Appalachian Trail Vortex

I feel a self-imposed pressure to reflect on my brief time hiking with my AT 2011 hiking partner Shayla while she’s thru-hiking a second time, in romantic and poetic ways, but it’s been a week since we parted and I’m still finding it hard to describe the experience. Simply, it was magical. If I didn’t have photographic evidence I’d think the week I spent on trail was all a dream. I fell into the trail vortex where 150 miles passed in a blink of an eye, yet everyday felt like a week.

We didn’t get an ATC photo together 10 years ago, but now we have one.

I felt like a thru-hiker again. I was pushing big miles, arriving into camp at dusk sweaty and sore, staying at hostels and walking around trail towns in someone else’s clothes, and even forming a (temporary) trail family. Unlike my fellow hikers I didn’t have trail legs that come with 900 miles under your (hip)belt by Northern Virginia, but I quickly adapted and was able to stomp out 26 miles on day two of the ‘easier’ terrain. We hiked together for miles and then alone for hours, meeting up at shelters or viewpoints to share a meal along the way. We blue-blazed the normal get-to-know-you conversations and instead dug deep and discussed relationships, future plans, dreams, love, and death. Such are the conversations one has on trail. I shared and spilled my fears and aspirations with people who just days before I didn’t know existed, and who I referred to only by their trail name, not knowing their real name until days later. It wasn’t a surprise that we connected so quickly because that is how life on the trail transpires. And it wasn’t a surprise that we became a trail family because we were drawn together. That is the magic of the trail.

Bard, Shayla, Seeker, and me at the 1000 mile marker

sadly we didn’t come up with a trail family name. @ Blackburn Trail Center

Only having a week on trail I had the special perspective of time temporal. Whenever I found myself on a flat stretch of trail, I was grateful for the gift and sped up because I knew what lay ahead. Whenever my friends sang or played music I scanned the area in order to capture that exact moment in time. Whenever we laughed I noted their smiles and stored that joy within me. I knew our time together would eventually come to an end and I wanted to keep these memories close in order to draw upon during solitary times. And even with the shadow of separation looming I truly felt as though I was living in the moment; I gave in to the unexpected, remained open to changing direction, and took it one step at a time, for miles.

I feel lucky. I feel grateful. I feel alive.

And although it was just one week out of 20 plus for my hiking partners, a week that may blur in their minds over the course of 2000 miles, it was one magical week for me.

I originally wanted to hike Waynesboro to Harpers Ferry with Shayla because it’s one of the sections we didn’t hike together 10 years ago. So I wanted to have a new trail experience with her. Plus, I wanted to share my former ridgerunning section north of Shenandoah NP to Harpers Ferry with her and point out my favorite spots. I was grateful to be able to walk through with my friends and make new memories in a section I know so well..And now that’s a dozen trips on the infamous rollercoaster.