Another Update While I have the opportunity

Hello people..

I am once again at Pine Ellis Lodge ( well.... it's not really a lodge at all it's more like a house that has hikers in it.)

Today myself and Tintin slackpacked 13 miles over Old Blue Mountain. We got going at 7:30 and I must say that tintin's lyme disease seems to have taken all the life out of him. He looked like a Ghost today and climbing up the mountain this morning really beat him. It was kind of strange to seem him so exhausted; I recall the first time that I hiked with Him, Fredo and Tornado down in Virginia for about a week or so. He would just go out in front and just cruise.... and it was difficult to keep up.

Today I was going kinda half-effort up the mountain and he was just beat. Despite the slower pace,, or maybe due to it... today's hike was actually pretty Fantastic. Other than the mid-sized mountain in the beginning the rest of the day was relatively flat and we took an Epic Blue Blaze called the Bemis River trail.

It was almost ideal terrain,, just gradual downhill for the last 6 miles of the day.

As if the day could not get any better... Up on Old Blue earlier in the day I got a text from Patch ( a good friend who I have been hiking around ever since the Smokies and who I had passed while on my last epic stretch of slackpacing via Megaladon's folks and my Aunt Barbara )

Patch asked me "if I knew where Chewy was" (Chewy being his childhood friend whom Patch had started the trail with but who had gotten ahead of him)
... I told him "he's up near us"
... Patch replies "I'm yellow blazing up there"
... I reply "Sweet"

When we got back to the house today.. Patch was there,, ready to head out tomorrow with me and tintin. I'm sure Patch wants to summit Khatadin with Chewy and I'm glad he's here. Sometimes on the trail if you start to hike alone or with unfamiliar people it gets to be lonely,, even with full shelters. There has been stretches where there were no other thru-hikers that I was good friends with and it just becomes disheartening. Hiking with people that you know and appreciate is what makes the Appalachian Trail Enjoyable. These 5 months are not about hiking on some silly dirt path through endless stretches of trees and green and rocks and frustratingly difficult mountains..

These 5 months are about smiling and laughing and sharing stories with the trail Community. In my opinion there is no other reason to be out here. You can enjoy a view to the utmost and I'll agree that moments of solitude are wonderful and very much needed. But when I look back on this trip..

I'm going to cherish the views of GreenDog cracking up laughing until he is literally crying (probably at something I said) ;alot more than the views from that one vista back in Virginia).

I'm going to remember theKid getting super pissed off that Baltimore Jack didn't serve dinner until 10 PM at Glencliff

I'm going to remember seeing a giant snapping turtle with Pittsburgh and swimming with my Mom at the Nanasomethingorother Outdoor Center in New York.

I'm going to remember especially Team Go-Dat.. My original gang of friends.. Hanging out at Standing Bear Farm by the fire until late late late at night. I'm going to remember that the next morning Trinket said to me "That's what it's all about man.. hangin by the fire... laughing.. havin a good time.. that's what you're gonna tell your grandkids about" he might have ended that with another "that's what it's all about brotha" just for good measure. I love those guys to death,,, Slackamus, swift,q-tip,trinket,cotton,holy smoke, brisket... spending a zero at NOC for no reason whatsoever,, hiking 6 miles in the smokies just because....

Hyway.



There are an endless number of Amazing Days that I have had on this trail. Not many involve me saying how much I loved climbing a giant mountain... Most all of them involve me spending time with genuinely great human beings.

I think that I could and that maybe when I'm done I actually will just spend a day writing down just random memories for hours. (I've long stopped writing in my regular journal)

It's the People out here that make this.


not going to proofread. I'm going to bed.

-Kashmir