from Kristen in Frostburg: "Such Stuff as Dreams are Made On, Rounded With A Little Sleep

Part of me wanted to be out hiking today, but that will come soon enough.
Sky pouring rain, and rainfall stopped, air cold, then warm, and turned cold again. Looks like hiking season to me.

My last full day in Western Maryland started at the doctor's to get my papers filled out for autumn plans in the Smokies, the remainder spent with big screen photos, trail stories, and a 2005 thru-hiker, excitement snowballing all the while. Not a bad way to spend a rainy February morning just days prior Springer Mountain.

It's almost as though my departure began from there, taking the scenic route to see Lindsay, and then Lindsay's parents. While goodbyes have a distinct bitter-sweet element, I have an affinity for such an element and find them irreplacable.

Afternoon thus drifted into evening, and now evening closes on the mountainside. My first few days of trail food packed with the data grids and final additions for take-off. Car cleaned, needing only a change of motor oil in the morning. Stretching to music tonight, as the former is my only resolution for the trip, and the latter what I anticipate missing the most. But already I feel days taking on a natural rise and fall in circadian rhythm, and this is undenyably the more enticing.

from Kristen in Frostburg: "Full Circle"

KG: "Did we all look this young when we started?!"
Sharon: "Yeah... Especially you."

Tuesday night found me at Garrett College for an Adventuresports Institute Colloquium, a vaguely surreal event, given the circumstances. It was like stepping back in time to a well known, yet entirely unknown world. My mind awash in the happenings of a decade.

Seven years ago, early October, half a semester shy of my Bachelor’s at Frostburg, I had no idea what specifically I wanted to do with my life. At the moment I was transferring credits backward for a long sought after Associate’s from Garrett, and out at the Wisp Ski Resort to secure my final co-curricular credit at a presentation by a pair of thru-hikers. I honestly can’t recollect how much or where I acquired any knowledge of the A.T. previous to that. But I left thinking something along the lines of- Whatever else I do after, I was made to do this, and when I grow up I want to be a thru-hiker on the A.T. ...It’s been my undying and irrefutable passion ever since. For reasons unknown even to me. But there it stands. And I suppose I am a grown-up now.

Snowy, icey darkness mixed with the glow of the Wisp, my Bio 101 lecture hall in the corner of Con-Ed, one former Frostburg classmate sitting directly in-front of me, connected half a lifetime ago to the present, and I was now hearing a tale of the P.C.T. from a former A.T. thru-hiker. While the P.C.T. hasn’t quite riveted me like the A.T. did, it’s piqued my interest most assuredly, and the Triple Crown of Long-Distance Hiking is all the more up for consideration. But let’s bag the A.T. first, before I get ahead of myself.

from Kristen in Frostburg: "Unexplained Absence"

Because this is about Thru-Hiking - not about blindsiding by my wreck of a personal life, not about emotional trauma, not about a mad scramble to reconfigure my personal affairs in record time - you wont be getting the rationale' here for why I haven't written anything in a whole month, 2 weeks before my departure no less.

I'm skipping the details. It was bad enough the first time. (and no matter how bad life gets, it can always get worse). In short, I'm all the more eager to go.

I will, however, say thanks to Minneapolis and Kansas City for a much needed shot in the arm. (To the literalist: this references resident friends. Pardon the artistic license.)

And, yes... it's just 2 WEEKS AWAY!!