Date: 2003-03-29
From: Mt. Collins Shelter

To: Peck's Corner Shelter
Miles today: 14.9
Weather: light rain

Started the day with high spirits. Shared shelter with the four from Summerville, GA, who I'd met weeks ago, outside of Franklin. They were taking time off in Gatlinburg to see family, and offered to take Lara, of the Eh-Team to town to resupply. While there, she would go to McDonald's and bring us lunch back at Newfound Gap. Wahoo! What a 200-mile party. So we slept in. Luke and I hiked out together, continuing the previous day's conversation about musicm then into movies, then into family... I've found I like to mix up the hiking, with people, without. It goes faster when talking to others, but I sometimes miss the scenery. But Luke makes me laugh a lot. So it started with a sprinkle. Refreshing, actually. But then the droplets, they gained weight. By the time we stumbled into Newfound Gap, we were soaked through and cold. 40-some degrees, drizzly, perfect hypothermia weather.But what did we find at Newfound Gap? TrailMagic! And in a bigway. Hamburgers, energy bars, chips, fruit, moonpies, homemade oatmeal cookies... but it gets better (and that's hard to do). One of the Trail Angels was Big Red, a thru-hiker from last year whose journals I'd read by recommendation. He was a big inspiration for me. In fact, I'd just been telling Luke about him, twenty minutes earlier. We'd been talking about our chances of making it to Maine. We all know that they are slim. But then, there are people like Big Red. He started out of shape, doing consistent 7-mile days in the beginning. He lost 50 pounds in his first 400 miles. He knew nothing about backpacking before attempting his thru-hike. He jokingly told us, he'd only been on one backpacking trip in his life, GA>ME '02. And there was at least one entry when he seemed fed up, and finished with the Trail. But he pulled through it, and despite all unlikelihood, he made it to Katahdin.I guess I feel like an unlikely candidate for finishing, sometimes, and stories like Red's reassure me, make me know it's possible.With him were Sunrise, Sunset, Papa Smurf and Flame, who I knew through his journals. They were all extremely generous with food, advice, stories-- they'd had some real hardships. They were a very cool crowd. And it was GREAT trailmagic. Best yet. Made McDonald's obsolete.Luke and I were the last ones out of the Gap. Luke was seriously dragging, with a split heel. By the first shelter we came too, he had to stop. His knees started going too, and as if this wasn't enough, he started feeling nauseous. At that shelter, some nice section hikers treated us to their tortillas and cheese, and offered to pack out the trash that we'd forgotten to drop at the gap. I left Luke there at two.And the rest of the day was beautiful. A lot of easy ups and downs, smooth enough to cruise, rocky enough to keep me alert. A lot of ridgewalking on some steep ridges, the land dropping off into the clouds only feet to either side of me. Through groves of fir and spruce and hemlock, the canopy so thick that it was like walking into caves. And beds of moss so vibrant green that they glowed in the afternoon sun. Fallen trees whose roots extended far over my head. And fog blowing over the slopes, revealing and then concealing the path beyond.   I kept stopping, sighing, laughing giddily, spreading my arms out. Early on, I was with Homeless one morning on a mountaintop, with a beautiful view. She said to me, "Don't you wish you could live here?" I told her, we do. For these few months, I do.