Day 67 – 80

Where have I been and where am I going?

Day 67 would’ve been the next daily post, so I’ll start there. On this day, May 18th, I hiked the 2 miles from Hogback Ridge Shelter to Sam’s Gap, where the A.T. crosses Interstate 26. A few minutes after hiking, I briefly considered contacting Wendy to abort the pick up plan, since my knee was not bothering me. Fifteen minutes further, however, it was clear the pickup plan was sound. My knee was once again throbbing and forced me to practically limp the rest of the way off the mountain.

Once at Sam’s Gap, I had a short 30 minutes wait until Wendy arrived. It seems that the location of Sam’s Gap causes some confusion for modern GPS devices, so some manual map skills were required to guide her to the destination. With pickup accomplished, we stopped three miles down the road at The Little Creek cafe where we enjoyed an early lunch. This place is really cool and is mentioned in the AWOL guide book. Due to an error on my part, some of you already know this. It’s been my procedure to turn off my GPS tracker when I leave the trail. I neglected to do so on this occasion.

After lunch, I spent the remainder of the day and evening with Wendy, her husband Corey and her beautiful 8 month old baby girl, Ciara. They drove me all around their home town of Lenoir, NC and to give me a tour of the place. Far to the east of the A.T. , the town is nestled within a valley of rolling hills and surrounded by mountains. It’s quite the picturesque area.

The next day, we played a little game of rendezvous. From home, Brenda drove west and Corey drove us east leading to a lunchtime meet up in Greensboro. After lunch, I headed back to Suffolk with Brenda. Wendy and Ciara also came along to visit. Corey returned to Lenoir with plans to come and get Wendy and Ciara sometime later.

Brenda had already set up a doctors appointment for me before she left. Surprisingly, they were able to fit me in their schedule just 2 days after returning home. During those two days of not hiking, my knee was no longer in pain as it had been. This resulted in the same situation one experiences when they take their car to a mechanic to report some weird noise the car is making. In the presence of the mechanic, the car behaves beautifully. So it was with my knee. The doctor could find nothing seriously wrong, which was both a relief and was also frustrating.

I think that my own speculation and one particular commenter on my blog nailed it: when I returned to the trail after my first absence, I attacked the trail with the same vigor I’d been before I left. That created a situation where I was hiking too hard and too fast for my legs, which at that point were no longer trail-worthy. So lesson learned: after an absence of more than a couple days, legs a knees require a new break-in period.

So, the new plan became this: I would return to the trail on June 1st and continue where I left off, hiking northbound. Why such a lengthy pause? Prior to starting the trail in March, Brenda and I already had tickets and plans to see my favorite band, Rush, perform in the Northern Virginia area on May 30th. It didn’t make sense to me to return to the trail, only to be picked up a few days later to leave again.

So, due to that, this two week vacation from the trail happened. It did have some perks which included a fun-filled Memorial Day weekend party at home. I also got a much needed haircut and also a brand new pair of poorly adjusted eye glasses.

While home, I was contacted by another hiker, Grey Wolf who I’d hiked with before. He was a member of our “Blue Blaze Bozos” group which hiked off the trail back in the Franklin area. He has also been off the trail for a few weeks, and his future plan is to return to the trail around June 20th. Instead of returning to where he left, however, he’s going all the way to Mount Katahdin in Maine and will attempt the rest of the trail going southbound. He was contacting me to see where I was on the trail and if I’d also be interested in flipping with him.

Most of you here have probably already figured out I have virtually no chance of finishing this trail the way I intended. To do so would require a daily average of 17 miles per day for the next 4 months. Based on my progress to date, this is just not going to happen. So the only chance of even remotely being able to finish is for me to flip to Maine and hike southbound. The only question is: when do I do the flip?

So out of the blue, I’m contacted by Grey Wolf who is also flipping. Coincidence? Probably. Regardless, the idea of flipping along with a known hiking partner is too great to ignore. So my plan is now to start back where I left the trail and hike north for a couple weeks until Grey Wolf heads to Maine. We will coordinate so that we both arrive in Bangor, Maine at the same place and time.

Can I still finish the whole A.T even with this flip? Possibly, but probably not. As difficult as that is to write here, it’s not a defeatist remark, it’s a statement of fact based on my progress to date. I have never developed the consistent daily mileage to finish. The only remote possibility of finishing lies in this flip.

I would be lying to myself if I said I’m not at all dissapointed about this. One of the reasons for this thru hike attempt was to take on an epic challenge, plan for it, and actually complete it. I planned for a northbound thru hike and that’s not what will happen. This flip represents a “plan b” alternative. I think it is too early to glean any big life lessons from my adventure. But perhaps one of them will be to learn to accept an alternative and to be comfortable with it.

As a final closing, let’s bring some humor… For those who dont know, there is a site out there called despair.com which makes parody versions of those motivational posters we’ve all seen before. I recommend you go read some of them as they’re hilarious. The one that comes to mind in my situation is this…

“If at first you don’t succeed, then maybe failure is your style.”

So I’m off to tackle this thing for a third try. You can all look forward to daily (as signal allows) posts again!

Wandering on…

Mojo