TRAIL DAY 22
Sun, Mar 13, 2016 We all knew we had a significant climb leaving the NOC. As I write, my bones wish they were beginning a climb – heading somewhere, around a bend to a view unknown, over terrain unknown, muscles straining against gravity to gain the summit:
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark or even eagle flew
Higher – take me higher. Lo, there is no summit where my heart travels but it swells reaching beyond reach. Would that I were ascending some mountain this clear, sunlit day.
I packed up and headed for a last breakfast at the restaurant on the water, Theo by my side with occasional recognition – of him, not me. All is well, peaceful, into a new day.
Nourished and now ready. Packs on, we crossed over the bridge one more time into our future leaving another iconic stop behind. Mountain Crossing and NOC gone, each receding step by step into a more and more distant past.
It wasn’t clear where the trail into the woods for the long climb began. Surely it was across the tracks but where? Straight ahead? Up the road past the lodging? Upstream to the left? Not far in that direction, the trail turned off away from civilization, into the wild – the unknown. We were urged onward by an affinity with the elements of which we are made. “Come.” And we went – inward and upward, higher and higher.
Clouds hung low in the sky and the ground was wet. Pack cover was in place. Closed in, I focused downward on Mother Nature’s offerings for the day. I think I was fortunate to be the oldest hiker and, I guess, the slowest. I saw so much, appreciated so much – marveled at what you’d step on in the rush of life. I would swivel on my heel to avoid an ant I saw at the last minute. I never knowingly stepped on or intentionally killed any living creature, no matter its size – save biting insects.
Not only do we have the macrocosm to enjoy together but under foot and all around there is a microcosm of wonders beyond our wildest imaginings. The midpoint in the physical universe from subatomic to the edge of space is California. If all the space between the atoms in the Empire State Building was removed, the result would be a mass the size of a small sugar cube. A scientist could spend his life studying one square inch of natural terrain. Moving infinitesimally through the universe, with each step along the trail, we passed a tiny miniverse and we would take 5,000,000 steps to the finish.
Passing endless miracles step by step, I arrived at a view over the endless mountains of Georgia. At 5:15 p.m. Journeyman caught up with me with only .1 miles to go to the shelter. We exchanged comments about the long climb we had done and he moved on ahead, his large, hand-carved trekking pole in his right hand.
How do I know such detail? Pictures. After countless deletions, there are still over 20,000 pictures organized chronologically and copied into folders by topic: Angels; Beauty-Symmetry; Blazes-signs; Foliage; Frost-snow; Gear-Supplies; Geology; Hazards; Hikers-and-packs; Hostels-motels-etc; Humor; Maintenance; Miscellaneous; Monuments-ruins; People-not-hikers; Shelters-campsites; Sojo; States; Theo; Trail; Trees; Walls; Water; Weather; Wildlife.
Other folders contain copies for talks of varying lengths – and I hope to use these many, many times. But that’s down the trail. . . .
I should add before I move on that my camera for all of the trail was my Samsung Galaxy 6 phone or my Samsung S2 tablet when the phone was dead. The phone has 16 megapixels and excellent color. Zooming in before shooting pixilates the photo while the non-zoomed photo with 16 megapixels provides incredible quality to a significant degree of zoom on viewing.
O.K. Boots on the ground. Just a short trek to the shelter and a good night’s sleep. Journeyman was already there and so was Lassie. He was having some issues with his leg and had to rub and stretch his calf. He would make tracks down the way, however, and I’d lose him and then our paths would cross again after he’d taken some time off the trail. He had a thick, red beard and was friendly. He carried a nylon water bucket that was handy. I used a plastic bag for apples from Lancaster’s famous farmers’ market. Including the fellow who set up his tent behind the shelter, it was just the four of us that night.
Day #22 NOC > Sassafras Gap Shelter 6.7 miles