Two Weeks Notice

Not every day on the trail is a good day. In fact, more often than not you find yourself tragically fallen out of love with the adventure, loathing the persistent pains, the distinct hiker aroma, the 30 pound beast of a pack on your back that manages to rub your hips raw and the shifting of weight that threatens to catapult you from craggy ridges, the rain. Given the multitude of forces working against you (and I didn't even mention the mental anguish of being away from friends and loved ones for months at a time) it is easy to see why only a tiny fraction of those who begin the trail actually wind up finishing. Conversely, it is also these circumstances (as Red Knees and I discussed yesterday), that help you understand how religions were created, especially those revolving strongly around nature. We daily pray to the Trail Gods and Mother Nature to take care of us, to stop the rain (at least while we struggle over boulder fields), for a cool breeze after a long climb and so forth. 

Given the forces stacked against you, it's a wonder that even more people don't throw in the towel. Yesterday was a difficult day for me. After a lovely breakfast of fresh fruit and pastries at Denise's we gathered our things and piled into her car to be dropped off back at the trail with the certainty that rain was in our future for the next five days. The walk was fairly easy and quick (with the exception of some vertical rock climbs) but by about 5 miles in I was over it. I didn't want to walk, I didn't want to be on the trail, constantly straining my ears for the sound of thunder in the distance.

As we sat down for a snack I told 2pac and Red Knees how I was feeling. They understood and, to my relief, had felt that way - if not presently then at least recently. 2pac framed the situation well for me and gave me a rule to live by (though I think originators credit belongs to Goatman. Come back!):

At work, you give your two weeks notice, so you should give the trail the same courtesy. On the first day you want to go home, start the counting. If, every day, you feel the same for two weeks, then you can call it quits. 

This rule (along with "never quit on a bad day") made a lot of sense to me and thinking about it brightened the rest of my hike, despite the dark clouds that rolled in and pelted us with rain. 

We made it down into Wind Gap, PA by just after 5:00pm and managed to get a ride into town to be dropped off at the Beer Stein, a restaurant and bar with a large backyard that allows hikers to camp for free. We enjoyed a great dinner there and sat out on the porch relaxing until after the sun had set at which point we retreated to our tents with the warning of severe thunderstorms in our future.

On the trail you spend an incredible amount of time with those people that you are hiking with and, as with any relationship, that can take its toll. Beetlejuice and I had to have a bit of a come to Jesus conversation that evening as we had been getting on each others last nerves. I will always call him my friend though I don't know if we will continue to hike together moving forward. It is sad but the trail, like all of life, can't be shielded from social difficulties.

After some violent storms that night (all I could think was: WHY are we sleeping in a field?!), we woke up to a steady drizzle the following (yesterday) morning. Violet, whom I have known since Georgia but only saw again up in Virginia and have run into fairly consistently since, also stayed at the Beer Stein but opted, due to the weather, to yellow blaze up to Delaware Water Gap to say goodbye to Pennsylvania and the rocks once and for all. 

One amazing thing that the Beer Stein allows hikers to do is use their food and kitchen to prepare breakfast for themselves in the morning. I, predictably, went into chef mode and we whipped up a scramble/hash with blue potatoes, red and green bell peppers, red onions, jalapeños and eggs, topped with some homemade guacamole. It was delicious. 

We got a ride back up to the trail with an adorable red head with hair like the girl from the movie Brave and all sorts of face piercings. At the trail head I paused, again not feeling like walking, but decided just to put my headphones in and push forward. 

The rain was brutal for most of the day and when it wasn't raining it was misting and foggy so there was no chance to dry out in the slightest. We finally walked into Delaware Water Gap (and out of the Pennsylvania mountains) at 5:30pm and made our way to the free hostel down the road. Showered and with bellies full of pretty incredible pizza, we fell asleep right at hiker midnight (9:00pm). 

Today we hike officially into our next state, New Jersey, for a quick 70 miles in the state before on to New York. The states are smaller from here on out and I expect they will begin to fly by. Under 900 miles to Katahdin and I think I have rescinded my 2 week notice.