Date: 2003-08-07
From: Mohican Outdoor Centre, N.J.

To: Glen Anderson Shelter
Miles today: 9.8
Weather: overcast clouds

Today "Two Speeds" left the Appalachian Trail. Not officially or finally but I think he is gone. Yesterday I was up early at the hostel but couldn't get the others moving. "Thistle" and "Two Speeds" dragged along behind us all day, and clearly weren't enjoying themselves. Our target was a shelter 14 miles ahead, but "Thistle" started to break down, and we stopped just beyond a rocky summit on Rattlesnake Mountain about 3 miles short. It was a good tenting area with lots of running water nearby. "Riff-Raff" put up their hammocks and the six of us had a good evening there. This morning we did a fairly easy 7-8 miles to US-206 at Culver's Gap, but "Thistle" and "Two Speeds" were soon trailing again. Just a short way off the trail on US206 we had lunch at a bar and grill, and "Two Speeds" was very pensive. Finally he said most unhappily that he couldn't go on. We chewed this round for a while and, in the end, he and "Thistle" have hitched a ride to Vernon. They will wait for the rest of us there, he will give us his decision then, but I believe he will go and I feel very sad about it. We have been with "Two Speeds" since the Smoky Mountains in early April, and I don't think I have known anyone who is more generous, considerate to others and of good heart. He is very inventive and has given so much time and thought to devise ways of making life out here easier or more enjoyable for the rest of us. "Two Speeds" is probably one of the best known hikers on the trail. He expresses himself largely in the shelter registers. I've lost count of the people we have met who respond "So, you're "Two Speeds". I love your register entries". He will be greatly missed.   Why has this happened now? Pennsylvania was very hard on everyone. Now the insects in New Jersey are making life unbearable when we aren't actually out walking. But mostly I think it's psychological, and "Two Speeds" - and "Thistle" too - are simply burning out. Both are struggling to put in mileages that they did with ease two months ago. They've done enough. About an hour and two miles after saying a difficult goodbye to the pair of them, "Chafe" and I reached the Culver Gap Fire Tower overlooking the area. I was there first and climbed the steps to the top. The view to the west was stunning, a succession of black ridge lines, one behind the other, separated by white layers of dense cloud in the valleys between. I looked out over this beautiful land and, out of nowhere, I suddenly started to cry. For "Two Speeds", for "Thistle", for all of us perhaps. But most of all for "Two Speeds". A mile further on, we had just reached the blue blaze to the Gren Anderson Shelter when it started to rain. That made our minds up about where to spend the night. We met a trail volunteer here, Dennis Pegg, who gave us lots of good advice, including the location of a "secret shelter", not publicised in the planning books, that we might reach tomorrow. Also here is a large group of teenage girls, all inner city, who have tented right beside the privy. This wouldn't matter except the privy has no walls so there is a natural reluctance to use it. We are a bashful lot! I take my hat off to the grls. They have obviously had a really tough week but are making the best of it and their spirits are high. They came down to visit the thru-hikers in the shelter, with the offer of extra pizza they had prepared for supper. Apparently, there is a corresponding group of boys north of here that we ought to pass tomorrow.