Status Update after Day 40

“To travel, to experience and learn: that is to live.”
~Tenzing Norgay

July 28, 2021

Sunday morning I woke up at our lovely hostel — Jen’s private home in Arlington, Vermont— in pain. My back really hurt. On Friday I had taken that really bad fall onto my tailbone, and apparently it had taken two days for the shock to wear off and the pain to start.

I called my doctor’s after-hours people and discussed my symptoms. They talked about possible neurological damage and the need to get to an ER immediately. Dayglo and I talked, and we decided the best thing was to drive to Virginia, where I would have support if things were bad.

Jen gave us a lift to Williamstown, MA, where Dayglo’s car was waiting. She drove us to Waynesboro, VA, where Jim picked me up. After four hours in the ER, I had a diagnosis of “bruised coccyx,” instructions to take it easy, and lots of painkillers that are still in their box. I’m very thankful for that innocuous diagnosis

So I am off the trail yet again.  This past week I have hiked another 96.9 miles of the AT, for a total of 571.1 miles on the AT this year.

So what have I learned along the way?

• People are really interesting and surprising. I have enjoyed the encounters and conversations I’ve had with all kinds of people on the trail — different ages, cultures, backgrounds, expectations…..
• I don’t like backpacking alone. Staying at a shelter alone makes me feel very vulnerable.
• I am crazy about wildflowers, and they are so much prettier in the wild than in a so-called “wildflower garden.”
• I am not an adventurer; I like order and habit. I do not like not knowing where I am going to spend the night.
• I am seriously scared of venomous snakes. I didn’t realize how nervous I was about encountering one until hiking in Vermont, where you really don’t have to worry about meeting a copperhead or rattlesnake.
• There is something seriously cool about sitting around the campfire having a companionable conversation with a group of people you’ve never met before.
• Flush toilets are amazing! And it really is a miracle that we can just turn on a faucet and get potable water so easily! I definitely have a newfound appreciation for indoor plumbing.
• Oftentimes strangers are just people whom you haven’t had the opportunity to become friends with!
• People say that that there is no such thing as bad weather; you just need to make appropriate clothing choices. They are wrong. Hiking in 90° is really hard. And hiking in the rain for five days just sucks.
• I love my husband. He is the love of my life, my other half, my accomplice, and I cannot go more than two weeks or so without seeing him.
• Never underestimate the luxury of putting on a pair of dry socks in the morning!
• I have a wonderful life. Spending time on the trail was great, but I am blessed beyond measure to have such a wonderful family and community.

I am truly blessed — I have been able to follow my dream of hiking the Appalachian Trail. When I am 80 I will not be able to say, “I wish I had hiked the Appalachian Trail.” I tried, and now I know that that actually is not my dream.

I love hiking and I will continue to hike.  Hopefully I will even be able to do some long-distance hiking spending nights in hostels or B&B’s. If my back stops hurting so much, I am hoping to slack pack sections of the AT in both Maine and Georgia later this year, sleeping each night on a comfortable bed in a hostel.

And I will continue to backpack locally, going out with friends for a night or two or three. But I now know that I am not a long-distance backpacker. I love my creature comforts too much to spend more than a few nights on trail.

I am blessed beyond measure to have been able to pursue this dream, and I am so very thankful for the huge outpouring of support I have received. The world is a wonderful place, and I have been lucky to be able to step out of my normal routine and see more of it. I now rejoice that I can step back into my community that means so much to me.