Date: 2008-05-16
From: Duncannon, PA (Doyle Hotel)

To: Duncannon, PA (Doyle Hotel)
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

Was I planning a zero today? No. Did I zero today? Yes. I'm glad I did too. I woke up and thought of several pretty darn convincing reasons why I should zero: #1) The weather forecast predicted rain all day. And, soaking my feet again would negate all my minor foot healing progress that has occurred over the past few days. #2) The temperature is currently in the low 50s, which makes it quite chilly when coupled with lots of rain. #3) This place (Doyle Hotel) is a great spot to zero. #4) I was throwing away some very old receipts, which I had been carrying for some reason, and found one early on from Neels Gap, that still had some barely legible ink: ¢It ain¢t about the miles ¢¦ it¢s about the smiles.¢ While I don¢t completely agree with that, I don¢t need to push a hard schedule either. I budgeted enough time so that I don¢t have to hike in a downpour¢¦ especially when I¢m conveniently in town. #5) I thought CJ was a day behind me, and zeroing today would allow him to catch up. He didn¢t actually show up today, but it was a valid reason. #6) I felt like it. I will spare you a detailed account of my extremely uneventful zero day. (Uneventful zero days are the best kind though.) It consisted of a lot of sleeping and eating junk food. Instead, I thought I would reflect a bit and attempt to put on paper how I feel at this quasi halfway point of my hike. I¢m trying my best to steer clear of an ¢I ate poptarts for breakfast¢ type of journal because I know myself well enough that when I reread this journal years from now, I really won¢t care about what I had for breakfast or the name of the shelter that I stayed at. I will care about the significant personal changes I am experiencing, so that is what I¢m attempting to document. First, a thruhike may not be all about the smiles, but apparently I smile a lot. I¢ve been told by several people, that every time they look at me, I am always smiling. I have always been a quiet guy, but that quiet is turning into quietly confident, and with that comes a truly natural, permanent smile. Secondly, you can¢t hike 1,000 miles without a bit of ¢tough it out¢ attitude. But, I think my definition of toughness is changing. I used to think ¢tough as nails¢ meant being able to stonewall any and all problems thrown at me. I tried that at Cornell and learned that as tough as you are, you are only human. It took three years, but I battled Cornell 1-on-1 and it beat the crap out of me. Out here on the trail, I am learning that toughness is a balance between ¢tough as nails¢ (battling pain, weather conditions, etc.) and being flexible (changing plans, trying new things) and most importantly, becoming part of the trail rather than trying to conquer it. Believe me, if you try to beat the trail 1-on-1, you will get your ass handed to you. Without going into too much philosophy, ¢being one with the trail¢ simply means gaining the ability to understand that the trail is not working for you or against you. I¢m learning to accept the trail for what it is instead of ¢knocking down¢ the miles. While I¢m certainly not perfect, and do in fact think like that sometimes, I¢m getting better. I think that the most pure mindset would be to think of the trail as infinite, and accept that you aren¢t really going anywhere important ¢¦. simply hiking for the sake of hiking. That is essentially what the career hikers do. I see shelter register entries signed off like ¢Trek AT ¢03, ¢04, ¢05, ¢06, ¢07 GAME ¢08¢ and my jaw just drops. Pretty wild. Well, that¢s all for now. I¢m sure that as soon as I stop writing, more ¢lessons from the trail¢ will pop into my head, but I¢ll jot them down and save them for another rainy day. I¢d like to once again thank my parents for typing up all this stuff and maintaining my journal the way that they have. It takes a lot of work, but it allows you readers to read and sign my Guestbook, which in turn motivates me to keep writing. So, thanks Mom & Dad for typing, and thank you readers for reading. ¢Zen is like a spring coming out of a mountain. It doesn¢t flow in order to quench the thirst of the traveler, but if the travelers want to help themselves to it, that¢s fine. It¢s up to you what you do with the water; the spring¢s job is just to flow.¢ ~ Alan Watts