Date: 2007-04-21
From: Crampton Gap Shelter, MD

To: Dalgren Back Pack Campground, MD
Miles today: 6.8
Weather: clear sky

Crampton Gap shelter tent site, Sat. morningWell, here I am, so neither the bears nor the mass murders out there found me! I made sure by staying awake all night! Just too much is NEW about all this: alone on a mountain side, sleeping on a 1/2 inch of foam, feeling vulnerable in my miniscule tent. And then there's the usual angry, desparaging thoughts of Jim's abandonment and all the losses that has entailed. Am I going to carry this night time rant into these lovely mountains? They don't deserve such petty human self pity. I tried to do all the right things regarding camp set up last night. "Bear Bagging", described as hanging your food at least l5 ft. off the ground and 10 feet away from a tree trunk that a bear could climb, was challenging. Book illustrations make it seem easy but there aren't any branches 20 feet up - they are all about 50 feet high! My solution, hanging it from a sappling that I could pull over and then securing the sappling between two sturdy trunks wasn't going to stop any REAL bear. Fortunately, no critter came visiting last night. The best part of yesterday was within the first few hours. Every time I looked up, there was a white blaze beckoning me forward. It was exhilerating. "I'm doing it!" Low point was worrying about water. Not only did I not start out with enough but I quickly learned that getting water along the way is not simple. Often one has to trek a good ways down hill to get it - and then trek back up, of course. It can take a half hour or more to get what we're so used to getting in seconds from a convenient tap. Another important lesson learned yesterday: I wasn't 100 yards from the hostel, carefully making my way down an escarpment to the tow path below when I came across a large branch that had blown down the weekend before. In the interest of my own convenience and that of others to follow I decided to play "trail crew" and heaved the branch over the trail edge. I amost went heaving with it! A thirty pound pack on one's back changes equilibrium considerably!Dahlgren Back Pack Campground, Turners Gap (Boonsboro, MD) 7pmI'd passed at least four Boy Scout troops today so wasn't surprised to find myself sharing this campsite with at least 125 14 - 16 year olds and their leaders. (The main job of the leaders was to make sure the boys' campfires didn't get out of control.... some things never change.) I've particularly enjoyed talking to two leaders of Troop 602 from Laurel MD. They and their Scouts are doing this weekend overnight in preparation for a Philmont experience late summer. I remember Dad going there many years ago and it pleased me to learn that this is still a wonderful place to challenge young men. Yesterday, when I met long time hikers they always asked, "Do you have a trail name?" "Not yet," I'd say, "but it will come to me.""I'm going to think of you as 'Lucky Penny'" one woman told me. "But I'm NOT lucky!" I blurted out, thinking of my sorrow.   Actually, though, how lucky I AM to be doing what I choose to do without responsibilities elsewhere. That is a rare opportunity. I considered "Lucky Penny" but it only reminded me of how Jim used to pick up wayward pennies on the ground as he felt lucky to have me.Sometime last night I peeked out of my tent and was startled by the brightness of the stars and a crescent moon. Away from the metropolis and a thousand feet above everything else the intensity was just beautiful. I thought of the song, "Blue skies, smiling at me; nothing but blue skies do I see...." My Dad used to play it on the clarinet as I belted it out in the kitchen when I was a teen. "That's it," I thought, "Blue Skies. Its how I'm starting this journey and it's what I'm trying to re-gain in my emotional life." So now I'm Blue Skies.