Date: 2017-06-05
From: Katahdin Stream, then Millinockett

To: Appalachian Trail Lodge in Millinockett
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

Why Car 54? Well, I¢m on a zero day and I¢m feeling giddy, is as good an explanation as any. But bear with me.On each of my last two trails, the PCT and the CDT, I had a special piece of jewelry commissioned.   On the PCT it was Frodo¢s trail ring for our 30th anniversary, and the source of her trailname. I still wear the tiny PCT symbol proof-of-concept pendant on a chain around my neck. When I hiked the CDT I had a pair of CDT symbol earrings made for her. I wear that CDT proof-of-concept pendant on the same chain next to the PCT one. But what was left to do for the AT?Last November I got a letter from our trail friend ¢Bump.¢  She described how she and her hiking partner Loren had been a really big help to a hiking couple on the trail in Northern California. It was especially meaningful because the guy had been laid up sick. Bump wrote that as she and Loren were saying good-bye to the couple, the woman reached around her neck and took off a brown cord necklace with a diamond-shaped pendant. The woman said that only a limited number of the brass pendants had been cast. They are to be given, not purchased, given to express gratitude for above-and-beyond help to a hiker on the trail. Since then Bump had kept the pendant on her dresser. She had heard I planned to hike the AT. The diamond pendant has the AT symbol. In the envelope Bump had enclosed the necklace. ¢For all your above-and-beyond trail angelling.¢ I put it on my neck.They say, ¢The trail provides.¢ That necklace is still on.But here¢s the thing. The tradition is, you are supposed to pass it on to someone who has helped you on the trail - I really don¢t want to part with it.But I didn¢t want each of our three kids to go, to leave home, either. But that¢s what we do with who we love and with what we love most. We set them free.I clench it tight in my hand as I write. It is Trail Karma Pendant number 383. One of 500.Trail Karma Pendant No. 383, where are you? Tonight you are still with me. Going from the sublime to the silly, here¢s what my beard might have looked like if I had grown it since 1974, like this guy who came into the Appalachian Trail Caf©. ¢Princes of Maine. Kings of New England.¢ A big tip of my torn hiking hat to anyone who guesses the book that quote is from. It¢s the book I¢ve torn into sections to read on the trail. What kind of monster rips up books?!?Just when my parents should no longer have to worry about me getting a tattoo, here I am with my new ¢AT¢ tattoo.And, Mom and Dad, not only do I have one myself, but I am a veritable Johnny Appleseed of tattoos, encouraging others. Here are four of us at dinner tonight, with our  bright gold ¢AT¢ tats.Book quote hint: The movie made from that book starred Toby Maguire and every night Michael Caine said that to a room full of boys. And as for ¢Car 54,¢ it was a silly 1960s police sitcom set in the Bronx. The two stars drove patrol car 54, and the title and tagline was, ¢Car 54, where are you?¢ Who was the tall star?Book hint, if you haven¢t figured it out yet: The author also wrote The World According to Garp. Car 54 star hint: He was 6¢5¢ tall and is best known for his role as Herman Munster in ¢The Munsters.¢Book answer: Cider House Rules. It is set deep in the backcountry of Maine, which is why I am re-reading it.Car 54 answer: It starred Fred Wynn.What a good zero day it has been ¢ food for the next section packed, clothes and body cleaned, feet rested.Just as Christopher Robin and Pooh entered the Hundred-Acre Wood, tomorrow Rolling Thunder and I sally forth into the Hundred-Mile Wilderness.Scout