Date: 2013-08-05
From: Sugar Hill, NH (Home) Day 3

To: Sugar Hill, NH (Home) Day 6
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Monday, August 5 Sugar Hill, NH Zero Day 6Weather: Sunny and cool Hi 66 Lo 47On Saturday my brother and his wife brought my father up for a visit. It was great to see them all. They thought I looked OK for a guy who's been wandering through the woods for 4 plus months. They got a kick out of the beard. I've been clean shaven since my freshman year at college and it will go the moment I get home from the hike. We ate, talked, and I tried to answer their questions about the hike. It's hard to explain or answer some things, like don't you miss being home, and will you want to hike other long distance trails (I haven't finished this one yet!), or why keep hiking if you hurt. I don't thing much about things like this right now. Of course I miss home, just like I missed it for the 30 years that I traveled 3 or 4 days a week for work. Now i'm travelling doing something I want to do so at least it's a little easier.On Sunday, I hiked with a group of thru hikers from Kinsman Notch to Franconia Notch. They included OB, Danno, Chupa Cabra, Pippen and her Dad. They were slack packing (hiking with just a day pack), and my wife dropped us off and later picked us up. Even though we had a few showers we had a great time on a nice section of trail. For me it was fantastic, to be hiking in my "backyard" with friends from the trail. It was one of my best days of the entire hike! I hope they enjoyed it nearly as much. Tomorrow I am planning to do some trail magic at Crawford Notch, NH and hope to see them there along with Chaos and Timex whom I missed while they were in Lincoln and maybe, if I'm lucky, see Oreo and Quahog who should be close by. One of the things we were talking about yesterday during our hike were Lessons from the Trail. There are many for me, and I'll list a few here. The trail is a great teacher of life where you literally live it as you learn. The first is learning to live with less. You are living for 6 months with what is on your back.   Despite this, the first thing you start doing back in Georgia is getting rid of stuff. Lot's of it! On the trail you want only what you absolutely need and nothing more. When I got home my first reaction was "What do I have all of this stuff for?" For example, I must own 30 pairs of pants and probably use only 5 or 6. There are people who could use what I don't need. I'll be getting rid of lot's of stuff when I get home after the hike and vow to stop adding stuff.The second is to simplify your existance. On the trail you get up, you hike, you eat, you sleep. It is a perfect existance from a standpoint of simplicity. You soon come to appreciate that. It brings peace of mind and purity of thought. You stop worrying about things you can't control and you don't overemphasize unimportant minutia. When I got home all sorts of things that would have bothered me before the hike didn't bother me in the least. The trail taught me to not even see them.The next is to live today fully. See what is in front of you and experience what is around you. We tend to fill our lives with distractions and we miss what is right here, right now. We think about what will be and not about what is. On the trail I would reach an overlook and stop, sit and enjoy. In life we too often go right past the "overlook" and rush to our "destination". The next is to find joy in giving and sharing. Trail magic, trail angels, and the generosity and kindness you experience on the trail is highly contagious. Every day I looked for ways to help other hikers and say thanks to all the good people I met along my journey. Isn't that the same with life in general? I can and will spent more time thanking and helping others who make my life better just by being a part of it.Try harder. Hiking about 20 miles a day is not easy, but it can be done. It involves pain, sacrifice and effort. Too often in life, we stop short of what we can do because it's easier to just stop than to keep going. When we keep going we feel a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction that never comes by stopping before were finished. Keep going!There are many more lessons, and maybe I'll write about them down the road. Right now, I'm going to go apply a few lessons to my day!