Trail Journal!!

06/06/2008

Last night was alright, except for herbert. The friendly mouse that decided to rip my toilet paper to shreds while i was watching the stars. I came back to a T.P massacre. It was everywhere. I scared herbert before he could finish the dastardly deed. He was brown and white and even though he looked innocent i saw past the cute smirk on his face saying, "who me?"

I started off on the trail making good time. I got to long creek falls at around 11:30. 5.1 miles from starting at 8:00 in the morning. The falls were beautiful. I took a swim in the cold water and found it very refreshing. I watched the majestic falls for about an hour then moved on to go to the hawk mountain shelter. It was up all the way, for 2.9 miles. Hard but enjoyable. I found a big oak tree with a big hole in it, like an owl hole. I peered up in it to see almost all the way up the tree. I didn't see any one but i'm not saying there couldn't be someone there. I also hit a big field on the way. It was huge and open, could of seen stars but i decided to finish to the shelter.

I came to the shelter and sat there for a while and had cheerios. Then i made pasta, ate it then sat around talking with the 12-14 people around the shelter. We sat by the fire and talked about random stuff. I then went to bed after seeing the stars.

White Magic Out

Trail Journal!!

Over the next couple blog entries I would like to share with you some of my trail journal entries that I made for the A.T.

06/05/2008

I started at my hiking at 6:00 this morning. It was nice and cool. After i finished breakfast i started hiking and immediately found the straight up climb to very difficult but enjoyable. I started up and up and up and up, for 8.8 miles straight up. very tiring. i saw one view on the way up, it was nice, mountains as far as the eye can see, and for me thats far.

I also saw Amicola falls which was refreshing, it bounced in every direction, falling to the ground in little diamond droplets. I saw a tree that had holes in that made a funny face and a creek at which i stopped at to wash my face with the cloth I am carrying. It was very cool and refreshing.

I continued my hiking and saw butterflies fighting, deer, and bugs..a lot of bugs, a great many bugs. So many bugs i wanted to take a flame-thrower and burn them all. I kept going and going up and up...I continued up until i arrived at the A.T. beginning. I decided to use the shelter that was .2 miles into the A.T. and will rest for tomorrow's journey. I ate stew for dinner on my grill and then hunkered down for a while. Then i looked at the stars for a while. Then went to bed.

White Magic Out

Ohh the things you learn from people on the A.T.

When I went to Georgia to hike the A.T I had one thing in mind, the long and arduous journey north. The people I met made me think a little more though. I met a man who looked like George Carlin, a woman that had just got divorced, a kid off on summer break like me, and a weird-hillbilly from the west who had no teeth and had grandchildren at the age of 55.

These people all had a story ranging from good to bad, and while we all sat around the campfire and exchanged stories, i realized how good my life has been. I realized where I could be, unmarried and with children and grandchildren, and where I might be, married and divorced, if I'm not careful. It made think that although they all had there different problems they all had one thing in common, the trail.

It was the one thing they all could turn to when things weren't going right. The one thing that truly got them away from it all. The trail helped them find peace and quite to sort out what was happening in their lives. It helped them find joy once again in the wonders of the mountains and the views of the sunsets. It helped them replace emotional pain with contact with strangers that were willing to just talk to them and hold a conversation and not judge them for past discretions.

This is why I love the A.T. It revitalizes the soul in a way not many other things can. It helps people who are on the edge of breaking down, find themselves again and to be reborn in a new light. It helps people realize things about their life that they might not have known and reminds them of what they might be missing. If nothing else, it helps people realize in many ways that life, although hard, can be lived through; regardless of what happens in it.

White Magic

Life's Little Revelations in Nature.

In my last blog I talked about the quite of the pine barrens and i would like to now share a revelation i had out there in the silence.

People always ask me why i have never been stressed before in my life, and i have always told them that it was because i don't care if i succeed in my ventures or not Which means i will never get disappointed. But i have come to realize that it is not because i don't care, it's because i have fun everyday of my life, every second of the day. I make little games and jokes about everything to make everything all right. I do little dances if I'm bored or some one isn't smiling and they need to laugh. I take joy in making others laugh and brightening their day. It makes me happy to make them happy.

I am always bust with work and school, but i always find ways to hang out with friends or family because it makes me happy.

So i guess the revelation is to make yourself happy everyday, cause if you do i guarantee you your life will be better, and the rest of it will sort itself out.

White Magic

Uneasy quiet...

Have you ever been to the New Jersey pine barrens? It is in south jersey. Very few people know about it, and even fewer visit it, but there is a wonder there that everyday people miss in there life and never hear.

I am talking about the erie silence that one can experience in the pine barrens. With the pine trees that rarely get rustled by the wind no matter how hard it blows and the sand which can't blow around, everything seems to be still and quite.

Nowadays it is impossible to find silence in our everyday life. With the hustle and bustle of ever growing cities, residential areas, and everyday life few people ever stop to see what the world is doing. The pine barrens can take you there. It forces you to slow down your life and see what is going on in it. It makes you think about where you have been in your life and where you should be going.

Nothing is more beneficial and more pristine than the silence in the pine barrens.

White Magic

BURN BABY BURN!!!

This boy scout story is from the early years. In those days be asked to make a fire was everything, and when my day came i was excited out of my mind.

I went about getting all of my wood, the tinder, the kindling, and the medium and big stuff. After that i put it all in position and got the matches. I was all set. I lit one match and proceeded to light the fire.

I got with the one match. Its a great feat for someone just starting to learn how to make fires. Everyone came back to the campsite after the hike they were on and marveled at my fire.

Then Some fat guy came and put huge logs out of it and made a bonfire out of it. But such is life, you do something and then someone comes and blows it out of proportion.

White Magic

Light match with Axe?

I was in boy scouts for a good amount of my young life. I have many memories from those days, more from the later years than the earlier ones. One of those such memories is from summer camp as a tenderfoot...

At summer camp they have competitions to test a boy scouts skill. The event i was assigned was to light a match with an axe. Needless to say i was confused as to the use of this in survival, but i found the task to be a fun one.

I practiced for hours chopping at a twig i put between a notch in a large piece of wood. I became so good i could split the twig in half with one try.

The day of the competition came and i was ready. I come up to the event and they hand me a hatchet, those of you who don't know, a hatchet is extremely small compared to an axe. I had not practiced with a hatchet so i was out of my element.

So it took me 2 seconds top light the match instead of 1. It was the fastest it had ever been done before. I was happy. Still would of liked to try the axe though.

White Magic

Waterfall, sharp rocks at the bottom, bring it on!!!

On the canoe trip that i was writing about before this i also had an amazing experience with sheer skill in the canoeing world.

Me and my crew went over a waterfall!!! We were creeping up to it and we were about to go over to the shore when the current caught us. We tried back-paddling but to no avail. So i decided we were going to go for it.

I started to shout out orders, and my crew followed without question. We got over the edge and slid the whole 15 ft canoe over it with no problem. We became kings of the canoe world in less than 10 seconds. It was the greatest feeling ever.

White Magic

Spider! Spider! Spider!

Last summer I went on a canoe trip with my friends. We had two canoes and all the gear we could possibly need. We had our tents and assorted sleeping bags and such. We loaded up our canoes and headed off...

We started out all right, just going along enjoying the river. the water was kind of low in places and we had to get out and pull the canoes in some places, but that was ok it was hot out anyway.

So like i said everything is fine until we come around a bend and brush close to a tree, me and my crew make it by fine but then its the other ones turn. They come along the side of the branch and the move along fine until, the driver come to it,

He sees a spider and starts screaming, SPIDER! SPIDER! and tips the whole canoe over. Everything goes in the water. The other people in the canoe that flipped had enough time to say I hate you 10 times before hitting the water. It was the funniest thing i had ever seen and made the whole trip more enjoyable for me.

White Magic

Walking Among giants!!

I forgot to post this one.

I know I have described some hikes among the Sequoia trees before but I can't tell you enough. We did many hikes when we were out there but few compare to this one.

We started out walking in the bright day of the forest with not a care in the world, then it got dark. The world got smaller and all was covered by a massive shade. We were in the giant's domain...

The giants were all over. They reached to the sky's above and kept going. Never to end. I felt like an ant in a way, way to big world. I always did among those trees.

White Magic