“When BBQ Knocks, You Answer”

AT Day 55

Miles Today: 23.79

AT Mile: 996.0

(Rod Hollow Shelter [tent])

Part 1:

All I can do is laugh and ask the rhetorical question of “are you fucking kidding me?” Over and over again. Let’s be real now–thru hiking can suck sometimes. Digging cat holes, waking up at night and crawling out of a tent in the rain to piss, running out of food, getting your gear wet, carrying food and water weight, dealing with stings and bites and scrapes and ticks. There’s a lot of shit out here that isn’t fun…

But I feel like after letting go of so many of those things that make us human, this trail and my exeperience of walking it have turned into something different than they were at the beginning. For that matter, I am continuing to turn into something different than I was at Amacaloloa Falls. I like this thing that I’m becoming. After you get past all the rough stuff, of which there is a lot, thru hiking is such a beautiful thing. So much that it’s unbelievable. It’s magick!

Remember that lady hostel owner I wrote about a couple of days ago–the one who was full of self-help advice and 2-hour hitches to get 7 miles? Well, I also said that she had some good stuff in here speeches, and here’s one of them: I asked her, if she could go back to when she was about to turn 40 years old and give herself a piece of advice, what would it be.

This is what she said: “Everything is going to work out exactly the way that it’s supposed to be. It might not always be the way you *want* it to be, but it’ll turn out the way that it’s meant to be. You just have to let it happen.”

Further reinforcement of that “serendipity” idea that’s made up so much of this hike.

Yesterday I met another hiker who is finishing his Triple Crown on the AT this year. It’s weird, because I met my first other one the night before, then I met him yesterday morning, after going 53 days without seeing anyone in my same situation. I’d been hearing talk up trial of at least one other hiker who would finish their Triple in Maine, but had yet to find one.

This second hiker’s name is Plinko, and he seems like a good dude. I saw him at trail days and noticed he looked like he had a lot of miles under foot, but we never talked until yesterday when we were both waiting for the grill to open. I got a tall boy NA, and he laughed about it before stepping in and getting one for himself.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that I connect with Plinko way better than I have with other hikers I’ve met on trail so far. We both have a lot of shared miles at this point, and in spite of not meeting one another until yesterday, we’ve had a lot of shared common experiences on the AT as well. Somewhat of a wonder that we didn’t run into one another until now. I started my hike on April 11; he started on April 13.

One of the other Triple Crown hikers mentioned that they started with another Triple Crown finisher, but that person only made it about 200 miles in before, in his words, “They left the trail and said ‘fuck this shit.’ Didn’t like the green tunnel and the climbs and all that stuff.”

Funny–I relate to that hiker. I obviously didn’t leave the trail because of it, but I felt those things early on as well. I remember sitting in my tent with Norovirus in Hot Springs and thinking that I didn’t like the AT, that maybe I wasn’t going to learn to like the AT. There were a lot of times where I was lonely and wet and simply not enjoying it.

I don’t feel that way now, but I can see how someone could hike the PCT and the CDT, and then come out here and hate everything about the Appalachian Trail. This trail isn’t like those other trails. I understood that to be true when I was pushing out those 30 mile days in the first month of my hike, but I didn’t realize how I was missing things. Still, I don’t regret anything about that month (except maybe catching Noro?), but I am hiking very different now.

I did the math this morning to see what kind of miles I need to do to get to Harpers Ferry by 6pm on Friday to meet Boots, and it’s 17.3. There wouldn’t have been any way for me to slow my miles like that in the first month. Now it even seems challenging, but here I am, making it happen.

I looked up trail on the maps and saw that there was this BBQ roadside store just off the trail at mile 7 today, so that’s where I set my sights, and that’s where I’m sitting now, with my belly full of BBQ and a half dozen donuts that I split with Plinko (we met on trail again this morning about a mile before the road crossing to this restaurant).

It’s a bit hot and humid outside, so neither of us are feeling bad about posing up in the AC here where we can much calories and recharge electronics.

That said, we’ve been here for about an hour, and I suspect that in the next 30 mins we’ll probably head back to trail.

There’s another one of these trailside restaurants 25 miles up trail from here–just short of Harpers Ferry. I’ll of course have to make a pitstop in there tomrorow afternoon. Good lord, I’m not going to be able to fit into these trail shorts by the time I get to Harpers, at this rate.

I’ve also decided that if I get to Hapers on Thursday or early on Friday that I’m just going to push a few more AT miles north of town and either hitch back to meet Boots at 6pm or have her meet me up trail and bring me back to town. Either way could work. Either is a good option.

Alright. Back to trail here shortly.

Will write more tonight.

—

Part 2:

It has passed the point of being “warm” now. We’re into the month of June, and it is *hot*! I knew that the heat out here was going to be different than the heat of the desert southwest, but also that I wouldn’t understand exactly what it’s like to hike in this kind of heat and humidity until I get out here and into it. Today seems to have been the first of what will undoubtedly be a lot of hot days I’ll see this summer.

It was so nice to dip off trail and into AC from 11 to 1:00 today with Plinko. We lingered there at the table, sipping Diet Pepsi and recharging battery banks than the time it took us to finish the gratuitous meals that we each ordered. The place was also known for their powdered apple donouts. You know we got a half dozen, and although Plinko promised to eat three, I ended up with four. Not sure how the math worked out on that, but my belly was happy about the transaction.

The hitch both there and back were both pleasantly easy. Plinko and I, both having hiked the CDT before this trial, know what it’s like to be at a hard hitch that can take an entire day. In total we probably spent 7 minutes with our thumbs out.

When we got back to trail however, it was hot hot hot.

Enough that this evening, after I set camp, I walked back to the creek, collected water, and used my “shower head” that I made for the trail. It’s basically just a screw-on cap that disperses the gravity feed bag like a shower head for about 70 seconds.

It was cold, but the cold was also nice, and I felt much better after doing it. I knew that I would. The hiker who was there at the shelter, by where I was showering, commented that he has just become used to the wet stickiness of hiking in this weather. I told him, “fuck that.” I don’t like being wet and sticky on trail if I can avoid it!

—

Saw my first copper head today.

A few days ago I was hiking and thought I saw a really big black snake in the trail. It turned out to be just an electric cable. But when I saw this one today, it looked much different than any snakes I’ve seen on trail so far. At first I thought it might have been a rattle snake, but then saw with no rattle, but a diamond-shaped head, it was a copper head.

I scooted it off the trail with my hiking pole, and we both went on our way.

—

Tonight was the first night that I’ve seen fire flys since I was a little kid, on vacation to visit my grandparents in Louisiana. It had to have been more than 30 years ago!

They were starting to pop off while I was showering by the hostel. Someone had asked if I’ve seen them, a few days back, and I said no. But tonight they’re all over around the shelter and where I’ve set my tent.

—

Only saw two other hikers today, except when I got to the shelter. There are probably another 5-7 here; hard to tell because many of them are already in tent by the time I got here at 8:30. Hikers sleep early on the AT.

But both of the hikers I saw today made comments about the pushup thing. The section hiker I saw last night at the shelter where I had dinner asked about it when I passed him this morning. Said, “where you doing pushups there, after you had dinner last night?” Plinko was standing there too as the three of us chatted at the road crossing. I told him the ten pushups, per mile, per day thing and that I had yet to lose any weight on trail. Plinko remarked that was testimate to the efficacy. I also said that I try to eat protein, but that pushups seem to be making the difference.

It’s about 30 miles to Harpers Ferry from here. I could push that in one day if I wanted, but I’d like to get in around noon on Friday (2 days from today). So I’ll likely push another super casual day tomorrow, and have only a few miles for Friday. There’s another trailside restaurant tomorrow, but I don’t know if I’ll stop there or not. Who are we kidding? Of course I will.

Wormwood.