Date: 2003-03-17
To: Springer Mt.
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

(The night of Mar. 10)I met S.D. today. We are supposed to start hiking together tomorrow. As a Tennessee native (he actually admits that publicly) he protested all the bad things I wrote about the trail in Tennessee. Just to set the record straight--I was bitching mostly about the 60 mile section of A.T. that goes via Tennessee not about the 300 miles of trail that goes along the Tennessee-- North Carolina border. I must admit that this last section had some of the best spots along the trail, and only a couple of days ago I enjoyed perfect weather on top of big Bald Mountain (one guess why it¢s called so) which has a rare 360 degree view from its top, something I hadn¢t been able to enjoy since Vermont. About the redneckness of Tennessee, S.D. claimed that northern Georgia is worse, though he told me one of the reasons that Erwin, Tennessee (the trail town in which I stayed a couple of days ago) is so famous is for the lynching capabilities of its residents. I¢m not talking about the conventional southern lynch of a Black/Jew/civil rights activist. No, I¢m talking about a lynching of much bigger size - the lynching of an elephant. Apparently many years ago, a circus elephant mistakenly stepped on a resident of Erwin. I don¢t know exactly what happened to this unfortunate person, although I have a strong feeling he didn¢t just shout "aw, that hurt", as he was too preoccupied in doing an imitation of a pancake. The now enraged citizens of Erwin demanded justice in the name of their flattened neighbor, and in Erwin Tennessee, the word justice means only one thing - a good hanging. Now most folks in most other towns would, at this stage, recognize the technical problem in having to hang a 5000-pound elephant. Most folks would have compromised their beliefs in direct justice and would have substituted the hanging of the elephant with a less satisfying although still lethal method of justice like shooting or burning it. But not the good people of Erwin. They knew only one right way of doing a lynch, and that¢s by hanging, and hanging it was. So, this big heavy elephant found itself being taken by the angry mob to the train station, where, with the help of their biggest crane, there were finally ably to hang this elephant to death.The moral of this story is, if there is a will there¢s a way. Every problem has its solution, and the most important lesson of all - never stand too close to an elephant-- it just might decide to make you part of the floor...(Wed Mar. 12)10:40 (a.m.)I am now hiking with S.D. to Hot Springs.I am trying a different style of hiking with him. Instead of my usual way starting to hike really late and then hiking continuously without ever stopping, (I even walk while eating), S.D. introduced me to the novelty of actually stopping to rest while hiking. I think I¢ll use these stops to compose this letter.In the last few days I¢ve met more and more hikers - some of them quite interesting. Last night S.D. and I shared a shelter with a section hiker. This guy who is even smaller than me carries a pack weighing 65 pounds (almost 3 times that of my pack), but he still is able to average almost 20 miles a day on a 3000 calorie diet. The mystery of how he is physically able to do this was somewhat uncovered when he woke up at 4:30(!) in the morning and started hiking hours before the sun ever thought about rising. Fine, I told myself when he left, while turning around in my hammock, if he enjoys treating himself as a pack animal that¢s fine with me. No, what pissed me off was that when I got up myself (after a few more hours of sleep) I found this human mule had left me a brochure on top of which he wrote my name. This brochure taught me that I will save my sinful soul if I repent and become a reborn Christian...14:30I¢m now in a shelter named Jerry Cabin, doing something I never usually do - eating lunch. We¢re hiking really slow, taking our time, and enjoying this warm day. On the way here we passed on top of big Butt Mountain. I¢m not sure why its called that, as its not made up of north bun peak and south bun peak.We¢ll see how much we¢ll hike today. We might even decide to enjoy the new moon and night hike two more shelters, in which case we should catch up with mule man. I don¢t know exactly what I¢ll say if I see him. Probably something like, "Thank you for showing me the light. From now on I¢ll devote my life to carrying church brochures and placing them in every shelter, every register, and every picnic table so no hiker will ever find himself without at least 20 quotations out of the New Testament - a situation which might cause him to do the terrible sin of thinking for himself."The reason I was so pissed off by this guy was that he never asked me whether I wanted this brochure and now I have to carry it (I didn¢t want to leave this trash behind). One of the things that seems strange to me since I arrived here in America is how religion is marketed here. There are radio advertisements for everything - hamburgers and diet pills, drugs and funeral homes, and God and religion. When I went into Wind Gap, Pennsylvania, many months ago, I was surprised to see by the road a big commercial sign saying "God is looking upon you" with the details of a church. On the other side of this sign was written "Macdonald¢s new one dollar menu". People here seem (in my opinion), to treat religion as a commodity, and many Christians see themselves as salesmen of God - doing everything to sell Jesus to the public. Don¢t misunderstand me, although I am no big fan of the Christian church (for 19 of the last 20 centuries Christianity - mostly in its Catholic form- went hand in hand with anti-semitism and intolerance) but most modern Christian streams here in the U.S. seem to be nice. Nice in that respect that many of them have shelters for the homeless and free hostels for hikers. Nice in that respect that they are extremely pro-Israel. and nice to me personally - many of the good generous people I met along the trail, who gave me indispensable help - like a lift to town and back - were indeed devoted Christians. And not one of them, after learning I¢m Israeli and Jewish had ever tried to convert me. They were just nice for the sake of being nice.(Friday, 14 Mar)I am now at Elmer Hostel in Hot Springs. This hostel is different from any other hostels I¢ve seen. It looks more like a museum than a boarding house. It sits on a beautiful 160-year-old building and is furnished by many antiques. This place is run by a group (a commune would probably more accurate a description) headed by Elmer Hall who runs a vegetarian kitchen here. The house is covered with every sticker, every poster and every slogan the American left has ever published from the 60's to now, including a poster of George W. Bush with horns. And yet, although I had this large beautiful room for myself last night, although I agree with many of the slogans on the walls, and although I took one of the best showers I ever had last night, I am still sorry I couldn¢t avoid staying in this hostel. Due to the fact the S.D. had to hitch from the middle of the trail due to knee pains, I had to hike 20 miles yesterday, the last of them in strong rain and wind, so when I arrived here just before darkness I was completely soaked (although not as miserable as one would imagine). Yet I found this place quite inhospitable. By the time I finished my much needed shower, and slipped into the clean clothes one of the guys here was nice enough to loan me, it was after 7 PM and all the diners and grocery stores here were closed. And yet Elmer said I could not join them for the $8 vegetarian dinner he offers, as I didn¢t request it a few hours earlier before he started preparing it. I guess there¢s a cold logical explanation for his behavior - if you split an 8 person meal dinner to 9 everyone gets less, yet I¢m sure that if a tired and hungry hiker would have arrived at Miss Ganett¢s hostel in Erwin (where I stayed a week ago) there¢s no way in the world that this weary hiker would remain hungry. I was lucky last night, as S.D. left me enough food to help me avoid going to bed hungry. I found myself eating alone in my room while everyone else was eating dinner down stairs. I¢ve found myself countless times this winter eating alone, miles away from the nearest civilazation, after not seeing a fellow human being for days. Yet last night¢s dinner was one of the loneliest meals I¢ve ever had.I think Elmer is a hypocrite, not because of small things like seeing a sticker on the wall saying things like "Wal-Mart sells junk" and "buy from your local store" and then finding that the trash bags here have the name Wal-Mart on them. This kind of hypocrisy doesn¢t bother me. What bothers me is that this guy covers this hostel with slogans about how inhuman a war in Iraq would be, and how one should be kind to animals and yet he refuses to feed a hungry hiker.So if any of you have to go via Hot Springs, I¢d recommend that you avoid staying here if you can, partially because Elmer doesn¢t seem to be too hiker friendly and partly because Hot Springs seems to be one of the most expensive trail towns in the south.Well enough bitching for today.Roni