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.
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