Date: 2003-04-12
To: Springer Mt.
Miles today: 267.0
Weather: clear sky

(Apr 5th ) It is Saturday morning right now and I am in a unique two room stone shelter built on the very top of Blood Mountain - a 4500 foot mountain with exposed rock ledges that offers magnificent panoramic views - that is, when it is not covered by clouds. But now is not one of these times. A lightning storm is hitting the mountain right now as I¢m writing these words, and although I¢m completely protected from it in this shelter, I am still debating whether or not I should hike the trail today. My basic dilemma is due to the fact that I¢m only 28 miles from Springer, so I could reach it in two short days. But that would mean I¢ll be there on Sunday evening or Monday morning, when it¢s supposed to remain stormy. I¢d rather end my hike in more favorable weather, so I¢ll have something more positive to remember the end of my A.T. hike with. But as I plan to hike on after I reach Springer, for another 40 miles on a side trail which will lead me back here to Blood Mountain, and I have a limited number of days to do so, with the amount of food I¢m carrying, I don¢t really have too many days to spare. In any case, no one promises me better weather on Tuesday. So all the odds right now are that my completion of the A.T. won¢t be the perfect event I was hoping for. But that¢s all right, for I¢ve long heard that Springer Mountain is quite an unimpressive mountain, and is nothing compared to the prominent and unique Mt Katahadin at the northern end of the A.T. In fact, Springer isn¢t even the original southern terminus of the trail. Prior to 1958, Mt Oglethorpe (about 30 miles southwest of Springer) served this purpose but the trail terminus was moved to its current location due to development around it. I had always known that ending a southbound hike would be much less impressive than ending a northbound one. But still, this has its advantages. When I was on top of Katahadin, 7 long months ago, I could hardly enjoy the panoramic views and the clear weather. I was just too cold on that exposed, wind-blown peak, and all I really wanted to do when I finally reached the peak was to get off it as fast as possible. Hopefully this won¢t repeat itself on Mt Springer, with its forested peak and the nearby shelter. I should know in a couple of days.The lightning storm doesn¢t seem to have bothered the hikers that just passed through this shelter. One of them is a crazy Englishman who is carrying an umbrella up the mountain. Carrying a metal umbrella here is like putting a sign on your chest that says: ¢Lightning, please strike me.¢ I think I convinced this human lightning rod to leave his umbrella in his pack at least for the descent down the mountain.Yesterday I met another interesting person when I passed through the outfitter¢s in Walasi-Yi. His trail name is Baltimore Jack and he¢s one of the most famous (or might I say infamous) serial thruhikers on the trail. He is said to have hiked the trail something like 10 times (the precise number varies from story to story). Every year, for the last few years, he has been working in winter in order to pay for his thruhike in summer. He is quite a famous celebrity on the trail, partially because of the bottle of moonshine he carries with him. "I¢m a drinker with a hiking problem" is one of the sayings attributed to him. The only thing I asked him when I saw him was why he hikes the trail repeatedly. He said that every thruhike is different. Every year he meets new people and camps in different places at night so he has a new trail experience. Fair enough. I guess everyone is an expert in something and Baltimore Jack¢s expertise is hiking the A.T.The weather now seems to have cleared and I can see the fog covered valleys from the shelter windows, so I think I¢ll hike on.Sunday April 6th. 1:26 p.m. 2.5 miles from Springer.I am now at Stover Creek shelter, the last shelter before Springer Mountain and I¢m looking at the sky.Yesterday, after the lightning storm cleared up, and in complete contradiction to all the weather forecasts which promised rain for the next few days, it turned out to be a beautiful, sunny day. And even today, none of the expected rainstorms has yet to hit. It seems as if the weather gods, who had so much fun at my expense in winter, are battling between themselves as to whether I will enjoy sunshine or be rained on, on top of Springer. The sun has popped out of the clouds dozens of times in the last hour, just to be covered again instantly by these clouds. And I even had the unique experience of having (light) rain fall on me while the sun was tanning me.Well, I have to go.I have a long-planned date with a mountain to attend to.(Mon. April the 7th)The last 2.5 miles to Springer Mountain were different from every other mile I¢ve done on the trail. I started to recollect all the memories I have from the 291 days since I started hiking the Appalachian Trail.You know how it is when you try to remember a great vacation you had in your past? What you usually recall is a couple of visual images of the high points of your trip. Images you know will be embedded in your memory forever? Well, I have hundreds of these mental pictures, gathered during my nine and a half months of hiking, and when I was climbing those final miles I recalled them in a series of continuous flashbacks.I saw myself opening a can of soda and drinking it after running out of water and dehydrating in New York on my second day of hiking. I saw myself nighthiking up the fog-covered Lincoln Mountain in the White Mountains, under the full moonlight. I saw myself watching the sunrise on top of Mt Katahadin. I saw myself huffing and puffing on the "roller coaster" while that terrible early December snowstorm was dropping inches and inches of snow on the trail. I saw the ice-covered trees glittering in the sun in the Shenadoas.I saw myself carrying a wounded hawk on my mattress to the road. I saw myself hiking in knee deep snow, trying to cross ice-covered streams, bushwhacking down deer tracks in the snow trying to reach civilization. I saw these and a hundred more images that no words can describe. I re-smelled the aromas of spring, re-heard the voices of nature, re-felt the scorching heat of summer and the freezing cold of winter. I re-felt those endless pains, the periods of loneliness and depression. I rejoiced again at the magical perfect moments I¢d experienced. I re-saw, re-heard, re-smelled, re-felt and re-tasted all these experiences. And most of all, I recalled all those wonderful people that helped me so much on my way here.And then¢¦ I reached that bronze plaque at the summit and there were no more white blazes to follow. I had reached the end of the Appalachian Trail...For some moments I just stood there, looking triumphantly at the view beyond the trees to the west, where the Appalachian ridge suddenly ends. There were a few other hikers there, just starting their long journey to the north, and when they noticed my exhilarated state they asked me whether I was a southbounder. I just nodded my head, put my finger on my lips and went on standing in complete silence. They soon went on, and I remained on the summit alone. Like a pilgrim who finally reaches Jerusalem, I had finally reached the summit of my holy mountain... and all I could do was to stand there, completely dazed.A few minutes later the weather gods decided that they had been generous enough with me that day, and suddenly heavy rain started pouring on me. I didn¢t move. I just covered myself and my backpack with my tarp and sat down on a rock, placing my hand on the map of the Appalachian Trail, which was engraved on the bronze plaque on it. I felt the cold metal line that runs along the map, from Maine to Georgia, and I stared west, watching the clouds and steam rising from where the rain hit the warm rocksFinally I reached my hand under the rock, to where a well sheltered register is placed, and I wrote there only one thing:"AT LAST, I AM HERE"Epilogue:It is Tuesday now, and I¢m still hammocking on the upper deck of Mt Springer shelter. The bad weather that started just after I reached the summit and has not let up since then, with endless drizzle and fog, makes the thought of hiking extremely unattractive.A strange feeling of emptiness suddenly seized me after I left the summit. My daily routine of thinking of how many miles I¢ve hiked today, and how many miles still remain, a routine that was embedded in me for so many months, suddenly disappeared. There is no more trail ahead of me. I can hike the loop trail back to Walasi Yi, or I can not, and it doesn¢t really matter. I heard about this before-- the post thruhike syndrome. It takes some people weeks to get re-acclimated to city life after hiking the trail for so many months. It takes others months or years, and some never really get over it. I experienced this syndrome strongest in winter, when after not seeing a single human being for a week, I would go into a supermarket in town. I read once that after the Berlin Wall fell and East Germans could visit the west, the things that amazed and impressed them the most were the supermarkets, and I can understand why. For me, going into such a place, after seeing only the forest for days and weeks, and then being bombarded by the messages all the products are deliberately sending "buy me, buy me" caused me a sensory overdose. I always wanted to get out of there as fast as possible, back to the forest where I felt secure.Indeed, after nine and a half months on the trail, I feel as if the forest is my home. Life here is so simple. You have only three things you have to worry about - water, food and shelter. And its all up to you - you decide how much water and food you carry, when and where you shelter. The only external worry you have is the weather. Life in the forest is so much more basic and simple than life in the city. Think about all the things that make you miserable in life - a noisy and inconsiderate neighbor maybe, or a leaky roof, an intolerable co-worker or boss, a car that breaks down, or a computer that suddenly crashes for no apparent reason. There is a saying in Hebrew, "He who has many assets, has many worries", and I have almost none. My legs are my car, my brain is my computer, and if ever I don¢t like the company or the shelter, I just hike on. My only real worry is weather, and I know that even when it doesn¢t show its more generous side, like today, all I have to do is wait long enough. The fog will disappear, and the sun will shine from behind the clouds.Don¢t misunderstand me. I do miss some of my previous life. I miss my friends and family, I miss the small amenities of city life like being able to take a shower every day, eating whatever I want, and not caring if it rains. But I don¢t miss these things enough to be willing to leave my current life style of hiking, and return home to Israel. And so the knowledge that in less then three weeks I will be hiking the P.C.T., helps me get over the present feeling of emptiness and homesickness that I¢ve felt since I completed the A.T.