Date: 2016-04-08
From: Top of Georgia Hiawasee Georgia

To: North Carolina
Miles today: 0.0

Friday April 8Last day at the Top of Georgia (TOG) Hostel and Georgia. Tomorrow morning will cross into North Carolina. Proprietor of TOG indicated that on a scale of 1 to 10, Georgia is a 4 but will increase to 6.5 as soon as we cross into North Carolina. On his scale a ten is both the Great Smokey Mountains and the White Mountains of New Hamshire. Two new hikers came in today that I connected with. Cherokee and Cool Hand. Both around 30 years of age and both carrying a Ukalalee. In the afternoon as we sat in the bunk house they began to start jamming together and were great. It turns out they just met on this hike and they seemed like they played together for years. Great blues, bluegrassand my favorite, early classic rock. We chatted while they played and Cool Hand indicated he never had a lesson in his life. He played drums early on with lessons but just had the knack to play guitars. I always envied those with that talent as I had piano lessons for years and never really got the hang of it and I hated lessons anyway. I had a blind teacher and I remember coming to her home and hiding the music she had in brail when I did not practice that week knowing the we would simply start a new song to learn. Of course after playing that trick a couple of times she caught on and would have my songs in her hand when I arrived. So much for being a smart ass! Cherokee got his name because he actually brought an axe along to cut wood, serve as a hammer etc. only to get rid of it the first chance he got because it was so heavy. I envied their free spirit and talent yet seemed grounded and knowing who they are. I reflected on my young adult life and realized that I was very immature and dedicated as they seemed. As evening aproached we all gathered around a campfire along with Dr Longstreet and Sassy who stayed with me at Neel Gap to Help Riley. Captain Rum joined the campfire along with several others. Rum connected with Cool Hand and Cherokee on the first day. He looked more like Captain Jack Sparrow with long dreadlocks, etc. Of course within minutes of the fire roaring, Cool Hand and Cherokee started jamming while everyone else pulled out their pouches and lit up on pot. Between everyone there they could have opened up a pot shop in Colorado. Even older adults 50 and over were carrying pot on the trip. By the time the evening was winding down I realized how I had missed connecting with and bonding with other males during my early years. I never knew my dad who abandoned us when I was less than a year old. I had four older sisters, so my life was built around women and women things like beauty pagents, piano concerts, dancing and the like. Nothing that a boy would like. I have bad memories of my mom but I do give her a lot of credit for trying her best to get me into cub and boy scouts which really got me interested in the outdoors. For all practial purposed my scout leaders where the only male role models in my life. We lived in the typical post WW2 housing boom type house with only one bathroom and three bedrooms. Money was always a concern as we lived on welfare. Mom cold not work with five kids and being single back then was not seen good within the community. We all took baths in the same water, and of course being the youngest I was the last so the water was cold and filled with soap scum. But that was life and Idid not mind.By the end of the evening I was so happy to experience bonding for the sole purpose of bonding with other guys for no other reason than that. There was no pretensious feelings or trying to outdo each other. We all simply sat around and yack about nothing important. This was my first transformation the Appalachian Trail would bring to me. I would go go to sleep both happy for the experience and sad this was not part of my early formative years.As i layed in the bed I reviewed the day seeing everyone on the trail was looking for something all for different reasons. Being a senior level consultant I came to realize these people haare getting some of the best life skills companies look for. There was no whining, other than the usual, instead focused on a mission, each mission different than the next with the hike being the tool to reach that mission. I have spent so much time with companies telling the world they build high performance teams, and spend millions on programs teaching their peopl with signs all around, etc. yet to no avail. They simply do not get what it means to be a high performance team. I had a west coast hospital client who wsa implementing an effort around patient care process that would cost them hundreds of millions of dollars. I was called in after three false starts to no avail and I only lasted 10 days. They called themselves high performance with all of the typical B.S. PC terms, signs, slogans, and pat on the backs to make themselves feel good but in the end they simply refused to realize they are a failure and senior leadership did not seem to be able to figure it out. Their most important value was ensurring everhyone felt good about themselves and no ones' feeling were hurt while the effort was failing. I heard about a year later they again are in trouble as thousands of patient medical records were hacked and made public yet to my understanding no one was held responsible and was simply explained as a situation beyond their control. For those companies I say if you really want people who are high performance, stand at the and of the trail and hire the people who have completed the trail. These people have dealt with adveristy beyond anything any education you and bring. They know that banding together was the first key. There was no rank, no escuses and most important they leave no one behind. They do not condemn anyone that is falling behind but rather protecting each other from each person's weakeness and instead focused on each other's strenghts. They all started with a plan only to realize that any plan no matter how well conceived would fail and were quickly able to adapt and overcome. This hike so far is the most demanding taks any one of us have taken on ensuring freezinf nights sleeping in 10 degrees, hiking with 40 pounds on their back up mountains, setting up tents in freezing rains and dealing with mice trying to get into your backpacks for food. Unlike the people of those reality TV shows who always have the "sad" story they use as a crutch and excuse to try and get pity to gain something they have not earned, these hikers have used their past adversities as the building blocks to stay focused on a mission and be a success. Many are in their twenties and I would have assumed they are like to TV fakes, yet almost all stated they hate those shows and do not watch. I for years have wondered about the future of this country as the young are getting dumbed down and have learned to expect everything and thing they are owed something. After only a week, I have met enough to start believing there is hope.Back to bed and Riley has jumped in the sack with me so I guess we will be snuggling for the night.