Date: 2004-06-07
From: Shenandoah South Fork

To: Front Royal, VA (Scottish Inn)
Miles today: 20.0
Weather: broken clouds

Day 5 was beautiful and sunny and because it was, our day was spent more in floating the river than in paddling it. This would also be the last of our bad luck. Nuffy suffers from chronic back pain and reached the threshold of her body's tolerance for canoeing at the 5th day. Having lost all feeling in one leg, Nuffy had no choice but to leave the river and hitch back to The Trail.Having reached our final attrition rate of 60% for the trip and suffered setback after catastrophe after disaster, the remaining four canoers were rewarded by two days of beautiful weather and reached Harper's Ferry alive, tan, and as experienced canoers. REFLECTIONS: DigDug asked me on the last day of our trip that if I knew all that would have happened to us on the river would you do it over? Yes, I would, for whatever doesn't kill me makes me stronger. That's not really true. But, whatever almost kills me makes me smarter and makes for a good story. DigDug says No! he wouldn't do it again, for whatever almost kills him he has to explain to his mother. Why, you might ask, would any sane person put himself through all this, especially knowing all the shitty things in store. Well, first of all, the average thru-hiker doesn't exactly satisfy my definition of "sane", and second, the trip wasn't all bad. There was at least an equal amount of good experience to bad, at least in my case.For instance, in a canoe as opposed to in a backpack, weight is not an issue and one can carry a great many things considered luxury items to most hikers. Coolers for one, loaded to the brim with beer and what turned out to be a week's worth of food. Mountain Man so graciously liquidated his beer stores from his cafe into our coolers. For four days, we drank porters and stouts from breweries all over the world and pale ales and IPAs from Penn. to Colorado to Mexico and then when that ran out we resupplied with beer bought on our own. Mountain Man also loaded us up enough food to feed those of us who went all the way so that we didn't have to spend any money to feed ourselves. Every morning we dined on pancakes and maple syrup bacon, (Baltimore Jack's recipe), cold cuts daily at lunch, and sausage, canned vegetables, refried beans and a myriad other delicacies every night at dinner.Another perk was the change of scenery from mountains to river. Instead of tramping through wall-to-wall trees as far as the eye could see over rock and hill, we could glide and float through a corridor of glass with trees kept safely at bay on both sides. Instead of chipmunk and deer, we lived among turtle, nutria, and even sighted two bald eagles. Plus, after the rain cleared on the 4th day, we were able to even out our ridiculous hiker tans.Last, but not least, in fact most important to the overall goodness of my voyage, were the people I got to know and to meet along the way. After only a day together, I can safely consider Uncle Ben and Grass my friends. I would have lived a much poorer life having never gotten to know Cotton or Nuffy. We had plenty of time together with WonderBoy, who had been with us since Trail Days trying to remember some of the magic of his 2003 SoBo. Then ,of course, there was David and his family. Our 4th night out, we pulled up just south of a strenuous looking dam portage without the desire or energy to pull our canoes out of the water. Instead of continuing, we decided to call it a day and camp despite the ominous "Private Property" and "No Trespassing" signs in the area. Before we could even pitch our tarps or start a fire, a car pulled up and we were afraid we'd be run off, but instead, David got out with his three children. Instead of a hassle, we received unconditional kindness and charity and were treated to the kind of Sourthern hospitality that makes that part of the country home even when one is away from home.You see, David, though only in his 30's, had been doing some pretty fast living and that in addition to his condtion of workaholism had almost put him into an early grave. Instead of dying though, he was given a new lease on life and because he had been forgiven his previous lifestyle was more than willing to forgive those who had trespassed against him. We spent a wonderful evening in friendly conversation as David treated us to dinner, helped us build a fire with wet wood, and supplied us with materials needed to patch our canoes. David takes it a little easier at work now that he is self-employed, but still drinks and smokes I imagine, as hard as he ever did. For this reason, I suspect he might not be in the same world as his children for quite as long as he'd like, but when he goes he can leave without regrets knowing that he has done as much as any man to leave the world of his children a better place than he found it. I will not embarrass David by thanking him anymore. Instead I will honor his trust like this. I challenge everyone out there who reads this, especially if you are trying to live your life up to some religious ideal, to be as tolerant and unsuspicious of strangers, to give of yourself in hopes of no return, to be as unconditionally loving of your neighbor as this man, who believes in nothing more than good Karma.