Date: 2006-10-07
To: Readjusting
Miles today: 0.0

I'm finally readjusting and I'm in a writing mood. I'll be adding more entries as promised. The topics will jump around, it will be more like brainstorming rather than an organized pattern. I want to tie up my thoughts from the hike and add information that didn't make it to the journal the first time.My thru-hike was completed over a month ago and I¢m still readjusting back to the world. I don¢t have any desire to sleep on the ground in a tent, although I did for two nights when I took our scout troop camping last weekend. I¢m enjoying being able to take showers any time I want and not have the heavy odor around me. The funny thing is my watchband still has a slight hiker aroma I find comforting, so I guess it¢s okay as long as it isn¢t strong.It¢s funny how my body was so used to being in a different place each night. This caused me a problem the first night I was home; I awoke in need of a bathroom. As I walked around the bed I noticed other buildings outside the window and a swing set on the lawn, I remember thinking ¢I must be at some sort of family resort with cabins tonight¢. It didn¢t take long for my disorientation to kick in and I found myself standing in the dark confused. I turned around to go back to the bed to ask Sue where the bathroom was when I remembered I was in my own home, the one I¢ve lived 25 years in. Talk about being away too long.I didn¢t think that I would return home in a tired condition. I had watched my diet and I ate well on the trail. I also ate well in town and took advantage of every Deli, Pizza place and greasy spoon. I was no longer losing weight and in fact had put some back on in the last few states. From Rangeley Maine I cut back on my miles per day and tried to keep a nice even pace. I am now thinking that it doesn¢t matter what you do a 2000 mile hike takes a lot out of you and it takes time to get back to where you were when you left. I keep finding myself thinking ¢Did I really hike a complete thru-hike on the Appalachian Trail? I¢ve settled back into my life and it just doesn¢t seem like I did anything.The first question I¢m asked is, ¢Did you ever feel like quitting?¢ I found myself being positive and upbeat most of the time and never wanted to leave the trail. I almost returned home from Front Royal Virginia, I considered renting a car and driving home. Sue and I were going through a difficult time and it was laying heavily on my mind. I thought it was going to require some face-to-face time at home to fix it, I decided against it after the next phone call home. Somehow we were able to communicate well and we worked out the problem without my returning home. My initial plan was to go home for a week and then return to the trail where I left off. I don¢t know what that time away would have done to my stride and I¢m glad it wasn¢t necessary.I feel very grateful for the weather I hiked in; I had a mindset that it was possible my entire hike would be in the rain. I¢ve been a longtime reader of Trailjournals and I followed the class of 2003 who had rain most of their hike. My mindset was ¢No Pain, No Rain, No Maine¢. I knew that if I waited out every pain I had or every day it rained that I would run out of days and never make it to Katadhin in Maine. As it was I did have plenty of days left in the summer when I finished and in fact I finished two weeks to a month ahead of what I thought it would take me.I am pleased and proud of what I¢ve done, I kept telling my fellow thru-hikers ¢If this hike was easy, everyone would be doing it¢, it wasn¢t easy but then again it wasn¢t impossible either. It took a good positive attitude and a willingness to endure pain, separation from family, and determination. It was a matter of breaking the whole thing down into manageable pieces. I would plan my trip from town to town, approximately a week at a time. I focused on what I could do today and I enjoyed my accomplishment each evening. It would have been too daunting to think about Katahdin every day, it was too far away and I probably would have had the feeling I wasn¢t going anywhere. I actually felt a little guilty thinking about Katahdin when I was in the Hundred-mile-wilderness. My motto was ¢It¢s the Journey that counts, and not the destination¢ and here I was thinking destination