Date: 2004-03-21
From: Georgia

To: Maine
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: snow

The First of 5 million steps to Maine I lay here I my new, untested tent deep in the mountains of Georgia. energy in the air outside is both magnificent and threatening.thunderheads prepare to christen our arrival here at hawk mtn shelter.I made it, nine miles today my first day on the trail and this afterfour days of scant sleep on Amtrak. ..I keep drifting off to sleep. Shit. Thunderclaps growing closer. Lightening strobe like. Lark is a cutie dropped outa Harvard t o joinus on the hike.   would already like to see more of ffffffffff Holy Jesus here comes the mother of all storms!. Bang bang lighteningand thunder and rain now, first trickling, then tearing out of somehole in the sky like a thousand screaming children released at forsummer break. Will my tent hold up? Well, there's nothing to do nowbut pray. The roar has replaced the pitter pat , the roar an d thecrash as the storm moves directly over head. then pop goes the sky and the whole Hawk Mtn world explodes!! and it suddenly occurs to methat I've left my little propane/butane stove outside the tent, not farfrom my head. If another lightening strike like that one hits anycloser it could hunt down that little bomb out there and boom. No moreRick. Would probably blow my head off. Wowwowowowow! I give over to the forces of nature and choosing not toworry simply revel in the symphony of light and sound, one of thefinest electrical storms I've experienced in years, not I don't thinksince the trailer park outside Bisbee in 1996   with Florence Drukas. Wow. Thank you God Thank you LIFE for guiding me here to this place,to this journey. I sit up and flick on my headlamp and take quickstock of the tent floor around the edges. Not a drop. And still downit comes in buckets and barrels, kegs and caboodles.. remnants ofcreation.. and God made This..BOOM and God made that BOOM wow. I amdvtrerf ig yhid I am screwed if this tent doesn't hold up against thisonslaught. I have a down sleeping bag, useless when whet, a downHimalayan jacket, and a not at all waterproof backpack. I think oflittle Lark in her tent across the way. Little Lark bound for Harvard,ballsy enough to drop out when her heart wasn't in it, to drop out andhead south to hike the AT, alone. And my friends think I'm brave! Iwonder how she's holding up in this onslaught? Hell, I've had to stoptyping several times now , my heart in my throat as another bomb ofelectrical energy explodes overhead, seemingly right outside my tent. Today we, the dozen or so thru hikers camped here at Hawk tonight areweathering this storm together yet alone, today we all made the firstbig step on a daunting journey the likes of which few men or women willever even consider. we are misfits most, and I like every one of I'vemet so far. Doug from the train last night who's doing the trek forthe second time. Nathan sweet as can be, out of shape like me andmissing a few teeth hikes to get over his lost love. John from Bostonwith his blinding white thighs , narrow and angular guy , graduate ofTufts and transitioning, trying to figure out that special questionthat lives in all of us: what next? And many, many more. Well, the storm has largely passed now and I give my tent an A plusplus. worth every one of its two hundred fifty dollars with itssilicone impregnated nylon and waterproof zippers an god knows whatkinda super waterproof floor. I love it; god just dumped a Jacuzzi onme personally and my down and I are bone dry. but we're tired too. Weshould be wiped out so bad from four daze on the train and little sleepthat we'd been passed out an hour ago. But that was too good to miss. Ha! As if I coulda slept through that cracking g open sky. Day one onthe AT, successfully completed. - RSM