It’s hard to hike while you are crying. Today I had to once again say goodbye to my mom, grandpa, and sister. Lucky for me, it was a rainy morning and I got a few extra hours with them. They didn’t want to let us go out in inclement weather just as much as we didn’t want to get wet. After extra time in the motel room and breakfast at a cafe in Warwick, we were hitting the trail a little after noon. I took several rounds of hugs and kisses before I headed for the trail. A feeling of deja vu struck me as I turned to wave again. We had been here before just over four months ago when Jenny and my mom dropped us off in Georgia. This time I sat there until they drove away, waving until I couldn’t see them anymore (a tradition we’ve had since we were children). My heart broke. I kept trying to focus on how grateful I was for the few days I had with them rather than the fact that I will miss them for the next two months. Being away from family and loved ones has by far been the most difficult part of this trail. However, I know they are all cheering us on and that fuels me.
It was a cool day. The high may have broken 70 degrees – but I doubt it. The low is supposed to be mid 50’s. We were glad for the cool weather and wanted to take advantage of it by pushing our miles hard. We just couldn’t get ourselves motivated. We seemed to sluggishly mosey along. In actuality we had some hard terrain. The trail in New York has seemed more wild. We’ve had to be diligent about checking for white blazes (the trail markers). The trail designers have us going up and over as many boulder piles as possible.
Both Warthog and I slipped and fell today. His was on a steep muddy slope down. His foot kicked out from underneath him. Luckily, his pack took the majority of the impact and not his body. For me, I was climbing up some boulders, slipped and started falling off of them. It would have just been a short drop (maybe three feet to the ground), but I would have fallen into a space between boulders which could have been dangerous. Instead, there happened to be a log resting across the two boulders, like a bridge. My upper body hit that and I was suspended for a moment until I could get my feet underneath me. No harm done. Just a small scrape. However, it was the scariest fall I’ve had yet because of the potential for injury. It’s moments like those that I’m grateful for the army of people at home keeping us in their prayer. All it takes is a second for an injury to occur and all it takes is one injury to send a person off of the trail. As much as I miss family, I’m not ready to go home yet. Not until I’m at the top of Katahdin.
We took it easy today and called it early. It was either nine miles or thirteen in order to camp at water. Thirteen would get us into camp later than we wanted, so it had to be nine.
We are near a beaver pond. Our campsite is tucked up and away from the water. There’s room for more, but everyone else is across the water from us, maybe a few hundred feet. We could have camped with them, but I wanted to be quiet… to have time for my thoughts. Today just Warthog and I hiked together. Snow Monkey and Wonder Woman are behind us by twenty to thirty miles (depending on when they stopped for the night). For the next couple of days they will be playing catch up. It works to have a couple of days alone since this week is our anniversary. We of course miss our friends, but know they will join us quickly. For now, we are trying to decide if we’ll take a night off and go to dinner or celebrate on the trail. I kind of like the idea of celebrating in the woods. It’s probably the one time in our married life that we’ll be hiking a long trail like this. It seems a shame to waste the opportunity to be out here on such a special night.
-ansel