Time to Say Goodbye… – The Trek

AT’s all about goodbyes. We all know that. Injuries, weddings, graduations, family challenges, mental reasons, anything can bring someone off the trail. And there’s always chances the trail brings us back together. In this morning’s case, it was time to say goodbye to Second Breakfast and Viking (I forgot to mention Viking the other day. Another Mass native. I do wonder why there’re so many of us out here!). They’re taking a Nero and Zero and Standing Bear to celebrate finishing the Smokies. Meanwhile, today would be the first of two “push” days. Freezing rain’s supposed to bear down on us in two days, and while I could take a more “chill” hiking schedule, and spend one night in the rain before drying off, I wanted to take a zero in Hot Springs anyways. The Helene-ravaged neighbourhoods deserve all of the support that we can give them.

I quickly ran back into them and someone else I met at the shelter last night, James. James has by far the smallest pack I’ve seen in the flesh yet — a Gossamer Gear Kumo. And yet, he’s not carrying much less than us, in fact he’s carrying both a mini folding table and a Helinox chair. I sometimes think that I’m at the point where I can’t cut any more gear — I sit at barely under 12 pounds of base weight — and yet there’s always proof that in fact, I can. By the way, sorry that I don’t have a super updated gear list, nor a gear list post. I keep meaning to make one, and have one drafted, I just haven’t gotten the time to proofread it yet.

We all met at the Pigeon River Bridge crossing right on I-40, at some Trail Magic! And this one was special, not only were they offering a full resupply, but they also had servings of something they called “Swamp Stew.” Despite its name, it was delicious, a medley of vegetables and beans, topped with some cornbread! Just the right thing to fuel me back up. I felt a new pep in my step after yesterday. Not only did my foot problems go away once I got rid of the toe socks, but I felt actually well-rested for once. Like I could breathe again. I think the toe socks in the narrower Timps was causing me some slight issues. It’s nice to get away from it.

Road walking along I-40 really started to reveal what Helene’s done to the region. There was tons of construction as I was passing by — dozens of trucks coming to help repair I-40 in the region. I kept wondering why I only saw one direction of cars at a time… til I remembered there’s probably only one lane working right now. From home, it was so easy to think about “oh no, is the trail going to be ok during my thru-hike?” But out here, the only thing I could feel was sadness that such a beautiful region was devastated as such. I felt a flush of embarrassment at my selfishness. The trail comes second. The dozens of lives all affected here should come first.

I made the pilgrimage to Standing Bear Farm for two reasons. One was… my new water filter was there! I mentioned a long time ago that my water filter’s outer threads had been failing, and I finally committed to an address for REI to send a replacement to. Two, it’s time to say goodbye to Richard. He’s been a constant presence throughout NC, but his current section is coming to an end. He’s on his way back to Canada for a bit. But he’s not sitting still — he lives about 2 hours from the White Mountains. So right after leaving us, he was going to do day hikes of the Whites, just to see how his trail legs are holding up. I couldn’t help but be impressed that he had such a vigour and gusto to hike! He told me that it got really emotional when he received his last trail magic. Despite his language barrier (he’s French-Canadian, so English comes second), he said he’s received nothing but kindness on trail. And that it’s something he didn’t expect, but has grown to love. Sometimes, when you think about it, the instinct to take free food from strangers on the side of the road isn’t something you’d do in everyday life. But here, it’s just the norm.

I also ran into Poles and SheRa here, both taking breaks. And then a man named Sam! I hadn’t seen him since the Cheese Factory site waaaaaaayyyy down between the Blue Ridge Mountain and Tray Mountain shelters in Georgia. It felt like deja vu seeing him again. He needed to go into town to get his phone screen replaced… so I’m again not sure if I’ll see him again. But it just goes to show, the trail brings us apart, and then brings us back together again.

The climbs out today sucked. It’s always so funny how the AT brings us above 6000 feet, then below 2000 feet, and then right back up again. If it wasn’t for the natural stops at towns and gaps, I guess the trail could be up in the mountains forever. But coming back down is part of the fun. For once it started getting just a bit warm again on trail as well. Spring returns, and life takes form again, even when Helene tries to wipe it all out. 

Even with all the elevation UP today, I felt like I was flying. Foot pain, relatively solved. Energy, magically restored. The sun was out, the bird were chirping, and I felt good! Eventually caught up with everyone at Max Patch, where we took a quick dinner break and watched the sun set. It was nice to have these moments together still. I don’t want to air out dirty laundry, but I kind of know that our tramily’s coming to a natural end soon. And it’s on me. I want to start doing my own thing again, and be only the boss of myself at this moment. In frontcountry life, we’re beholden to others. Schedules, rules, whatever. But I came out here partially to be my own person. I think the rest could feel it too. But we still enjoyed our moments together.

yes, this is what it looks like when I go downhill

Sunset hit, and it was COLD. So we donned our headlights, and crushed the last few miles into Roaring Fork Shelter. No one spoke a word, but we all knew that tomorrow was going to be another marathon day. Maybe not 19 miles… but still. And it was going to rain at some point in the afternoon. While rain’s inevitable, we wanted to avoid the inch of freezing rain, especially since we already had reservations at Elmer’s Sunnybank Inn. Time to rest…

I was on a slant tonight, but found that I could mitigate it a bit by stuffing gear under my sleeping pad to keep myself flat. Maybe a life hack for someone else!

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