I¢m still no closer to figuring out my life. Maybe I¢ll just become a nomad, a global hiker. It would be an absolutely awesome way to see the world. But, although my future¢s still up in the air, I¢ve definitely learned a lot about who I am and, even moreso, who I want to be, which is really what this experience is about. I¢ve gained so much self-confidence in the last weeks. True independence, not only from family but from material things and even from myself. It¢s totally liberating out here. I feel capable of confronting whatever I¢m faced w/ (although I¢m not asking to meet a bear face to face just yet). It¢s just such a great, empowering feeling to feel so free and uninhibited. I wish everyone could experience this, and yet I¢m glad that it¢s such a small community of hikers. There¢s such a tight bond b/t all of us, and if the trail became more generalized, that sense of togetherness would be lost. But, it seems you never escape the trail. As much as you carry the memories of your hike w/ you, you leave a part of yourself on the trail. And your voice becomes mingled w/ the voices of those who preceded you, and those who will follow.It¢s so amazing to be hiking out here. You can see, feel, sense this burgeoning, blossoming, nascent spring everywhere around you. Wildflowers are starting to bloom -- the trillium will be open in a day or two. The birds are migrating and beginning to sing. It still feels surreal. Sometimes I think I¢m in a fantasy, or Lord of the Rings, the Secret Garden. It¢s almost too perfect, too beautiful. Even the god-awful climbs up the mountains, painful as they are, afford unimaginable vistas and scenery. Words don¢t do it justice. And I¢ll stop trying. The AYCE buffet awaits¢¦8:15Just got back from dinner and wanted to record some names before I forgot -- Hermann, Pooner, Papillion & Gaia, Pegasus, AYCE, Mad Scientist (Pilman), Adrock, Beast, St Rick, Ross, Grace, Zack, P & VT, Alabama, and others. Can¢t remember who. Gonna have a bonfire tonight by the pool. Great send off for my hiatus.