Well….it’s been a good hike. A more articulate update will likely have to wait until I’m off trail and have a chance to digest the experience. But for now I’m in Hot Springs, NC, having the time of my life. It’s the first day i’ve taken off entirely in quite some time, and i’m enjoying doing the myriad of little tasks that one does in ordinary life. More soon. For now, my tentative finishing date is December 13th-ish.
I’m heading off tomorrow afternoon. The plan, as it stands, is to arrive in Waynesboro Monday afternoon. After Waynesboro, there on to Troutville, then to Pearisburg, then to Damascus. My schedule has me arriving in Damascus, VA November 8th. I’ve scheduled Virginia pretty tightly, but after, Tenn and NC and GA will be much more “go-with-the-flow.”
I”m getting a little worried about my cold tolerance, which has fallen off a lot after a summer of no A/C – but we’ll see how it goes.
I’d considered being shameless and requesting sponsorship from some of the awesome outdoor equipment companies I’ve worked with – but decided against it. Wrapping up work and life here in DC was busy enough, and putting together a concise and compelling story to share with potential sponsors didn’t seem to be a good use of my time. Nonetheless, some awesome companies I”ve worked with for a long time went WAY out of their ways to help make my hike possible. Katadyn donated a several-month supply of their MicroPur water purification tablets. This is awesome because they are extremely light weight, kill just about anything that might make you sick, and don’t create toxic disinfection byproducts. Check them out here. Also, Osprey stepped up big time and sent me a pack to test. this is one of the new Aether packs, and will come in extremely handy as soon as I get my winter gear, likely at the end of October. For the amount of support it provides, this experimental pack is light, and I”m excited to take it on it’s maiden journey on the AT. Check out Osprey here
Nights are
Cooler now
And the hot breeze is
Gone
Lift my head up straight!
Eyes open wide!
No sun-hammer on my brow,
Beat me down to the hot, ammonia pavement
Soon – rare pleasures await.
Coffee steams in the morning!
Sleep comes without sweaty thrashing!
But
My fireflies are gone.
Those organic-lemon sprinkles in my evening
Those lazy, beaming cruisers
Those blinking beacons of summer
And the back to school sales
10 years after school
Still sink my heart.
Fall has come.
A mixed blessing,
To be sure.
It’s a wonder anything gets written at all, really. In the course of conducting my life, I produce thousands of pages of text. To do lists, birthday cards, thank you notes…utilitarian text. But, when one sits down to write, it’s …..different. The utilitarian skill we have becomes strange…the pages looks intimidating, one’s own voice echoes in the thoughts and comes out stilted. I hear it gets easier every time though. We’ll see.
I was recently interviewed by a news channel digging for a story about DC closing a few bridges to cars during inauguration. I’m assuming the reporter in question stopped me because the glasses, beard, and bike “guaranteed” a blatant anti-car rant. When, instead, he got a well-reasoned reply about the importance of sustainable transportation options, and the fact that ordinary rush hour paralyzes the city anyways, he cut me down to a clip. Oh well.
