Bill Murray is hiking the AT. Well, not the actual Bill Murray. But apparently there’s a guy who looks just like him. He’s already a trail celebrity. People keep asking us if we’ve seen him and last night after I was all curled up and cozy in my sleeping bag, I heard a voice join all the others around the campfire. Upon seeing who it was, they all shouted, “Bill Murray!” I just deflated. Dang it! I missed Bill Murray. Oh well, it’ll have to wait for another day. Fun fact: Bill Murray works for Vitamix.
It stormed again last night. There was some lightning and thunder, but mostly rain and wind. Much of it was cut down for us because we were camping under the Rhododendron trees. One guy we met on the trail today had to hold his tent up for 45 minutes in the wind because he uses a frameless tent and 2 of his stakes flew out. Sputnik didn’t sleep well, Ben and I did. I actually got the best night of sleep yet on the trail. I still woke up regularly. But I went to bed at 7:30p and didn’t end up getting up until 8a. It was glorious.
We had a late start because it was still raining at 7a. Today’s hike was again a really nice, easy hike. Only 12 miles. There was one part that was a bit brutal, but it was so much fun that I didn’t mind the extremely steep incline. We hiked over a lot of rocky areas today. The trail was often muddy and wet. Poor Sputnik finally gave up trying to keep his feet dry, his feet were plopping in the mud. Last night he showed us his sock liners, they had a large hole in the heel. Mine are fairing much better than his.
My favorite section today was on the way up to the fire tower. This was the first summit that our guidebook gave us an option to bypass, which we did not. I imagine it was because the .25 mile hike was extremely steep and rocky. You were climbing up big boulders. It was so much fun! I love those kinds of challenges.
Ben was excited for his first fire tower. He was especially excited to climb to the top for the “amazing views.” Funny thing I learned about my husband of almost 11 years – he can be afraid of heights. He got 3 of 5 flights of stairs up before he freaked out and had to stop. I think it was because it was windy and the fire tower was already on top of the mountain so you could see way down into the valley. I don’t blame him. I was nervous, but mostly because I was holding our camera without any sort of strap. We were disappointed when the top of the fire tower was locked so people couldn’t go in. I get it though.
I met a guy there who we’d seen earlier in the day. He was posting something on his phone. I assumed it was a photo from the fire tower. He had a New Testament Bible next to him so I asked what verse goes with today. I think it was Psalm 18 he quoted, “32It is God who arms me with strength and keeps my way secure. 33He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he causes me to stand on the heights.” Yes. Beautiful verses and totally appropriate as we just spent the day navigating up, down, and around boulders. It was a great day.
After a bit of a break there, we moved on for the day. Only .2 more miles down the trail and we hit the official 100 mile mark! Woo! Hoo! Only 2,090 to go! Ben figures we are about 5% done including the approach trail. Statistically at this point, 20-25% of those who started hiking the AT have already left. Not us, not yet.
It was all downhill from there… literally. It was an easy few miles. We made it to the shelter at 4p. Set up camp, ate dinner (chicken flavored ramen with a french onion soup mix added) and visited with other hikers.
We met a guy named “Quitter” from Kentucky. He’s named that because he started with a friend knowing he’d only be able to join for 30 days. After the 30, he’ll leave the trail. He asked our names and I told him, “I was Blisters, now I’m Ansel”. He then asked about my work and we started talking photo. He has a history with photography. He’s spent a lot of time in the darkroom (his daughter playing in the rotating door) and has done a lot with aerial photography, piecing the images together for different surveys/zoning items, etc. He also archived old work. Now his craft is virtual reality pieces, particularly cave focused work. It was really interesting talking to him. He’s basically an artist scientist. It sounds like he loves the science end of things and uses the art to make it available/tangible to people.
We had a great conversation. He took a short video interview of Ben and I (we are so awkward in front of the camera) and then showed Ben how to tie a certain knot. This particular knot was one Ben could never remember from Search and Rescue Academy with Civil Air Patrol. Our dinner and conversation at the shelter totally embodied the spirit of the trail. Strangers meeting, learning about each other, and asking deep personal questions with sincere interest in the answers. It’s a beautiful thing.
-ansel