Date: 2010-05-09
From: Knot Maul Shelter

To: Jenkins
Miles today: 18.8
Weather: broken clouds

So many things about this trail and the hikers on it remind me of a wild pack of wolves. Our appearance: salty, wind blown, sun bleached hair, muddy feet, dingy skin, food sticking to our faces and beards. Our appetites are ravenous, voracious and competitive when at a family style table. The fastest hiker sometimes gets the trail magic first. Well just like in nature sometimes luck has a lot to do with that. our food lust and envy over others at dinner. We feed together. Our lack of manners and civility when society would frown upon licking bowls, fingers, and eating off the ground. Find an unwrapped piece of unspoiled food in the middle of the trail...and you wouldn't be hard pressed to find someone who'd eat it. We grocery shop like wolves. We lust first. The first pass around the food is an evaluation process. Observation of our options. We lust after food we can't ingest. We desire the large items that would require more calories to obtain, than they're worth. The large juicy chunks of delightful energy providing nutrients. We want the feast, but we have to settle for just a meal. We have further to go. Tomorrow will require the ability to obtain more food. We can't carry what we cannot eat in a few days. Meat will spoil. You look for something obtainable, that doesn't spoil. We walk past the pigs. We say no to the ham. We evaluate the possibilities. Then we strike like ravenous rabid beasts. We share food with the weak, but we expect you to fend for your own caloric intake needs. We even eat in packs. When breakfast, lunch or dinner approaches if one person starts to eat, you can guarantee someone else will be digging for food pretty soon. I think of a Native American quote, "A hungry bird flies faster than a bird who has just eaten".I think of the Wizard of Oz. How in the part where Dorothy had just met him outside of his Gypsy wagon. The Wizard, cooking a hot dog by the fire was talking with Dorothy. Distracted from his warm hot dog by conversation, Toto took advantage of the situation and stole the Wizards meal. The Wizard responded, "Oh that's okay. From one old dog to another!", when Dorothy apologized for Toto's behavior.We have almost inhumane responses to injuries. Injuries obtained. Most mostly the suffering of others. We'll help you, but the first level of our triage response is, "Can you walk?" We morn the loss of a friend who cannot go on, we even feel sadness to hear of someone falling behind, but the pack keeps moving. We migrate with the hope of a better tomorrow.I read an article in Psychology Today back at Kincora that has been on my mind alot. It was about the Human response to loss of value. They compared our response to the response of a dog. How a dog will spend hours digging holes in the yard looking for a bone that it hid long ago. When found, the buried bone is old, smelly, covered in dirt and almost worthless in calories. All his effort to find the treasure, in vain except the memory of how it was when he buried it. When the dog is presented with another bone. A fresh bone, with meat and closer to life than rotting flesh. The dog will undoubtedly take the new bone. The new opportunity. He forgets the effort applied to hiding the bone, to finding the bone and the past memories of how the old bone tasted. He cuts his loss and goes for the new opportunity. People tend to view things in terms of their investments. Dogs are more realistic and remorseless. They live in the moment instead of relying on yesterdays efforts to pay off today.Feet hurt today. Switched socks to the ones with better cushion. Thicker. Trading toe discomfort for heeling (...healing (badump!) Long John is up early and is awfully cheerful! Contagious. I love it! Caribou and Yolo are asleep in the shelter at Knot Maul Shelter. Caribou is deaf. Yolo is his Border Collie, shepherd mix service dog. Nesta is up and introduced himself.Awesome field with beautiful rolling Virginia hills on the way to Chestnut Knob Shelter. Took a panoramic shot but one of them didn't line up, it's like the Twilight Zone. Like the earth just tore in half and things just don't add up. Cold and windy again, then surprise...you're hot again! Coat on, coat off. Repeat all day. The plains and valleys here are speckled like poke dots because of the way the shadows of the clouds are falling on the landscape. The shelter is COLD! Completely enclosed. The rafters have cables holding them down. Must get rough here. Tequila John, Squash, Long John, Nasta, Caribou and Yolo here. Met Hoofin It finally. He's British and quite the character. He reminds me of an old sailor. Bet he has some great life stories to tell. Funny how the saltiest of dogs gets sentimental about their wives. Took a long break here without any water. Scary sources here. Creeks. Rivers. VA is mostly ridgelines so far. Nice view before Davis campground. I love Virginia! It's for lovers! It's rolling fields remind me of home! Yolo passes me and completely disappears down the trail going North. I worry that he's lost! I didn't see him again for 1 1/2 miles! He was running back towards Caribou going south. Nesta says he doest that all the time. Like he's surveying the approaching terrain. Yolo will even make the correct choice between a White Blazed trail and a Blue Blazed one. I dunno about that!? Letting your dog run free like that is scary to me, but whatever.Lots and LOTS OF SHARP ROCKS! My heels feel blistered. Muscles and bones feel strong! Funny how those pink flags hanging from trees in the woods have started alarming me. They denote a future re-route of the AT. That means it's about to get really steep. Told Hoofin It of my observation and he agreed. Pond Flatts looked like a parade with all the flags waving in the breeze. That's a whole different level of "steep" though. Hard hiking to the shelter today. Worn out when I get there. Caribou, Yolo, Nesta, Squash, Dilly Dally (taught English in Korea), Cubby (his wife who worked for Americorp...she's from Chicago) Gearbomb, Silverback, Grey, Which way & 3rd Husband (she married the drummer from her first wedding reception...I had to ask if it was the, "Inagodadivita solo" that did her in) and Tequila John here tonight.