Miles today: 11.2
Total miles: 1,533.6
Shortened day. I awoke to a thunderstorm so I waited until it cleared up before I left. Didn't hit the trail until 11:20. I put in some good strong hiking all afternoon but the late start made it impossible to do many miles.
Water is still scarce but I did manage to make it into camp with almost four liters. It's a good thing, too, because there is no water source here. I should have just under a liter when I leave tomorrow. Oughtta be enough to get me started.
When I come home after all this and I see that I can get clean water anytime I want just by turning on a faucet I'm going to pause for a moment then shake my head and say "sheeeeit..."
On hiking the AT: I wonder whether I'm taking this journey for granted sometimes. Do I know what it is I'm doing? What effect it's having on me? Or am I even supposed to know at this point? Perhaps without the benefit of hindsight I couldn't know just what I'm doing, I can only do it. Yes, physically I know what I'm doing, I'm backpacking. Duh. But there is something more, something very meditative, something calming and simple, something basic and animal, something primal to just walking, walking, walking. You lose yourself during the day and every evening at camp it takes a good while to find your way back to your own mind. Difficult to explain. I'm curious to know what the lasting effects will be. But for now I'm just trying to enjoy every day. Because for as grueling and challenging as this is, it's getting better day by day.
Camping at Shaker campsite.
In the following from Robert Traver's 'Trout Magic', substitute the word "fish" with "hike" and "trout" with mountains:
ReplyDeleteI fish (hike) because I love to; because I love the environs where trout (mountains) are found, which are invariably beautiful and I hate the environs where crowds of people are found, which are invariably ugly; because of all the television commercials, cocktail parties, and assorted social posturing I thus escape; because, in a world where most men seem to spend their lives doing things they hate, my fishing (hiking) is at once an endless source of delight and an act of small rebellion; because trout (mountains) do not lie or cheat and cannot be bought or bribed or impressed by power, but respond only to quietude and humility and endless patience; because I suspect that men are going along this way for the last time, and I for one don't want to waste the trip; because only in the woods can I find solitude without loneliness; because bourbon out of an old tin cup always tastes better out there; because maybe one day I will catch a mermaid;(dream?) and, finally, not because I regard fishing (hiking) as being so terribly important but because I suspect that so many of the other concerns of men are equally unimportant - and not nearly so much fun.
(Testatment of a Fisherman by U.P. Michigan native, Robert Traver)
Love this. it's good to reflect, just don't spend too much time beating yourself up if the profound nature of what is going on in your life a this moment isn't visible, it will be...at some point when you least expect it.
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