Date: 2014-08-05
From: Newton, MA via Pinkham Notch

To: Newton, MA via Pinkham Notch
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

I spent time today with the logistics for getting back on the trail this Monday. My long-time friend, Jeff, who bicycled with me from Boston to San Francisco in 1976 when we were both 17, and who has hiked with me extensively since then, will drive me back to Pinkham Notch first thing Monday. There we'll meet another long-time friend and coworker, Jim, who will hike with us over the Wildcat Ridge and down the Nineteen Mile Brook Trail, where we'll drive a spotted car back to Pinkham, have dinner, and spend the night. Jim will head back to the Boston area Tuesday morning, while Jeff and I will tackle the Carter Range and beyond for the next week or so. Jeff's uncle in Maine will eventually give him a lift back to Pinkham.Since I hiked only about five miles today, all of them between the couch and fridge, I thought I'd share a few answers to questions I'm frequently asked on the trail. And since neither my couch nor fridge is picture-worthy, I'll be including a few unrelated pictures with the posts this week.Q: When did you first think about hiking the AT? A: Shortly after I bought my first house in the mid-80s and became a slumlord to help pay the mortgage, I got a roommate who had hiked the AT right out of college. Having biked across the country a decade earlier, hiking the AT seemed like the next logical step. Then life intervened, as I got married and raised a family, but the dream never died. The last few years I became obsessed with the AT, reading a couple dozen books about the trail, and even cutting back on basketball to let my chronically aching knees recover in anticipation of the hike. I'd take my dog for two-hour walks in the woods and spend half the time imagining I was on the AT. Finally, my wife kicked me out of the house and told me not to come back until I'd hiked from Springer to Katahdin. Ok, that last bit is a stretch.A: What is your favorite part of the trail so far?Q: I absolutely loved hiking down south. The trails are so smooth and well-graded, and the views from the balds are nothing short of spectacular. The top of Max Patch, with its grassy summit and 360-degree view, including back to the Smokies where we'd just been, may have been my single favorite place on the trail. On the other hand, I was overwhelmed with inspiration three times so far: at the original Washington Monument in Maryland, at the half-way mark in Pennsylvania, and at the summit of Mt Moosilauke in the dying light when it first occurred to me I'd made it home.Q: What was your scariest moment?A: Three of them: hiking with Space Blanket through a lightning storm across a New Jersey ridge, tenting in a lightning storm beside the Antietam Shelter in Pennsylvania, and watching blood gush out of my shin just below Mt Jefferson in the Whites.Q: Is hiking the AT all you imagined?A: It's much more. It's been harder than I thought, as it's required all the physical and mental energy I can muster. But it's also been more rewarding. The people I've met, including other hikers, trail angels, and readers of this journal have been wonderful to me. I've made friends I'd like to keep for life. Hiking the AT is a great way to restore your faith in humanity.