Date: 2018-09-23
From: Roan High Knob Shelter

To: Cherry Gap Shelter
Miles today: 19.1
Weather: broken clouds

Dropped down into the low 50s last night. Super glad I got my leggings and puffy mailed back to me because it was COLD. The cool weather made it extra hard to emerge from my sleeping bag this morning. The Boy Scouts were only out for a one night trip, so they had a ton of extra food with them. A kid offered me some cinnamon and raisin bagels and said whatever I don¢t eat he has to carry out back to the car. So I ate 3! LolWhile hiking today, I met an older couple named Toni and Jim just out for the day. They were probably in their early 70s. The woman, Toni, was super great. She asked me just under a hundred questions and apologized after each one for holding me up. She kept telling me that I¢d remember this trek for the rest of my life and reminded me to be proud of myself. She asked me what my plans were for after the trail, and I told her I wasn¢t really sure and didn¢t really care. She thought that was fantastic. Lol She said most young thruhikers she meets kinda seem to be ¢winging it¢ with life, but to her it made sense - why worry if you don¢t have too. Not that I need any kind of validation or justification from old lady strangers on how I¢m living my life, but wow it¢s sure nice. I¢ve had a lot of older people recently say things to me along the lines of ¢It¢s good you¢re getting this out of your system now¢ or ¢You¢re in your 20s, so I guess you can get away with fucking off for a bit¢ etc.. And honestly, this kind of pisses me off. Like this isn¢t me just ¢fucking around¢. This is me living my BEST life. To me, this is what living really is. You know, that artificial thing where we subject ourselves to concrete prisons and slave away our youth so that maybe one day we can cling to some false sense of financial security we¢ve built for ourselves and spend our ¢retired¢ years convinced that we¢ve accomplished something simply by going through all the motions, kissing all the ass, and meeting other people¢s expectations - ya, like what?? Fuck that. That¢s NOT a life. If I was gonna spend my 20s ¢fucking around¢, I would have dropped out of college, moved back home, have no aspirations, and just become another leach on society. But instead, I¢m out here everyday mentally, emotionally, and physically taking care of my shit. I¢m learning, processing, building... I don¢t think I¢ll look back 20-30 years from now and be like ¢damn, I should have worked more. I should have lived a more domestic life and tried to live up to more people¢s expectations.¢ Lol.. I could rant forever. I thought I¢d run into Buddy and Disco by lunch time, but after talking to some section hikers it looks like they were pushing hard today. I¢m staying at a shelter tonight and they went 3 miles further to a campsite, or that¢s at least where I assume they went. They had originally planned to reach town Tuesday morning, but I think they¢re trying to get there by tomorrow now. I wanted to catch up with them mainly just to say goodbye. With this extra 8-10 days I have to blow, I can¢t keep hiking around them otherwise I¢ll finish too soon. If I push for Erwin, TN tomorrow hopefully I¢ll run into them in town somewhere. I¢ll be pretty bummed if I miss them though. It¢s crazy how quickly and easily you get separated from people on trail. I feel like it¢s gonna be hard to stay in high spirits once we part ways. I like hiking by myself, but they¢ve been my camping buddies on and off for awhile now and having people to end your day with is nice. Therefore, having an entire month left of solitude in the woods will probably get to me. *Sigh*