Date: 2004-04-28
From: rice field shelter

To: bailey gap shelter
Miles today: 16.2
Weather: clear sky

today marks two months on the trail. seems like i've been doing this longer than that. it's a whole lifestyle change, not just a temporary change like a vacation.two months ago georgia was warmer than it is now! this is the first time i've journaled in the morning. i don't want to get out of my bag! (i've hiked in colder weather. looks like i've been spoiled by last week's warm temperatures.) the 35* night was pretty much the limit of my summer gear. any colder and i would have been shivering like poptart was. my kilt made a great sleeping bag collar to hold the warm air in. there are a couple of other spots in this bag that could use some insulation and i will try using my remaining gear to trap more heat in my bag.i got on the trail late today (9:30), and i was also the first one out of the shelter. i left that chilly little shelter with all my warm gear on. i told myself it would be worth it to heat up first then change into my hiking clothes. twenty minutes later i dropped my pack under a noisy electrical transmission tower and changed into my kilt and t-shirt.today's hike was another virgina classic: big blue sky and moderate terrain. we wanted to do more than 16 miles today but our late start had us finish at the shelter.an interesting meeting happened during the day. i took lunch at pine swamp branch shelter and there was a couple there. he was a little odd looking since he broke the arm off his glasses and had repaired it by using some forceps to hold the pieces together. forceps? in the backcountry? don't ask, they had a cooler too.anyway... i was hiking with my shirt off an he noticed the ankh around my neck. (an ankh is the egyptian symbol for eternal life.) he made a reference to "the key of something or other" that i didn't get. he then explained it was a symbol used in Logan's Run to unlock something. i don't know if i was not paying attention, or if the bagels and peanut butter i was eating were scoring more points than he was to my frontal lobes, but i can't remember what the ankh opened in the movie. while hiking afterwards i felt that the symbolism was important to me. so... could someone who's reading this tell me what the ankh symbol opened and the significance to that part of the movie (i.e. did logan get outside after using the anhk?, what was happening in the movie at that time?). if you put it in the guestbook, i'll be sure to see it. thanks! that's another thing to add to my post-trail list. watch logan's run.(shifting to the evening at baily's gap now)a section hiker just showed up (8pm) and started complaining about the rocks. we all look at him, like, "what rocks?" he goes behind the shelter and hippie says he'll be real surprised when he gets to PA.today i tried to accept everything that happened to me as being my choice. not just the cool stuff - the great views, the yummy food, the flat sections; but the crap too - the stubbed toes, pricker bushes, water that¢s 400 yards off-trail, and tiring climbs. all the 'crap' i've referred to is just unconscious choices i've made. why do i unconsciously stub my toe? i don't know. any explanation would just be a story, so why bother? a few journal entries ago i talked about my knee problem being a conflict between the reception of conscious and unconscious choices. what if i spent some time accepting everything that happened to me was a choice of mine without going into polarity (good/bad). would something in me change? would my outlook on life be different? would my knees get better? i'll try it out and see what happens.------------------------------A note from Dharma¢s transcriber:With regard to functional anatomy, the frontal lobes of the brain are associated with behavior regulation, including the ability to direct and focus attention. The functioning of our frontal lobes is influenced by various factors, including physical and emotional stress . Perhaps peanut butter has an effect too? :-)--Kris