Date: 2014-08-11
To: What Will I Be Traveling For?
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Hello Fellow Hikers! It's been a while since my last entry. I've been busy. Some of us do have a life beyond TJ.com. lol Great news from down here in the hotter region of the Nation -- the Mississippi summer heat and humidity seems to have broken. We had a front move through about a week ago and have had nothing short of spectacular weather ever since. I had almost forgotten what it felt like to go out for a 6-8 mile walk and finish with your shirt hardly damp. It's WONDERFUL!!! And the energy -- WOW!-- I feel like I could walk all day long. I had a feeling that all those miles I slogged out during the hot and sticky summer months was going to pay off, and it would appear that I was right. If I can maintain my current schedule and perhaps step up the mileage a bit later in the Fall, then I should be where I want to be come the first of the year. Then it will be just a matter of maintenance until Hike Day!Don't know if I really needed it or not (being fairly content with my equipment already) but I stumbled across this down-filled vest in Sams Club the other day. I suspect it isn't of super great quality, but it will do to take some of the early morning or evening chill off and it is so light and soft that, balled up, it ought to make a very nice pillow at night. At only $20 bucks I could hardly pass it up.Now on to more serious things -- I was reading the other evening and came across the following quote by one of America's all-time, renown philosophers -- Louis L'Amour. He wrote: "The thing to remember when traveling is that the trail is the thing, not the end of the trail. Travel too fast and you miss all you are traveling for." Now, I want you to mull that over for a moment or two. The trail is the thing -- not the end of the trail. In other words, it's the journey which is important -- the walk along the way -- the things one encounters and the people one meets -- the climbs, the views, drinking from a tumbling stream, catching a glimpse of one of God's elusive wild creatures, getting up early enough to capture a beautiful sunrise or pausing along a ridgeline long enough to watch a sunset before descending to find a tent site. These are all gifts. These are the reasons why we hike. It isn't the miles we log in just so we can brag about how far we walked in a day. It isn't even Mt Katahdin itself, except that that huge piece of granite marks the end of the trail. No, it's all about what we learn along the way -- what we discover about ourselves and others. It's about being stretched personally and growing as an individual. I've met some folk out there for whom I was convinced they would never truly discover what was really important no matter how many times they traversed the distance from Georgia to Maine. They were too into themselves, too obsessed with mileage, or too fixated on their gear to notice much of what was going on around them. I read once that most of us live in the past or live for the future, but very few of us really live in the PRESENT. I, for one, don't want to be that way. This next opportunity (if it comes) in 2015 may, in fact, be my last chance to try and hike the trail. Sacrifices will be made in order to make it so. It will be a gift. I want to go slow enough to enjoy it. I want not only to see, but to perceive, to behold, to wonder. I want to get up on a morning -- even if it is rainy and miserable -- and remind myself of the reason why I am traveling -- and then, pack up my stuff and head out in search for it. I hope others in the Class of 2015 will join me in this endeavor.Finally, congrats to my friend, Andy, who is heading back to the trail in a few days to resume his northward trek. Andy has a new trail name -- 'Back Nine' -- and I wish him all the best! I'll be heading up to North Carolina in a couple of weeks myself and I hope to locate 'Back Nine' somewhere on the trail between Fontana and Erwin. If I find him, you can be sure that I'll have a cold coke and some other goodies ready for him. We're discussing the possibility of 'Back Nine' meeting up with me in the Spring (in Erwin or perhaps in Damascus) and hiking onward with me and we encourage each other northward. I hope that becomes a reality for us both.Take care everyone!