Tuesday, 6/16
AT Miles = 19.6 / 1082.3
Other Miles = 0 / 39.7
Total Miles = 19.6 / 1121.0
When I got up this morning I couldn't tell whether the sky was clear or overcast, but it was soon apparent that it was the latter, and it felt like it was going to rain. I rigged my pack for rain when I set off, but as it turned out it only rained a bit in the morning and most of the day it stayed dry, more or less.
Ten miles into the day I was at Caledonia State Park. It was about 10:45 and at 11:00 the snack bar there opens, so I joined several other hikers already there waiting. I spent about an hour and a half there eating a cheeseburger and fries, as well as some of the food I was carrying.
While I was there a hiker showed up that I haven't seen since Neels Gap, way back in Georgia at about day 4 of the hike. That was a nice moment. When I saw Papa Kiwi (his trail name) I said "Damn, you're skinny!" and almost at the same time he remarked on how much weight I had lost.
The afternoon was hard. My feet hurt, the weather was damp and sticky, I was feeling tired of being dirty, and I just didn 't feel like walking another ten miles, but eventually I got here and washed up and ate a hot meal, and my outlook has improved a lot.
Today while walking I was thinking some more about the responses I got to my post of a couple days ago where I mentioned how some thru-hikers behave somewhat rudely toward weekend and section hikers. I've been thinking that for some people thur-hiking is kind of like high school. They become part of the thru-hiking community, which is really a very small community, though it is spread out along the trail. They seem to like being part of a distinct group, and one of the ways a group is defined is by who is excluded; in this case those hikers who are not thru-hikers. What happens within the world of thru-hikers takes on exaggerated importance, just like when you were in high school and the world of school seemed to be the most important thing in the world.
Well, I never really fit in when I was in high school, and I don't fit in on the trail the same way I would if I were 24 years old, so it is easy to sit on the outskirts and practice my amateur analysis. In any case, I think it's a shame when some people behave in such a way as to make other hikers feel uncomfortable or out of place, and I choose not to do so.
It is starting to rain now. Hopefully it will rain tonight and be all done by morning, but I have heard rumors that this is a storm that is supposed to hang around tomorrow.
My plan is to hike 17 miles tomorrow, then 12 on Thursday which should get me to Boiling Springs around noon. Assuming I can get a place to stay, I will zero there on Friday and head back out on the trail on Saturday.
Monkeywrench
Allen Freeman
allen@allenf.com
www.allenf.com
allenf.blogspot.com
