Introduction

About Pathways

Appalachian Trail

Why Walk?

Make a Pledge

Hiking Schedule

Journal

Photos

Links

Acknowledgements

July 27, 2001

Tonight I'm at Kid Gore Shelter in S.Vermont. I'm listening to Ben Harper on Grace's discman, watching a picturesque fire that Smittee made, listening to trail lore from Jobnick, laughing at Chespeake's dry humor, singing They Might Be Giants with Mary Poppins. Another ~13 mile day. I didn't leave until noon today, so busy was I contemplating life and reading Siddhartha in the sunshine. Not a tough hike in 70 degree weather. One mountain to climb, at the top a firetower looking across hundreds of miles of wilderness. To the North, huge jagged mountains loom once again. I'm happy to be hiking with new faces again. The pace is slow. The spirit of sharing is back. The community is fluid.

Noticed again the other day that we really are attuned to senses now. We all felt the rain coming before it started. When I thought I might have passed the shelter at dusk, I could smell the fire from .3 mile away. Yet I can't smell myself or any other hiker until I go to enclosed public places.

Today I talked with Mary about Norway, whom I'm starting to understand a bit differently. Because she talks more than anyone I know, I never considered she may be an introvert. I caught myself trying to hike her hike out of concern for her and not wanting to think for myself. Deciding to hike ahead seems to make it my own hike again for a bit. And I'm really enjoying hiking alone. For a few days I was anxious about why I was out here. A lot of the thoughts I'd been working on out here are at a standstill. Nothing can be done until I see the people I'm thinking about. That leaves me without a mission out here. The only thing to do is walk and experience and enjoy the beauty and freedom. The inherent worth of this walk is all that remains. I'm free to enjoy it and let it be enough just to live in the present. Strange as it sounds, that is still a challenge for me, though one worthy of undertaking.

Smittee and I talked this morning for a long time about what comes after the trail. He's concerned about falling back into the same cycles. I'm remembering again that there are no limits. I like to think about what I'd do without any limits of money or time or creativity. Then I realized that these aren't limitations and that I can do exactly as I please. Liberation.