Tuesday, June 26, 2007

A Perfect Zero

A Perfect Zero Day

Today Figgy and I were planning to get started again on the trail, but the day turned out differently than we had expected.

If we could point to one unexpected difficulty of our hike, it would be the committments we've been trying to keep along the way that influence our pace and timetable. Meeting with friends and family has been great, but we're realizing that lately we've been feeling like racehorses trying to stay on track.

That's okay for a while, but begins to be a burden when it interferes with how we might want to spend our day... that might mean not lingering at a beautiful spot, taking on bigger miles than the terrain would allow, or passing up a side trail to something worth seeing... In short, we felt how rigidly adhering to an itinerary (that we made up on the road to Georgia) defeats our ability to "Hike our own hike."

So today we mixed it up. We made fast friends with our hosts Walt and Pat and they welcomed us to stay another full day with them. And we said "Yes!"

Last night the bed felt so good, the food was plentiful and tasty, bathing 3 times was bliss, being with caring and knowledgable hosts was welcomed, zoning out with a few movies was a treat and staying off our feet was just plain refreshing.

Today it felt good to stock up with some extra emotional and physical reserves. Hooray for a perfect zero day.

1 comment:

  1. Congrats on your 900 miles!

    I have a few questions, maybe you can answer them sometime when you have a chance.

    How did you come to plan a hike on the AT? I mean did one of you want to do this more than the other, or did you both separately agree this was one of your life goals? Did you hike sections of the AT before this summer and did this help you prepare. Can you also tell us a little about your equipment and what you find useful.
    Last question, how can you eat so healthy on the trail. You must have behind the scenes helpers and have really planned ahead.
    OK, enough from me.
    Call me your biggest fan from upstate NY.
    Allison aka Lucky Charmz

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