The Time Thing

I forgot, in my hurried, time-limited internet access musing, yesterday, to state what may or may not be obvious at this time: we have made it into Virginia by April 23rd. I wanted to tentatively revamp the tentative schedule... making the projected dates evermore inaccurate. But I don't know, time seems so relative out here anyways. I cannot believe we have been out here for 6 weeks already. Simultaneously, though, I miss my friends and coffee and music and books, and/or sitting with all four together in one (relatively confined) space in a way that feels like years have passed. Like I said yesterday, the Trail is funny like that. As I sit here, I relish the opportunities to drink coffee and sit in the sun, and shower, and eat food that I chose for taste rather than shelf-life and weight. But I also feel the itch to walk. Today feels like summer, and the lazy nature of the Zero Day reminds me of sitting out on a bench in Brookline, reading and people-watching. My brother is napping inside the hostel ('The Place' in Damascus). My friend Wags is sitting on the porch reading in an Adirondack chair. Yesterday I sat under a tree and listened to a trail friend who is carrying a fiddle on her pack. I didn't realize how much I missed grass until I sat down in it and ran my fingers over the blades. Nor did I realize how much I missed walking around barefoot until we camped on a bald a few nights ago. We all marvel at how little it takes to bring smiles to our faces. A piece of fruit? ::grin:: Potable water? ::grin:: A familiar song playing overhead in the grocery store? ::mega grin:: Drunk dials from the CC passing the phone around in a circle while they're all together at home? ::raucous laughter:: But though we have given up much, we are gaining much also, of course.

So, for:
the Virginia quarter, incl. Shenandoah National Park:
Damascus, VA: April 23-25
Troutdale, VA: April 29ish
Pearisburg, VA: May 7-8ish
Glasgow, VA: May 17ish

p.s. those were all guesses.

And tomorrow morning, we shall plunge back into the Virginia woods, and remain there for a long, long time. May they be sunny. And rolling.
Peace, friends.

Barefoot on the bald, a.k.a. yay, grass!

Entering: The Virginia Quarter

Salutations, friends and lovers.

Today finds us at a public library computer in Damascus, Virginia.
Vital stats: 463 miles hiked, 2 more days of snow (but only dustings :)), 3 deer, 3 bears, many friends, and one amazing discovery that Pop Tarts makes a Hot Fudge Sundae variety. I can identify 4 different bird calls thanks to my friend Gangsta (former UGA wildlife major with an M.S. from the Forestry school), and I am currently winning the Worst (Best?) Trekking Pole Strap Tan Line contest. Boo ya. Stats on my mind: off the charts. As I have said, the internal ups & downs mirror the external ones.

Pat (trail name: Saint) and I are still traveling in our pack of 5 (Wags, Gangsta, Hermes), plus we picked up Rusticus. I heard a rumor that we're being called The Brady Bunch, due to our well-balanced gender mix and numbers. This news led to 4 days of my having the Brady Bunch theme song stuck in my head. I really miss real music. I did play guitar for about half an hour, at an amazing Hostel in Hot Springs that featured a music room. Did I write about that already? Meh. I was extraordinarily rusty though, and couldn't remember some of the chords to the songs I wanted to play. It was depressing. But also glorious.

On clear nights where we camp away from shelters, we build a fire and sit around it well into the hiker night (i.e. until 10pm). We have taken to a question-answer session that circles around the fire as each person responds. The depth and honesty with which everyone speaks has made these some of my favorite times on the trail. We have bonded so quickly out here.

I have spent entire days walking with one member of our party, talking. I have also spent entire days by myself, in thought. I find that the balance between the two takes my mind out to wander, and then back to converse. I spent days talking to Gangsta about religion and love, talking to Wags about futures, talking to Hermes about philosophy and religion and their intersection. And then, there are the other times when we're all together and we revert to a pre-adolescent humor because so much of our time is spent concerning ourself with our own bodies. The trail is funny like that.

It's gorgeous today, and I'm glad for the rest.

I hope you are all well.

Lots of love!
<3 Bee/WindUp

Music room at Elmer's, Hot Springs, NC:

Apocalyptica Continues

Hi loves. This one is to be short and sweet, for it is lunch time, and I and my friends are currently starring in the Real-Life version of the Hungry Hungry Hippos board game.

It may seem unusual that I have so soon again been graced with internet usage. Let me explain how this came about. We covered the last 37 miles in two long, long days. Why the push to insanity? Well friends, the truth of the matter is that getting caught in a snow storm picks up your pace VERY quickly. It snowed 7-10 inches in the mountains of North Carolina. We all traded near-death experiences after coming over Max Patch. I don't have the opportunity to paint the full picture right now, but suffice it to say that it was the first time I have been really scared on the trail. Picture: horror stories on Everest, insert wind, zero visibility, lost footprints, no trail, etc etc etc. That night thirteen of us piled on top of each other in a shelter and woke up covered in snow. We hiked in a giant expedition-like pack the next day, trying to find the white blazes.

But, like so many previous times already on this trip, it all turned out alright. So, here we are in Hot Springs, NC, having hiked 271 miles. I had a latte for the first time in a month, and spent an hour talking to Sunny, Iron Horse Cafe proprietress and AT alumnus ('02). Wonderful person. And, of course, now that we're all safe in town, the sun has come out. Ha.

I hope you are all so well! Lots of love.
<3 Bee/WindUp p.s. my sincerest apologies to Bernie, who I called 'Barry' in my last post. Thank you, thank you, thank you again to you and Beth for your generosity and well-wishes! p.p.s. And thanks to Steve and Chelle for my postcard :)

Photo: Stringing up rainflies to keep the snow from blowing into the shelter...FAIL. We woke up covered in snow from the knees down, and I had to run laps back and forth from the privy to get my legs working again.





Photo: Everyone likes to play in the snow... for an hour. Have you ever stayed out in it for 2 1/2 days? Not as much fun. Still very pretty, though.

Greetings from Gatlinburg!

Friends!

So much has happened since we left that it overwhelms me to even consider how to process it all. I will start with the logistics, I suppose. Today marks the 20th day of this fantastic voyage. We have covered 204.7 miles of the AT, and are currently situated in the rather odd Vegas-meets-Disneyworld-meets-honkytonk town of Gatlinburg, Tennessee. In the hiking world, we have traveled over half of the way through Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The wealth of each day spent on the trail makes it nearly impossible to give any sort of play-by-play. I feel like I'm trapped inside Joyce's Ulysses...if I try to match words to all the thoughts and experiences and emotions of a day, I will end up creating an 800-page novel that might contain some fantastic insight, but would mostly just make for an exasperating read. I shall spare you.

The trail, like my mood and the condition of my body along it, has seen many peaks and many valleys. The unseasonably challenging (read: practically Apocalyptic) weather has forced everyone to weigh his or her motives early on. Our "zero day" in town today, for example, came as a result of T-storm and tornado warnings covering most of the Smokies. We have seen light snow, winds that have uprooted trees (and strewn my socks about a shelter site), and nights as low as 25F. I had little sleep the first ten nights, instead spending them shivering in my sleeping bag. It has rained for part or all of eight of the last nine days.

But moods change like weather out here. I have discovered what a Child of the Sun I am, and what a difference being clean and dry makes. One spectacular mountain view and one sunset have acted as Reset buttons. Just yesterday, the pendulum swung so dramatically. We summited Clingman's Dome, which, at 6,643 feet, marks the trail's highest point. Deprived of any view (again), due to freezing rain and wind (again), we slugged tired legs over slippery rocks and through four inches of mud (again). Yet, eight miles later, when we descended to Newfound Gap, the trailhead at the NC/TN border, three groups of 'Trail Angels' greeted us. I was handed a Fudge Round and some trail mix (thank you Clumsy!), and a Budweiser (thank you Red Dog!). A Florida couple on vacation celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary, Beth and Barry, volunteered to give six of us a ride down the winding path thirteen miles out of the mountains to Gatlinburg. We laughed in the truck bed, with warm, low-altitude air whipping back our hair. We debated about how much money to offer them for their help. They graciously drove us to a motel, and, far from accepting our donation, demanded that we all take $20 bills. When we refused, Beth tossed them into the bed of the truck, saying that they dreamt of hiking the AT, and relished the opportunity to help us fulfill our own dreams. Their generosity, and the generosity of the others at Newfound Gap, had us all feeling unbelievably high. The morale swing from cold, cloudy Clingman's Dome to Barry and Beth's pickup truck could not have been larger. Yesterday represents only one example of the enormous range of emotions that we encounter almost daily on the trail. I think that when we have finished this, years will pass before I can completely understand the multitudes contained in this period.

We have met so many wonderful people on this expedition. Hikers form instant families, with only a pack and a plethora of miles as the ties that bind us. So many have set out on this pilgrimage-- I have already met around fifty myself. Pat and I have spent many days traveling in a group of five, with a Michigan native (here via Oregon) officially named 'Alias' and unofficially named 'Wags,' a Connecticut guy here from Montana, which we have deemed 'Hermes' for his impressive pace, and a Georgia Peach named 'Gangsta.' I have other friends, also, in front and behind us. These are good people and we have had innumerable laughs around campfires and late-night giggles and stories in shelters. Recurring friendly faces make a sort of traveling home where our nomadic lifestyle would otherwise lack one.

Time dangles here, and though each day teems with emotional, physical, mental and objective/temporal events, I do at times keenly feel the disconnect from my previous life. I have had (late) news of the death of a friend's father, and also the expectation of my cousin's second child. I have had thoughts of the homecoming of one best friend, and another best friend that I had hoped would be celebrating a homecoming with me. I am absolutely where I want to be, but it can be difficult to be away during such events. I have traded Facebook for sporadic radio weather reports, texts for bear sightings (yes, we saw some... yikes!) and annoying shelter mice, sushi dinners for Snickers bars, and working for walking. There are pluses and minuses to all these.

My friend Nevena/'Gansta' said on the phone last night, "Every day my resolve to get to Katahdin gets stronger and stronger." One of the gentlemen doing trail magic at Newfound Gap told us yesterday, "Never give up." A book I read before we left reminded me to never quit on a rainy day. Beth and Barry generously contributed to our opportunity to "live the dream." I have had so many smiles, but on difficult days, I think of these nuggets of wisdom, and I think of all of you. Thoughts of my friends have taken me over several 3,000-foot climbs, and many murky puddles. I am not there with you, but you're here with me. Peace and much much love, friends. Happy Trails.

<3 "WindUp"

Schedule!? I'm on my own time!

This blog is a not-so-sly reference to a work discussing Time as the temporality of Being; as an active, cumulative, ever-present constant that accompanies it. However, given that, for better or for worse, someone once decided to map out days and weeks and hours in equal segments for the sake of convenience, it makes sense that quite a few people have been asking where we expect to be and when. So friends! In short, I am not sure. I have outlined a sort of tentative schedule, but so many factors will determine our pace that it seems silly to even pretend that I can guess where we'll find ourselves in a month's time. Included among these factors are weather, injury, illness, general lollygagging including but not limited to: Sarah is taking too many pictures, Sarah wants to stop and write something down every ten seconds, Pat is running low on cash and has started a poker game with some poor unsuspecting and soon-to-be-broke hikers, etc. etc. etc. I could be back on my couch in a month for all I know, ha. So, I will present the Possible First Half (question mark), according to a conservative estimate. By 'conservative estimate' I mean that I tried to guess acccording to a slow-to-normal pace. So, particularly in the later Virginian parts of this, we may be [quote] ahead of schedule [unquote]. So, if you're planning on sending something/meeting us, the best option would be to call my phone and leave a message. Bear in mind (Bears...oh my.) that I won't be able to check messages until I actually can call my voicemail in a town, so shoot for way early, please, thank you. Now then.

We are starting in Blue Ridge, Georgia, at Springer Mountain. My good friend and general All-star of Life, the lovely and talented Miss Homer, has agreed to house us and transport us to the mountain, which is approximately 2 hours from Atlanta. I am eternally grateful. And after that we'll just be...you know...walking. Northward. Here are my guesstimations:

Georgia to North Carolina
Springer Mountain: March 15. RIP Caesar. Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad.
Franklin, NC: March 25ish
Fontana Dam, NC: March 28ish
Great Smoky Mountains & NC/TN Border
Gatlinburg, TN: April 2-3ish
Hot Springs, NC: April 9ish
Erwin, TN: April 15ish
the Virginia quarter, incl. Shenandoah National Park
Damascus, VA: April 25-27ish
Troutdale, VA: May 1ish
Pearisburg, VA: May 10-11ish
Glasgow, VA: May 25ish
Waynesboro, VA: June 1-2ish
[bit of a stretch w/ no P.O. stops, though we'll be by Front Royal, VA in here]
The Unoffical Halfway Point and A.T. Conservancy headquarters
Harpers Ferry, WV: June 15-17ish

And thus concludes the psychological first half. Although, due to constant re-routing and lengthening and battles with landowners and conservation efforts, etc., the actual halfway point is about 3 miles south of Rt.233 in Pennsylvania. But you celebrate in West Virginia I guess. Meh.

Alright, I won't go beyond that- I'm too superstitious.

I hope you are healthy and well, dears.
Also thank you thank you thank you to my beautiful friends for the dinners and drinks and goodies. Undying love showerings to: Teenie, MK, James, Dan, Moon, Janine, Alysha, and K. Rems. And Mom and Dad. Thank you for my extra 7 unplanned pounds to carry... not in my pack. Hahaha. But more importantly, thank you for the conversation and the connection. It means a lot to me. You all are my heart.


2 days until departure for Atlanta. Apparently it's going to rain all next week. Oh well... welcome aboard, I guess.
I have been spending inordinate amounts of time with my guitar, which I will miss dearly. And though I always spend inordinate amounts of time with my books, I have been doing that too.

And I am so nervous that I am finding it difficult to swallow.

Related, only not.

I was thinking, today, about pieces I will miss from my life as it is now. I was looking at things. And I was working on a project. And I was reading Plato. And in this stewing jambalaya of life and thoughts and forms and objects and things and images and past and present and future and layers and dimensions and space and threads and coincidences, in a rapid succession of realizations, this photograph was born.



So, though it does not seem much related to the ostensible subject of this blog, which (until it is not) is presently hiking, it is actually closely related to the ultimate subject, namely, myself and my thoughts and whatever/wherever they come from and lead to. And you. The trail, you see, is long, meandrous and often labyrinthine, friends.

When I return, whether in three weeks or six months, and decide to explore a penniless life of expression, this will all make sense. Or it won’t. Maybe I will remake this photo with better lighting, alignment, whatever. But that might defeat the purpose. Maybe I will come back and launch a career as a stand-up comic specializing in philosophical self-reflexive humor. But then, only I will think my jokes are funny.

Peace babies.

Contact Deportivo

Hello dearests.

Here are many(!) points of interest regarding contact information. You will have to bear with me, as until recently I did not think I would be relegated to the “primary planner” role on this excursion. However, considering that I do not really believe in plans, but instead favor loose outlining, we are managing alright. In related non-technical news, there is a thought I had the other day tacked on at the end of this very long post. Those thoughts are more my style anyways. This planning business just makes the left half of my brain hurt. It too requires pre-hike conditioning, apparently. Grand.

Now then.

#1: You can always leave me voicemails, which I will check when I reach town(s). Let me know if you don’t have/would like the number.

#2: I have compiled a list of post offices that we will probably be stopping at, or ones that we will be very close to in our travels without straying too far out of the way (multitudinous extra miles = not desirable.) Should you wish to send some love my way (or Pat‘s way!), it can best be addressed as follows:

Sarah Wetherbee
c/o General Delivery
[Town Name, Zip Code]

…Also, best to write “Hold for AT Thru-hiker” somewhere off to the side. They will understand. They do this a lot. The magical world of General Delivery allows one to receive mail without actually having a local address or P.O. Box: a spectacular practice for a roving lifestyle. Also #2: try to let me know if you ship something along, so we make sure to grab it.

We will be stopping at or near the post offices of:
Franklin, NC 28734
Fontana Dam, NC 28733
Gatlinburg, TN*
*c/o The Happy Hiker, 453 Brookside Village Way, Gatlinburg, TN 37738 [don’t write ‘General Delivery’ if you’re sending something here… it won’t leave the post office.]
Hot Springs, NC 28743
Damascus, VA 24236
Troutdale, VA 24378
Pearisburg, VA 24134
Glasgow, VA 24555
Waynesboro, VA 22980
Harper’s Ferry, WV 25425
And, if you are a procrastinator, and/or you are optimistic that we’ll make it past the half-way point:
Duncannon, PA 17020
Port Clinton, PA 19549
Pawling, NY 12564
[here, if all my limbs are still intact, I will be taking a sweet vacation home in Boston] ...And then on to:
Hanover, NH 03755
Goreham, NH 03581
Rangeley, ME 04970
Monson, ME 04464
…And then on to Baxter State Park, via the “100-mile Wilderness” where there are no post offices. And hopefully Mount Katahdin.

My, it all looks so short in list form, no? Right.

So loves! If you’d like to send letters/cards/postcards, etc, that would be spectacular. Really. I mean this with the entirety of my heart: if you write, whatever you write, I will not think that it is weird. Please, I am the manifestation of weird and awkward. I would love and appreciate the gesture. I am undertaking this project for myself, but am not immune to loneliness, of course. The lengthy severance from loved ones will be particularly difficult. My personality is normally comprised of equal parts Loner and Socializer. The shift away from this balance might be the challenge that most intimidates me. I will miss my friends dearly.

If you are feeling especially motivated and could tackle an entire package, we could use things like: crush-resistant snacks, small bottles of Dr. Bronner’s, drink mixes, travel-sized contact solution, candy bars, travel-sized toothpaste, postage stamps, updates on events of interest, ziplock bags, you (see #4), brownies that cannot possibly have any more chocolate stuffed into them, general loving including rainbows, kitties, puppies, ponies, etc.

If you have way too much time on your hands and would like to attempt a project in food dehydration, you might be my new best friend. Details here: http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/dry.html. These are the foods that we carry… no water = less weight. We re-hydrate them with the backpacking stove. Basically, it’s dinner: with all the moisture sucked out. Foods can be dehydrated in an oven on the lowest setting also, sans dehydrator.

#3) If you would like a postcard, please make sure I have your address before I go!

#4) And if you would like to send yourself!:
If you are the Hiking & Camping type: come trek for a few days. Although, fair warning- this will require quite a bit of equipment if you do not already have it.
If you’re the Dinner & Drinks type: I will make you a deal-- you come take us off the trail, and we will amaze you with a display of consumption the likes if which you have never seen. It is called “hiker hunger.” (i.e. Town Dinners: Option 1- Right half of menu. Option 2- Left half of menu.)

For any visit, and/or general stalking, these are helpful websites:
This one is an overall Google Map-ish look at the A.T., with reference to roads, state lines, etc.
This one will tell you the nearest road crossing from any gap on the trail. (Gap = low spot in a ridge, like a valley or where a river cuts, through, etc.) In the “AT Road” box, make a selection (they are listed South to North, which is our intended direction). It also has maps, etc, by state.
This one lists the nearest parking areas to the A.T., by state.
If you are bored at work, and/or you have actual interest in these things, here is a PDF with some general information about the AT. Also this site has just about everything, and has been tremendously helpful to me throughout my preparations. It has prep stuff, maps, tips, data & numbers, discussion boards, blogs, links, pictures-- things of that nature.

And, now, having waded through (or gingerly skimmed over), all of the above- ::cue theme music:: you have arrived at my little Nugget of the Day! I tumbled over this while traipsing through the Blue Hills Reservation, as I am wont to do when residual winter weather prohibits hiking more challenging for altitude gain, if not for distance:

When climbing, the common drops away. The only bits of settlement visible from atop a mountain are the tributes to something more- steeples on churches built in homage to the maker; water towers storing the elixir of life. In reverence, we build skyward; we look skyward. They say ‘the trail is life.’ On it, one has the opportunity to elevate oneself.

Happy trails, friends.

Peace and Much Love!
Bee