Onward!!!
Ah... 10 days off. A welcomed retreat. A chance for my body parts to heal, to visit home for a week in Orlando to see my wife and friends and family. A week of good nutrition, advice from trainers at the "Y" and blessings from doctors that nothing is broken, permanently, anyway.
Coming back home was strange. Even after only two and a half months, it felt strange being back in the city surrounded by so much cement, traffic and people who were all focused on different things. I feel like I don't belong here and now eagerly await the chance to return to my journey in Virginia.
This is good.
I was a bit afraid of returning home, thinking that I might not want to go back. I even left my pack and gear in Virginia with instructions NOT to return them home. But even in Virginia, I never felt like I wouldn't want to return, even when I was hobbling down the trail, soaked to the bone from rain and even on the verge of hypothermia.
After two and a half months, the trail has gotten into my blood. It is challenging and daunting at times, but it is a place of refuge, a place where I can be alone or with others who are of like mind. It's a place to communicate and share with other hikers or simply to be alone for a while. It is a place where I can be myself and laugh or cry, or simply ponder things for a bit. I've been gone for about 6 days now and miss the trail.
Within hours of arriving back home in Orlando, I grabbed my DVD of "TREK," a video documentary of some A.T. hikers who made a movie of their experience. When the video started, I watched them walk with their packs and instantly shed a tear. I'm not sure why, exactly, but think it was because I was already missing that path of dirt and stone, of roots and leaves and of pain and joy.
There is no question now whether I will be returning to the trail. I have Mount Rogers area of Virginia coming up, and White Top mountain, the wild ponies at the Gracen Highlands and so many more things to see and experience. I have some new tools to take with me on the trail, and some more knowledge. And I know that my pains, while enough to slow me down, are not stopping me.
When I look in the mirror now, I don't see a lost computer guru with no direction. I see a scruffy, wild-haired mountain man with a goal and desire to press northward to Maine. I don't know if I will reach the summit of Kathadin this year or perhaps spring of next, but one thing is for sure...there are many miles to go before I sleep.
Muddyshoes - GA --> ME, 2006
2 Comments:
I missed your segment on Philips today. I was getting into the truck when you were signing off...so I didn't hear what you had decided. From the way Jim worded something that he said though, it sounded like you were headed back. And from what you wrote in "Onward!" it sounds like you have a new found enthusiasm and no deadline or schedule to be at certain place at any certain time. That has to be the biggest relief. Now you can really enjoy the journey.
Sounds like you may have had your epiphany, however muted, after all. Hearing the siren's song of the trail and the answering echo in your heart are your "bells and whistles". More power to you, my brother. May the crooked finger of the Crone guide your way <};-)
Peace ~
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