Introduction

About Pathways

Appalachian Trail

Why Walk?

Make a Pledge

Hiking Schedule

Journal

Photos

Links

Acknowledgements

May 10, 2001

I fell asleep fast last night after hiking 22 miles into Pearisburg. I convinced a lady retired from the courthouse, Ms. Becky, to give us a ride. The trail is poorly maintained near town. We were wading through Poison Ivy.

Pearisburg in not very accessible, but folks around town love to pickup hitch-hikers. Got a hitch in a convertible today after I stopped trying. No thumb. All action. Good Wendy's fast food and Super Walmart late last night. Beef Jerky was a bargain. I didn't leave town until this afternoon. Only made it 6 miles, but it still wasn't a zero day.

We're camped just outside of town at Star Haven Shelter with a view of the valley even better than Beauty Spot in TN. It means more to me because it's the meshing of people with wilderness. I see the houses in the valley that are embraced by ridges running straight and true just like a topo map. Sunset today was gorgeous over the valley.

Pigpen and I had a good long talk today. He's a philosophy major from UW-Green Bay, originally MN. We talked about the obscure line between reality and virtual reality, Nietzsche and God. If God is dead, then the burden of reason, the why, the meaningfullness all lands on us. Can you kill your own God? He talked about the idea that historically religion has all been leading up to one omniscient God, whereas you could trick a Greek god. But even the idea of one God is now gone. God is being replaced by Math, by numbers, by cell membranes and photosynthetic measurement. We talked about what there is to believe in and why to try, intrinsic value vs. outside reward. Our schools aren't set up to explore past the level of surveys and overviews. Also talked about why people get sick.

I think people get sick because we all have the potential to all of the time. But if we're stressed out or strung out of old or young or have a distressed immune system, we get nailed. And we're treated as if there's nothing by a cell mutation. We need to treat the whole person in America to, not shove all those doctors that would practice holistic medicine over the border. Chris added that people get sick because of a build-up, a recession that turns inward and pushes and grinds against itself until it's a problem. He talked about swallowing the past, not having a past by living at peace with it. I needed this talk and am grateful for it.