Pleasure and Pain

In the planning stages of this journey I was worried about how much downtime we would have when we were done hiking for the day. I can now say with absolute certainty that I am a fool.

Each day has been full bore from sunrise until sunset. We have been executing our plan to perfection; however, the days have been long, and often we are ready to be done before we reach our destination. As a reward for the struggle, at the end of each day we have been greeted with a remotely located creekside or mountaintop campsite, accessible only through great effort, with each unique and more scenic than the last.

So back to the plan. In executing it perfectly we are learning that the plan is not perfect. In order to enjoy the journey and not just crank out the miles, we are likely going to have to recalibrate “The Plan”. It will not be easy, as we are relying on others, friends that have already been invaluable, and much of our food was staged in advance, but in times of need we have found kindness in strangers as well. 

Yesterday we were hiking along a spur of the Blue Ridge Parkway and a family driving by stopped to tell us there was a huge bull elk grazing along our path just ahead. We thanked them for the warning and off they went. 

A few minutes later they drove back up from behind us and told us to get in the car. They couldn’t live with the unknown of what would happen if we tried to hike past on this narrow section of turf. I don’t know how that would have turned out, and after seeing the size of the rack of antlers on that magnificent animal, I’m thankful they were there to assist with our first taste of “trail magic”.