Date: 2004-07-12
From: Brink Road Shelter

To: High Point Shelter, NJ
Miles today: 19.6
Weather: light rain

Day #120 "We did not think of the great open plains, the rolling hills and the winding streams with tangle growth, as 'wild'. Only to the white man was nature a 'wilderness' and only to him was the land infested with 'wild' animals and 'savage' people. To us it was tame. Earth was bountiful and we were surrounded with the blessing of the Great Mystery." ~ Chief Standing Bear of the Lakota Listening to the NOAA weather station this morning was not good news. Wide spread rain throughout the area of 1-2 inches was reported. I weather proofed my pack and left the shelter at 6:30. Two miles into my hike a light rain started that quickly turned into a heavy downpour. A chilly wind accompanied the rain. A new challenge to ridge walking amidst the rocks and boulders was provided that afternoon - running water. The rocks were slicker than a baby's butt. The rain continued and the views at High Point State Park were masked in rain clouds. I finally made the shelter in a pouring rain at 8:00. Bucket, Lint and Flip Flop were already cooking up a hot meal and getting warm. I did the same as I shivered to stay warm. Exhausted I went to bed early, totally spent from the water-induced hike. Every day I find something magical in the woods: flowers in bloom, breath taking mountain views, and trail magic when you least expect it. But, today was the most magical day for me on the AT since the beginning. I was walking on top of a ridge on Kittatiny Mountain near Rutherford Shelter during a particularly pounding rain. I was walking past a small flat section of mountain rock about thigh high. Sometimes I do things in the woods and I don't know why (as if I was guided by the Spirit-That-Moves-Through-All-Things). I suddenly stopped, looked at this rock formation and for no apparent reason, sat down. My first impression was being comfortable like a seat in a movie theater. I looked up and across from me was a large rock formation protruding out of the ground and slightly higher than me. The top was flat with a slight angle towards my direction. I felt I was looking at a stage. Trees grew on the outskirts of the rock almost like a backdrop. From right to left sheets of low moving clouds of white fog would roll across the rock formation obscuring my view of the stage, similar to the opening and closing of a stage curtain. The stage is now set for my magical moment. In a dream-like state I have a clear view of the empty rock formation when a fast moving sheet of fog obstructs the stage. Within seconds the fog passes and before me, on stage, stands the most beautiful deer with a fawn by her side. The doe has a large muscular body and bright brown in color. The fawn, smaller in stature, was the same color with white spots on its back. Both mother and child are looking, no, staring at me. Our gaze is locked and, I can't tell you in what language, if there was any, but we communicated. The fawn is nervously figeting and shifting its feet, muscles tense, looking at me, back at its mother, back at me, ready to take flight on mother's command. The mother is steady and her body language calms the fawn. Minutes go by. I know this because at one point, without realizing it, I slowly reach down in my pocket for the camera and take a picture. A sheet of fog rolls in that envelope both me and the stage, as if a white cotton sheet was pulled over my head. I can¢t see a thing in front of me. Within seconds the fog clears and so is the stage, empty of actors. I sat in the pouring rain stunned at what just happened. Just as quickly as the mother and fawn appeared, they disappeared. At that moment, all the pain and suffering of walking on boulders, the ridges and the heavy downpours were washed away and cleansed with a natural high. I got up from my rock seat, thanked Mother Nature for the afternoon matinee that I entitled "A Mother's Love" and continued my northbound hike in a euphoric state of mind.