Date: 2009-04-11
From: Charlotte, North Carolina

To: Marion, Virginia
Miles today: 99.1

After 526 miles and 42 days on the trail (including three 'zero' days), I am back home in Charlotte for the Easter weekend. A short stay, as my friend, Ed Marsh drives me back up to Virginia tomorrow afternoon. Another good friend, Rich Rosenthal, picked me up Friday afternoon for the 2 1/2 hour drive back to Charlotte.I have entered over 100 pictures onto this blog. Click on the picture on this page and continue to click through my pictures from the trail. Some classics, if I say so myself.I walked in the door last night and after quick hugs and kisses and a LONG shower, I was put on the scale. My pre-hike weight on February 26 was 201. Last night I was 184.6 and this morning I was 182.6! Anyone need any used clothes? I have sizes: stocky, squat, full and stout. If I'm smart, I won't start giving them away until two months after completing the trail!On Tuesday I estimate that I will have completed the first quarter of the trail. One dilemma all first time, thru-hikers share is how to respond to the question: Are you a thru-hiker? At what mile marker or at which white blaze are you legit? Can a trail god make a rock he can't lift? I don't have an answer yet. I'll have to chew on that one for a few more miles.Thanks to everyone for their Guestbook postings. Those nights when I get blackberry service on certain mountaintops, there is nothing better than keeping up with friends and family. I get posed alot of questions. I am one lucky fellow to have the time to think about them.A friend Paul, asked me a few weeks back: "How many days into your trip does the inner voice start to get quiet and it becomes a silent one foot in front of another?" I've been rolling that Jolly Rancher around in my mouth for a while.Paul, I think I had more mind expanding ideas on the first 7.25 miles of the Approach Trail in Georgia on February 28 than the rest of the trip. But the funny thing is, I don't think a great idea is at the neuron-to-neuron synapse of idea creation. Out on the trail, I'm getting the sense that a great idea is one that comes back to you over and over. You roll it over in your head and look at it from different perspectives.The trail affords me the opportunity to have one of those old-time desk rolodexes in my brain. It is filled with hand-written ideas. Nothing has been typed up. Everything is still a work-in-progress. What a luxury!Now I'm not saying I will come down off of Katahdin with "Ten Great Ideas According to Da'Leader" written on stone tablets (that's been done), but I plan to have ten key ideas/issues figured out. I appreciate the fact that I have the luxury of 'one foot in front of another' for the rest of the summer. And Paul, I don't think the inner voice gets quiet, there just isn't the interference or day-to-day static.I thank my family, especially my wife, Kate, for this time away from home. A sabbatical is defined as "a leave often with pay granted (thanks, Churchill), usually every seventh year (so you owe me a couple more, Kate), for rest, travel or research." I'm getting that opportunity. Well, rest is a push, but the others are true!I'm glad I can share it with the rest of you.Oh, and for those of you who liked my 'Grizzly Adams' look, Kate made me get a haircut and cut off all facial hair today! That's it, I'm going back to the woods with the bears and wild boar...