Date: 2015-11-03
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

I have become a terrible journalist. Over the past few weeks, I have thought of posting countless times. I have told myself, "Tonight I'm going to finally write that post." and then climbed into bed after work and shut down.I have multiple half-written entries waiting to be edited, completed, and posted. For example, I wanted to post a two-month-since-Katahdin discussion. That didn't happen. The night before, however, I had a dream about climbing Katahdin. I look forward to making that climb again someday.A week before Halloween, I dressed up as Red Panda, expert hiker, for the Eek! of Ecology Halloween festival for kids. I hosted a Leave No Trace station with a hopscotch game (choose the best route down the path, avoiding mud and scat and sticking to durable surfaces) and got to give out candies wrapped with camping images (a hiker, a picnic table, a campfire, a tent: http://www.orientaltrading.com/camping-party-sweet-creams-a2-13705908.fltr?Ntt=camping).And one weekend, long before that, I had gone for a long walk and written this, which I never completed:"There's something so different about walking on a trail that I can't quite express. It's certainly much different than driving or riding in a moving vehicle, but it's also different than walking down a road. Sure, a road is different than a trail to begin with, but even if the road is in a gorgeous place surrounded by trees (and ocean waves, as it is here), it's not the same. I don't know if it's the rhythm of a hike, the dance of avoiding rocks and roots, or the mental effort required to map out where to place your next step. I went for a long walk to the post office the other day, splicing together a route from trails, bike paths, the loop road, and the main road into Winter Harbor. I had wanted to backpack out in Cutler this weekend, and camp near the water, but had decided after waking up with the beginning of a cold on Saturday morning that it might NOT be the GREATEST idea to go out and freeze my butt off 5 miles from my car on the exposed coastline. Shortly after starting out, I started to wonder if I was going to end up regretting my decision. The sun was bright and warm, but the air was still chilly. My hands were cold, even inside my gloves, as I headed down the road. BUT THEN, I HIT THE TRAIL. And started climbing, up, up, up the (relatively small) mountain that takes up a good chunk of the Schoodic Peninsula.Of course, I started warming up and sweating profusely, removing double layers (isn't that how it always goes?!). Even though my body was warm, my hands were still cold. In some places, the ground was springy and soft beneath my feet. Other areas, cast in shade, untouched by sunlight throughout the entire morning, were brittle and frozen, crunching under my clunky boots. An icicle dangled and dripped above me on one particularly sheltered section of trail. I started to wonder to myself, "HOW DID I HIKE FOR SO LONG IN THE COLD IN APRIL?!"I guess excitement about the onset of my AT adventure kept me warm?! I have no freaking clue. Maybe it wasn't that cold in April. There were so many days I remember waking up to frost on the ground, though. I do remember that as I was training, when I would go for long walks with Bertha strapped on, I would sometimes return home with minimal use of my fingers, and would take a long, hot shower to restore circulation to my poor abused limbs. One day, I walked to Torrington, and the water in the hose of my CamelBak froze. I might have been kind of an idiot that day. WHATEVER. I SURVIVED. NO PAIN, NO MAINE.Apparently I didn't learn that lesson well enough last winter. I had to struggle to write an address on an envelope with stiff fingers at the post office. I guess I should have brought more layers with me. Oops.Still worth it."SO THERE IT IS.I drove home from Maine over the weekend (endless gratitude goes out to Kate, Alexa, and my fellow interns for covering for me at work) to take a trip to the walk-in clinic for an infection. The sore area around my kidneys is starting to feel better (hooray!) and I am starting to feel better and more (slightly) more motivated. Yesterday I took a trip to visit my favorite trail. WHAT A DAY THAT TURNED OUT TO BE.I enjoyed a nice, wonderful hike, planning to do a long loop but realizing I probably wouldn't be able to get to my appointment on time . I climbed up Breadloaf Mountain to where the trail intersects the AT, then clomped around my favorite trail until it hit another intersection, checked my watch, and turned back with sagging shoulders of severe sorrow (okay, not severe, but I was of course disappointed to cut my hike short).Then I got back to my car and phone service. By the way, my poor cheap phone, which I dropped quite a few times (once at Fontana Dam and then once while hiking with Chris, when we were trying to piece together our hikes day-by-day to figure out how our paths intersected multiple times. I kept failing to remember the order of shelters I had slept at and tried to check my journal, as my memory failed miserably) finally died and has been replaced with another, even cheaper (but faster, to my pleasant surprise) model.THERE IS NOT MUCH I CAN COMPARE TO LISTENING TO A VOICEMAIL CONTAINING, "I might need you to take me to the hospital." Cue panic mode.But it's okay. My dad had a kidney stone, but all is well. I don't know what it is with kidneys lately.So all is well. I'm still trying to figure out the next step and the next adventure. LIFE IS SO BUSY.In other news, Darn Tough replaced my nasty, dirty, stiff, worn out trail socks! Hooray! Also, Hydro-Photon replaced the lamp in my SteriPen. That one is SUPER exciting, since the thing is such an awesome tool (seriously, a UV light zapping the DNA and RNA of the critters swimming around in my water, waiting to battle my innards?) and would be too expensive to replace (also Impatient Red Panda still hates AquaMira). As for my post-trail return to a healthy diet? Well... I just ate half a bag of chocolate-covered almonds, if that tells you anything. I blame Halloween. And my dad for being too nice and buying me delicious gifts.I am going to try to write another post soon about my trail dinners!I am thankful for my wonderful, ridiculously generous Maine family as well as my Goshen family. I am thankful that my dad is okay! I am thankful for my own health, and the fact that by some miracle I have not become a rotund pudgeball. I am thankful for the sunshine and amazing weather, and the opportunity to visit the trail. I am thankful for the journey, as I have always been and will always be. There may not be AT thru-hike miles ahead of me, but there are certainly many more miles waiting to be covered. I am thankful for a huge world of opportunity.I am thankful to have a home to come back to, and a warm bed to sleep in (I admit the trail changed some of my habits... the window is more often open, even in the cold, and the curtains are never drawn). I am thankful for the patience of my parents, especially my mother, as I struggle to return to "normal". I am thankful for dreams.