AT Day 126

Miles Today: 17.61

AT Mile: 1985.9

(Redington Stream Campsite)

I don’t know what it is, but I’ve been feeling especially tired at the end of the day when I lay down to write my journals. That feeling of general exhaustion and lower energy has been going on probably throughout all of New Hampshire too, but only now has it reached a point where I almost feel like I have some kind of ailment. The cynical side of me says that it’s a sign of Lyme Disease, and I’ve met two hikers in the last week who have caught it on trail. But the more logical side says that I’ve been surprisingly and pleasantly tick-free for most of this trail, and the symptoms of exhaustion could also be from six to eight thousand foot elevation gain days. It’s more likely the latter.

With the complaining out of the way however, I should note that the trail seems to have mellowed out quite a bit in the last day or two! I still didn’t break even 20 miles today, but I got to 17.5 *with* a town resupply, so that’s basically equal to a 20+ day.

The hitch into town and back to trail were both pretty easy and quick. I hitched both ways with a chap from England named Ninja. I met him first at the Om Dome and we came back to trail from there yesterday morning with another hiker named Tom.

Tom had been there for the trail magic that Hemlock’s wife, Rachael, brought at the top of Mount Greylock. It took me awhile to recognize who he was, but when we met at the Om Dome again I immediately recognized him as someone I’d met earlier on in the trail.

—

It was supposed to have rained last night, but it barely sprinkled for ten minutes. The vegetation was barely wet this morning.

But that was enough to spike the humidity this morning, which was concerning, as today was supposed to be the first cooler day after that goddamn heatwave. It left the morning heat feeling pretty bad, but by the evening it’s become cool enough to almost feel chilly up here in the mountains. I’m significantly higher elevation than this morning though, so there’s that to add to it as well.

—

It’s wild thinking that Amacalola Falls, Georgia was more than four months ago now. I remember the first day so well. It was in incredibly powerful day. So much has happened since then. Thru hikers are intense like that. They’re basically a guarantee that life changing shit is going to happen, but you don’t get to know what that shit is unless you get to it and get in it.

This trail’s life changing shit has been good for me I think. It’s still not over–neither the trail or the shit. But I have a sense for how the bigger picture looks now that I’m almost into the last two hundred miles.

—

This morning I woke up near a lake and considered swimming but decided against it because the waters were too shallow and I wanted to get to trail. But just before five miles in there was another small lake, and I wandered off trail to go to the shoreline. To my surprise I found three canoes there, two that appeared unusable or unlikely to float, and one that looked totally functional. I sat there and ate the second part of my breakfast before ultimately deciding that it was too good an opportunity to pass up. So I took the last bit of my breakfast with me, rowed out into the middle of the lake, and drifted around there for a while before coming to shore.

I don’t want to regret missing opportunities like this in the end.

It’s close now. The end.

—

Tonight I’m camped in this little tiny spot that’s right beside a significantly more suitable spot. But the more suitable spot has a Widow Maker hanging right over the top of it, and I just don’t trust a dead tree not to fall.

So I’m tucked into this tiny space, but it’s okay. It works. I’m just glad that I’ve had practice with setting this tent over the last few months, because it was like threading a needle to get it in here properly.

Like I said in the beginning, I’m extremely tired. Like I was last night. So tired that I fell asleep with the tent door open and out of my sleeping quilt. Fortunate that this time no mice came in with the zipper open like last time I did that.

—

There aren’t a lot of miles left to the end.

It’s growing closer.

Wormwood.

AT Day 125

Miles Today: 16.56

AT Mile: 1968.5

(Sabbath Day Pond Lean-To [tent])

The Appalachain Trail has officially taken me longer to complete than the Pacific Crest Trail. The PCT is 450 miles longer, but I now understand why the AT takes people so long to complete on average. It’s a very different kind of trail, and at the miles are completely unlike anything you’d find on the PCT. They’re slow miles since the Vermont/New Hampshire border, and the trail is often incredibly steep. In the places that aren’t steep climbs or descents the trail is almost always so root-ridden and rocky that instead of hiking you find yourself stumbling along for miles and for hours without ever seeming to get good footing or catch your balance. It becomes aggravating, exhausting, and frustrating. I met a new hiker at the Om Dome who is camped with me tonight, and he’s echoed much the same–namely that the miles since New Hampshire haven’t been enjoyable and that our experience on trail has not been fun. I think that both of us are as upset about being upset as we are about anything else though. Like it’s upsetting that the trail has become this thing that is no longer a positive experience when we all hoped that we’d be feeling better at this point in the trail.

The heat also will not let up. It was cooler today than yesterday, but not by much. The highest reading I got today was 92, which is still far outside of my hiking comfort zone. But I needed to get back to trail. The day and a half at the Om Dome were wonderful, and the owner offered me a work for stay if I wanted to do massage and bodywork, but I felt a drive to get back to trail.

I am also beginning to run on a tight deadline. Boots was able to postpone her trip to Maine by a week on account of my hiking the Long Trail and having my miles cut so short by New Hampshire and Maine, but now my finish date is looking exceedingly close to her arrival for the week together. We’ve also reserved an Air B&B for the week, so I do have a timeline that I need to make. I need to finish by the 25th. If I’d stayed at Om Dome another night to wait out the temperatures, it would have made finishing by then even more difficult than it already will be.

I have been told that the miles mellow out a bit in central and northern Maine, but that’s yet to be experienced up to now. We’ll see.

—

Had a kind of funny experience with an older gentleman this morning. I’d met him at the hostel yesterday and knew that he lived on the property as a work for stay type thing. Apparently he’s a thru hiker from 2012 and he met the owner of the hostel on trail and they hiked most of the AT together.

By the way, before I forget, the owner of the hostel was on Naked and Afraid the TV show. I’ve never seen it, but I think that it’s got a big audience. His name is Ryan and he was on five episodes. Good dude.

Anyways, this work for stay guy this morning yells at me from his little cabin, and he’s holding up his pot pipe. He asks if any of us want to “green blaze” and I immediately dart over there. Free weed before starting to trail sounded wonderful.

So I walk over, sit down, take a hit… and this dude ends up going full on Sermon on the Mount, talking as quickly as a car salesmen all about Jesus Christ is the only God and he was blessed to find Him, and on and on and on. This guy had an intense Jesus pitch!

But what was so funny is that this seems to be his jig: call hikers over from the hostel, get them stoned, and then just run his speech about Jesus to them.

It seemed like a strange take on the typical Jesus-ey stuff that I’ve seen so much on the AT so far. But I also thought that it was strangely nice.

As usual, very tired as I write this. Temps are supposed to drop tomorrow. Rain predicted tonight. Would be good if we got some. It’s been extremely hot and dry and I was thinking today about how devastating it would feel if a forest fire closed things down and prevented me from getting to the end of the AT.

Anyways, pray for a bit of rain. Better temps ahead.

Wormwood.

AT Day 124

Miles Today: 0

AT Mile: 1951.5

(The Om Dome Hostel)

There isn’t a whole lot to report today, and as such I will keep things short.

Slept adequately, and woke to a breakfast of coffee and pancakes. Now that I’m switching from coffee to tea, on the days where I do have a cup of coffee it feels more like the stimulation of an illicit substance than what I remember from a casual cup of Joe. My body is becoming more sensitive to stimulants as I draw myself away from them.

I have noticed on this trail that one of the ways that I react to overstimulation is to become very slow and calm. I’ll feel hyper-focused and jittery as hell, but then I’ll go kind of still and quiet. And it works well when everyone else in the room is over-caffeinated too because it allows me to sit still and listen while they chat chat chat chat chat.

It’s become an interesting human study sometimes when I meet talkative people on the trail. I feel like I learn a lot about my self in listening to them.

My three priorities today were to stay out of the heat (temps broke 93 degrees before adding heat index!), restock a bit of cannabis, and plug away on some writing.

The first two I accomplished very well. And the latter has been a curious struggle. To be fair, I have written quite a lot last night and through spurts and stops today, but the quality has felt questionable. Take this journal entry for example–it feels two dimensional, flat, and colorless. Much of what I’ve written has felt that way.

But it has to start somewhere.

I’ve written a few diffferent approaches to a conceptual “Chapter 1” of what this could be if it were to ever become a book.

—

I should make a note that the work that’s going on at this hostel is incredible. There is space outside the shared common bunks for several practitioners to take up residence and provide service. This morning I attended a sound bowl guided meditation with Jes and it was incredibly beautiful. Reminded me of the mediations that I used to attend back in Flagstaff. It also reminded me how far I’ve drifted from my meditation routine while on trail. On trail it’s always about forward progress and it can become easy to lose track of the importance of “be here now.”

The energy of the shared space in the hostel has made writing difficult, but I’ve done what I can with the time that I have. I won’t get down on myself for not trying. And even starting out with a shitty draft is a starting place.

Tonight the hostel is having pizza for dinner.

My plan is to go back to trail tomorrow in spite of the heat going on for another day or so. As such, tomorrow could be hell.

Wormwood.