From Kristen in Gatlinburg

I'm now in a quandry. Several in fact. There's Northern Miles, the glory of hiking and new-found friends calling me onward, while my body throws fits from the knee down, begging rest and attention lest further damage occur. There's so much to write about, to share with my time-tested friends who follow from afar, with so little access to publish such, and the recent discovery that inspite of shutting down Facebook and sharing the link here very selectively I am infact being stalked.

Of all places I didn't want to pull off the trail, Gatlinburg is it. I have the nice little story of Tree Thug catching up with me 15 miles East of here and combing the parking lot in search of a ride for me though. It happened to be a much more efficient method than thumbing in 36 degrees and strong winds at the intersection. It's kind of demoralizing that he was still in bed when I left the shelter 5 miles back, but kind of encouraging that he thinks I'll be well, and catching up in no time. And we reveled in the goodness of trail magic.

All that to say, I'm winging it. Plan out the window. (It's a very big window). Taking it one day at a time. Yesterday I traversed the highest point of the entire trail and with one more day of hiking, I'll be 1/10 of the way to my destination. Its quite the journey and I'm thankfully still in the game.