Date: 2017-10-22
To: Lost Mountain Shelter 
Miles today: 12.3

10/22Lost Mountain Shelter12.3 milesThis is how I came to ponder the Jacobite Rebellion this morning. When I left the shelter, the trail was in shadow. When I stepped out into sunshine, I looked back and saw the sun slanting sideways into the mountains to the west. It was during one of those brief moments when the sun hits just right and makes everything look very clear. Every peak was highlighted against the shadow behind it. It was so beautiful that I felt the crevices in my soul filling in, like that sunlight was the last half slice of pie you eat at Thanksgiving, when you have just a little more space around the edges. Thus I started my morning topped up with joy and also coffee. Thinking of the sun, I pondered how it is the source of all life and more importantly all energy on Earth. We eat plants that grow using energy converted from sunlight. We burn wood which also converts energy from sunlight. And we convert that sunlight to radiant heat in fires. We also burn coal and oil. Both are the end results of many growing things dying and then undergoing millennia of aging, compression, and whatever else is happening under the ground. We burn the past when we burn oil and coal. I wonder in the future if archaeologists might be able to glean information from coal like they do from fossilized bones. And other things that fossilize, like poop. Poop fossilizes into coprolites, from which you can apparently glean information. I wonder how many of the hundreds of thousands of deuces dropped along the Appalachian Trail might fossilize? I know it's rare. Maybe two? And then will anybody ever find those two pooprocks and do a chemical analysis to find out that we survived on a food that they will have no way of knowing is called Snickers?Coprolite rhymes with Jacobite. I recently listened to the audiobook of Outlander as I walked. The heroine frequently goes on about "bloody Jacobites!" I infer that this was a rebellion to put a Scottish noble on the throne of an independent Scotland, although I might have gotten it wrong. But who then was Jacob? I'm not sure there was a Jacob in the story. I need google in the worst way. My brain works in mysterious ways. My day passed peacefully. Whitetop Mountain continues to be beautiful. I reflected on the company I've had while walking through here before. I had to speak sternly to Bessie the cow. She was blocking the trail coming down from Whitetop. Seven O'clock kept leapfrogging with me. He hiked faster than me and takes lots of breaks. He kept surprising me by coming up from behind me. He likes to get off trail and be unseen for his breaks. I generally sit on a rock beside the trail, myself. I was eating Jelly Bellies when I felt my crown come loose. This crown and I have a history, so although it was extremely annoying, it wasn't completely unexpected. At least I didn't swallow it this time. I cleaned Jelly Belly goo off of it and the stump as well as I could, then put the crown back in my mouth. When I got to camp I dug out the tube of Fixodent that I carry for just such an occasion. Fixodent is far from permanent so I'll need to reapply frequently until I can get my hands on some dental cement. But I was able to secure the crown in my mouth for now.