Date: 2009-08-17
From: Imp Campsite

To: Route 2, Gorham
Miles today: 8.0
Weather: haze

Tmax for Topofgothics... Got to sleep in this morning after the big day yesterday (6000 feet of elevation gain!) as he only needed to do a relatively short hike out to Route 2 where M&M was picking him and Skeeter and Cantelope back up to take them back to her place. Some enjoyable views from the walk up Mt. Moriah (his 26th and last 4000 footer in NH) and on the summit. Beef stew and ice-cream were waiting at M&M's!****The two women and I were scheduled to meet Dawn in Gorham at 6:30 for a ride and one last night of awesome TM, so I had plenty of time to sleep in and linger. There was only a single hill to climb, Moriah, and I wanted major vista time. I left late, walked slow, and enjoyed every minute of my lazy day. There were many open ledges on my way up, and I made good use of many of them. After summiting Moriah, I headed down. In the middle of nowhere I found this bench on a rock. There was no peak, no view, and no water, just the bench. Feeling somewhat hungry (as always) with no pressing agenda, I utilized this present and made another lunch in the cool shade. I reached the trailhead with time to spare. Cantaloupe and Skeeter had earlier high-tailed into town so they could get to the post office. At the parking lot there was a woman, Phoenix Rising, who was reading a book and waiting for some hikers. We got to talking (which is not hard for most hikers, myself especially) and I learned that she had been on trail, northbound, even though I had not met her yet. Due to wear and tear, shin splints and stuff, she had to give up the ghost, and since she still had time to kill before commitments, she got her car and was helping others slack-pack in area. It sounded like a decent thing to do. I had on my mind that no matter how much fun I was having, and how much I love this kind of stuff, HOME, FRIENDS, and TERRI sounded like such beautiful concepts. She lamented how she was missing the trail, and that this was her ¢real world¢ and she had little use for society. She then said something that cut me to the core. ¢All of my friends are on the trail,¢ she said wistfully. This was a foreign concept to me. I pride myself on my friends and what we mean to each other. If all your friends are on the trail (and can people you meet on the trail be as close and meaningful to someone as friends that you do things with other than being ¢on trail¢ with them? I can and have met wonderful people on trail, and I hope a few that I have met this trip become true friends (I met Terri in an Adirondack parking lot), but can that have meaning if you do not have a life outside of ¢on trail¢ with them)). If all of your friends are ¢on trail¢ then you do not have a home. Trail cannot be home. I was saddened, even though she found this perfectly normal. Minutes later M&M rolled in and we were off to pick up the women at Wally World. When we arrived there three guys were with them, and somehow we all fit into Dawn¢s wagon. I was comfortably in front, four were squished in the rear, and the last squirmed in between the packs under that hatch. That made for a pretty picture, and it was a solid half-hour to Dawn¢s!