Mud, Snot Rockets, and Such

The first week on the trail has been about adjusting. Not just to the rigors of walking up and down mountains for many hours a day, but also to becoming comfortable living in one's own filth. There have been 2 nice but cold days, 1 perfect day, and the last 3 days have been mostly cold, rainy, and miserable. Everything is wet, muddy, and stinky. I've managed to grab 2 showers so far on nights when the weather was so bad that my posse decided to pay for a bunk in a hiker hostel, and even did laundry once (wore the exact same clothes for 4 days). Putting on the same muddy shoes and pants every day is becoming routine.

I used to be completely disgusted when someone would blow a snot rocket. Lately, I find myself doing it at least a couple dozen times a day, the chilly mountain air working it's magic. But it takes time to perfect this skill, and there have been some epic fails. I have a very fun group of hiking mates, and we were commiserating about this earlier today while summiting Blood Mountain.

With each passing day, the mountains become a little less difficult to conquer, as lungs, joints, and muscles gradually adapt. But already, word spreads along the trail about hikers dropping out, Tyler back to Massachusetts, Sonya home to Indiana. It's sad, kind of like reading the obituaries. But my mindset is good, I'm meeting some amazing people, and laughing harder than I can remember. Physically, it' harder than I had imagined, like the hardest workouts I've ever tried, several times a day, every day. But I have no blisters, no injuries or chronic aches, and finally catching my breath. By this weekend, we should be crossing into North Carolina.

I need to write about our St. Patty's festivities, our bear canister experience, the kindness and generosity of total strangers, and the fellowship between all of us hiking the trail. But that will have to wait for later, because it's 9pm - hiker bed time.

One last thing, thanks to all who have made a contribution to the Rich Jeanette kidney fund, Carol, Ben, Ken & Megan, Greg, Amy, Sally, Mark, Bridget, and Dongguk. I think we're a quarter of the way to our goal, although I'm not even 2% through with the trail. The contribution link is in my previous post, "All About Family."

Until next time, happy trails!