Date: 2013-08-07
From: Vernon, Nj

To: Wiley Shelter
Miles today: 97.6
Weather: light rain

I'm getting in the bad habit of posting large chunks of blog instead of the dailies that I have wanted to do. It's amazing how this seems to happen the more I'm with other people again. I'm not as much a solitary hiker anymore: whether or not that is a good or bad thing, I can't decide.Genie said to me way back in the Smokies that I needed to leave my southbound hike behind me, that it was the past and previous time. I needed to make sure that my northbound time this year was what I wanted it to be. That when I looked back at the end, from the top of Kathadin I could truthfully say that I had hiked a hike I could be proud of.I think I'm finally doing that. I think I've finally let go of the hike I didn't finish last year.I've found a great group of people here this year, everyone from Saga, Delorean, Talker and Pee Wee German to Bear Cloud, Rainbow Brite and Roadkill. People like Buckeye, Atreyu, Neon, Turbo and all the rest. Far too many to truly put down on paper. They have all changed the way I've hiked this year, and especially recently I've worried less about miles and more about the people and the good times. I've had amazing experiences with everyone and they've all helped shaped this hike, which I've gotten a second chance to do, into an amazing one.I went into NYC with Roadkill, and met up with Bear Cloud and Rainbow and got to hang around in the city! Hobbit put us all up for a night, and then I got to see two friends I haven't seen in quite awhile. Annela and Barbara put myself and Roadkill up for a night, which was spectacular (especially since they had moved the previous weekend!)and I got to experience what living in NYC was truly about. Frantic, diverse and delicious. I don't think I could deal with the pace of NYC for very long, and I was itching to return to the trail. What about the trail you ask? Well the trail has been both wonderful and miserable, as it always is. New York has more ridge walking, like New Jersey does, but it has quite a bit more bouldering and naked ridge walks then it's predecessors do. In fact, I had to take a few blue blaze trails for safety reasons when doing night hikes, so that I felt safer when it came to the rocks and boulder climbs. I'm doing well physically - my knees feel decent, with a little weakness in them at times when I strain them. My ankles and feet have come off much better than most, and my shoes have held up amazingly well. I'll say that even though Brooks has a * stating that their Cascadias (7/8s) are not meant for thru-hiking, they've held up beautifully so far. The pair of Cascadia 7's I have had since Damascus may have holes in the mesh on the sides, but the footbed and the uppers are still doing amazingly well. That being said, I did order new shoes recently (Cascadia 8's!) and I'm thinking of having them shipped up soon, or at the very least they'll come up with my Mom when she drops off my winter gear in a week and a half. The only thing that hasn't been doing well has been my left big toe, which has been painful around the nail edge for a week now. I'm not sure if it's just starting to be ingrown or infected, or it's just a healing cut, but it's been tender to the touch. Speaking of family, my Dad has been doing an amazing job with maildrops and food packaging. Having people at home on whom I can rely on is always an amazing thing. There are many people out on the trail who don't have such a support network, and to a degree I've always taken it for granted. When you have to rely on others for something as important as food, you stop taking everything and anything for granted and are thankful to the sky when everything works out well. Thank you Dad (and Patricia!) and Mom (and Marv!) for everything you've been doing this year. I love you so much.What else is there to say? I could talk at length about my last post, and hiking with Roadkill and how amazing she is. I could discuss water, old shelters, lack of privys, hostile and judgmental Nobos who started in May (Mayflys), miles, meeting back up with old friends, lack of money and fundraising or any number of topics, but these aren't the things I feel like at the moment. No what I really want to talk about is something that I both think about all the time, but also try not to think about at all.What I plan on doing at the end of this trail.The first response to this statement is: I don't actually know what I'm doing at the end of the trail. This is an odd statement for a control freak (which Roadkill assures me I am) to make, since we usually have a plan, or at least the idea of a plan. I have the shadow of an idea of a framework of a plan. That's like 4 steps away from actually having a rough idea. I've learned that I don't want to spend the rest of my life in my parent's basement, and that I don't want to go live in NYC. I know that while I'd love to go back to Richmond, VA I don't think I could stay there for long - I'd really get sucked in. So I need a change in scenery, and I need to do it on the cheap with a job included. Several other hikers have talked about going to Colorado for the Ski season, working on the lifts or doing shuttles. Others have talked about getting together with other hikers and getting places in cities like Asheville, NC. While I like the idea, I think that for at least a little while I need to be with "normal" people in "reality". I'll have been wandering on the trail in a general direction for more than a year, and I feel like I need something that's a little bigger than 60 Liters of pack in which to spread out in. Something that lets me wander when I'm not working, stretch without my arms and back restrained by my pack. I want to allow my imagination to run free while I'm standing still, and not worry about falling down while it's doing so. These thoughts aren't really looking for answers at the moment. They are just being placed on here in order to make sure that I'm being real about them. Being truthful and authentic and realistic about my goals and aspirations. Tomorrow I'll get back to normal blog posts, ones about the hiking and the people and the traveling on a footpath that goes from Georgia to Maine. That's tomorrow. For now though, I'll reflect on the French couple that discussed between themselves about the hikers they'd met on the subway in NYC, and how amazing it was to be that free. How they wished they could have been as strong, bold and adventurous as we were.And how they were hoping and praying for us to all finish.