Summitversary!

Today is my summitversary! One year ago I stood on top of Katahdin! While it marks the last mountain of a 2185 mile journey, it also marks the first day of a new way of life for me. One can't be out in nature for six months and expect not to change. Yes, I saw a lot of amazing views. I was surrounded by incredible beauty non stop. Even while in "the green tunnel" (a term referring to hiking for miles and miles under the canopy of trees with no wide open views), but it wasn't just the beauty of the landscape around me! The people I met were so beautiful! It seems that on the trail away from society everyone was more sincere, more honest, more open and intimate, almost like their true nature was coming out and it was for the better. But that doesn't explain all those Trail Angels! They amazed me the most! I had read about trail magic before hiking but to experience the totally unexpected kindness and generosity of so many people is still to this day astounding! Strangers gave me food, drinks, and rides! People gave me their numbers in case I needed help up the trail, they offered to come and find me. One guy (stranger at the time, friend now) hiked steak and wine up a mountain and fed us at the end of a day's climb, another (section hiker, now friend) gave me his iPhone when my phone died so I could continue my journal and take pictures and be able to call home. Total strangers invited us into their homes to shower, do laundry and sleep in a bed for a night. Sometimes they weren't total strangers (well they were but) they were a friend of a friend who lived along the trail and had offered a meal and a night in town and were waiting at the trailhead to take us home with them. Another time during a week of extreme hot weather a section hiker I had met months earlier (and now a dear friend) invited us to stay with him and insisted we stay the duration of the heat wave. You might say to yourself, he met you earlier on the trail and knew you were ok and it's pretty easy to make room for a person. There were four of us some whom he'd never met! We were smelly, dirty, non deodorant using people plus my golden retriever who sheds everywhere! Can you imagine inviting us into your home for as long as we wanted and leaving to go to work while a bunch of hikers are in your home? Can you imagine telling your spouse that you were inviting a bunch  of strangers home!  Yet that's exactly what happened! Time and time again I was given so much kindness and love. So much generosity! I met Trail Angels who year after year would set up camp near the trail and feed all the hikers who passed by for a week or two. They brought in fresh food daily. Think about that for a second. Think about the cost. Think about the time spent. What do they gain? There are actually Trail Angels who with their vehicle drive from trail town to trail town up and down the trail helping people! Isn't that amazing! I'm not trying to brag about the free stuff at all. I'm trying to point out the many amazing people there are in this world! There are people who go around helping other people all the time! There are still in this day and age,  people out there who see a person in need and just help them immediately! There are people who use up their time off work (vacation time) to search out people who need fed and spend their own money to feed them! How could someone experience all of this and not change? I'm not saying that I'm a better person now, I hope I but definitely my perspective has changed. I want to see beauty everyday! I want to see beautiful people everyday! And I want to be a beautiful person! Thank you everyone who helped me along the way!

I feel so free out on a trail! Yesterday I was excited to get to town, have a shower and enjoy a good meal but today I am just as excited to be back on the trail! It's so peaceful here and for se reason I feel like this is where I belong! It's hard to describe how right this feels just to be out here enjoying nature.

Roots!

“A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.” -Thoreau

It's funny how much freer I feel out here away from ally stuff! In fact, the lighter my pack gets the happier I am.

On top of the world!

Today was an absolutely perfect hiking day! Al dropped us off at the trail head and we started up. The up wasn't that bad, it was pretty gradual and there were so many different mushrooms and everything was so mossy! It was gorgeous! Whenever we were out of breath, we stopped for a break. We had many, many breaks today! By the time we got to the last hill, we were exhausted but again everything was so beautiful! The Green Mountain Club has done an excellent job at not only maintaining the trail but adding beautiful features. We hiked up a moss covered rock staircase and soon we were at a stream where we loaded up on water before bypassing the shelter and heading straight for the fire tower. There were several other hammockers set up here and we decided to join them. Once set up we headed up the tower and after several pictures came down to eat. It's pretty windy here but I knew that there wouldn't be many opportunities to sleep up this high. I'm already in my hammock and Melkie is about to join me. Good night world!

Robert Frost

"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference."

"And miles to go before I sleep ."

We let a threat of a thunderstorm scare us off the trail for a day so we made the best of it sight seeing. We even found Robert Feost's gravesite.

Incredible Beauty!

I have been struggling on the trail. I'm out of breath, all sweaty and can't believe how slow I am compared to what I was capable of last year. It sounds like I'm having a miserable time, but that's not true! I love being on the woods! Everything around me is so beautiful! The trees with their funky shapes and moss covered roots and the different mushrooms growing everywhere make me feel like I'm in and enchanted forest. And that keeps me  happy and looking forward to whatever I can find over the next hill.