Journal Entries

Today Wednesday March 28th I arose early in Harrisburg MS and got on the road. The day was me trying to get west as light rain fell on my van for 9 hours. The road was good and the traffic pretty light. I made my way across Mississippi and into Louisiana. Memories and feelings began to make themselves known and presented me with lots of opportunity to reflect. The rain still falling.

I get to Dallas and the preferred route on the GPS was around the north side of Dallas but not when I missed my exit while on the phone with my amazing son. Instead the route became right through Dallas. What a tangled web of roads and flyovers my journey became. After another missed exit and a uturn I was back heading Northwest.

The trip from here to Amarillo was long but created a space for further reflection and conversation. My dear friend Adam Pacitti called and shared his workshop experience with me. What a time to be present with another fellow traveler. More conversation with my amazing partner, soulmate and support system, my wife Karyl.

Made to Amarillo after 13 hours of traveling across most of Mississippi, all of Louisiana and a good part of Texas. Didn’t realize how tired I was, till I allowed myself to rest.

Visiting my former sister-in-law today at her home in Las Tusas, New Mexico. Haven’t seen her in at least 15 years and she was a big part of our lives. Feeling drawn to connect.

Got back on the road after 7 hours waiting on the fix to my Sprinter van. Spending the night inHattiaburg MS as I make my way up to I40 to head west. Really enjoying the van and how it ha does on the road. Plan on making it 4-5 hours west of Dallas Texas tomorrow. Talked to my amazing wife on her way home from work.

The experience of hiking eight hours a day immersed in my own thoughts is overwhelming. I’m not sure where to start writing. There are two major topics I want to write about: trail tips and personal observations. My personal observations might not be of interest to many of you. Some of them might be specific to my own life experiences but I encourage you to spend time on the trail contemplating your own life—experiences, issues, and memories. It is the life of the old time philosophers who just spent the day in contemplation. Modern life is so full of distractions and so we seldom do this. I made a promise to myself—no earbuds on the trail!

Personal observations: What to do with your memories? One thing that has been heavy on my mind is my memories, especially of those who are no longer with us. Reliving these memories have led me to cry sometimes and to laugh sometimes as I travel down the trail. I never felt my own mortality—even now. My career led me to work in several conflict areas voluntarily, to jump out of airplanes for fun, to walk down Hotel St in Honolulu at four in the morning. Never gave much thought to my mortality. What is heavy on my mind is what happens to the memories of those close to me when I pass? Who will remember what my brother was like in high school, if I am gone. Is that a strange thing to worry about? I feel like the keeper of so many memories-my mother, my brother, my sister, my high school sweetheart... who knew them like me? These are thoughts that may surface as you walk the trail immersed in thought.

Things to do while walking down the trail: are you getting bored walking long trail miles that look too similar? If you are like me, you are watching the trail and looking down a lot to be sure you don’t trip over some sneaky rock or root. It might break up the monotony to learn some of the native plants. Some of them are wee gems and you need to be alert to catch sight of them. So the photo here is of the Wild Violet (Viola Odorata). Wild violets are predominately purple but you will see yellow and white also. The flowers and the leaves are edible and high in vitamin C. So pretty to dress up a salad or garnish on a plate. At home, they are probably common in your lawn. Sadly, many internet resources label them as a “weed” to be eradicated.

One of the conflict areas where I worked was Liberia-a country largely modeled after the USA. Rural areas suffer from a lack of clean water. As hikers we know how much work it is to collect our liter bottles of water—but imagine that you have to provide water for all uses for your extended family, elders, littles, the disabled and all. This arduous task usually falls to the women of the family.

So I am supporting this project in Liberia. I know the groups involved and have met them personally in Liberia. Please read about the project for its interest when you have time. Donating is appreciated but not required. None of the funds go to my hike. Only to help the project get on its feet with an ultimate goal of self-suffficiency.

GoFundMe.com/cleanwaterforliberia

View of Cumberland Strait from our friend's/host's cottage -Malignant Cove near Cape George, NS. Captured this shot the morning after our hike before the fresh 'dusting' disappeared in the sun's warmth.

Keppoch Mtn, NS - summit view, enjoying lunch with @hammerhead, complete with hot tea, thanks to our friend and tour guide, Dan.

Very windy stop at the Cape George lighthouse on return trip from our hike.

March 14/18. Hut at trailhead for hiking at Keppoch Mtn near Antigonish, NS.

@hammerhead and I with friends on Keppoch Mountain , NS, Canada. Snow not too deep for hiking boots.

We are coming back from a 4 days trip in the woods, somewhere close to the US Border (actually we could hike to it if we wanted to!). A couple months ago my sister in law and her brother (my husband) went there and in their memory, the cabin was close enough to the trailhead to bring the kids. Of course, why not! Well turned out the walk in was actually 6km ... not the 1.5 km they remembered! Quite a difference. Just so you can picture our caravan: 2 grand-parents, 4 parents, 2 eight years old, 2 three-almost-four years old, and one 9 months old.

Little did we plan that we would get there late afternoon instead of noon as we wanted to. Here we are, its passed 4pm and we realized the length. In the last couple weeks, rain and warmer temperature had made the gravel road usable... so we took advantage of that! Thanks to a volunteer (my husband the hero), we dropped the little ones and the heavier packs directly at the cabin and he drove back to the trailhead before walking back by himself in the dark. We couldn't keep the car there cause 30cm of snow were on the way and the very next morning that same road would be closed. Still, it was a weird start!

But the next days would be just perfect. The cabin had a very efficient wood stove, we had warmth, food, drinks, and gear to keep everyone fed, busy, and comfortable for the length of our stay. The kids played in and out and in and out all day. Uncles, aunties, mammy and pappy rotating on the playing outside shift. My 3 yo could hike to the outhouse by herself and back... even at night...!! We did something right with that one haha.

Two groups were formed for longer hikes while the others stayed back with the kids. The 4 parents managed to get away an early morning to summit Mont Gosford, the trail was magical, with tons of fresh snow and a crispy white mountain top with no view but nonetheless beautiful.

The hardest part of the adventure was coming back. Even if we had treated ourselves with a ski-doo service in and out for the heavier packs (food and bottles of wine mainly), we still had our sleeping bags, clothing and hiking necessities to carry out for everyone. The set of 8yo was not used to hike such distances... 6km on snow is not easy, and the set of 3yo walked a good 100m in total: our sled and snowshoes expedition back became quickly a challenge! We had not well prepared ourselves for the journey back, we could seriously have thought it through a little bit more as the girls got cold early on, in the sleds. This would have been easily solved by adding an insulated pad at the bottom of the sled and left a down sleeping back out for them to snuggle in it... why didn't we think about it? I guess we were overconfident about how long it would take us to hike out and underrated the cold when you are not moving. COME ON, we have been living and experiencing the outdoors out here in the winter forever and we still have not learned that... Anyways, the way back turned out to be a bit over 2 hours. Thanks to extra down jackets, a few hot pads and very motivated parents and grandparents, we made it out safely. The 8yo also got a free ski-doo ride in the last couple kilometers from a passing staff: I am pretty sure that was the highlight of their weekend, one thing for sure is that it was the coolest end to this adventure that they could have hoped for, judging by their enthusiasm!

The happiest hiker award goes to: baby Claire, who sang and slept all the way back, observing over her uncle's shoulders in the carrier backpack, and who enjoyed every second of our stay with a smile.

Overall Highlights:

• Everyone working as a team to take care of the kids, prepare food and keep the place clean and cozy.
• Minimalist cabin to enjoy each other's company over distractions
• Doing everything at a slow pace

Take-aways:

• We need a better sled, we need to insulate the bottom and plan for additional warmth for non-walking kids
• We should have double-checked our distances while planning this trip. I think if it would have been 3km, it would have been perfect for the different ages of our group.
• The pre-made dinners that I cooked, sealed (thank you foodsaver) and froze were perfect. I simply had to lay the pouches in a bucket of water on the woodstove and leave there to reheat slowly. When ready to eat, cut a corner, poor in the bowls and voilà! NO prep, barely any dishes to do. Lick you spoon everybody. That's how you get homemade delicious spaghetti bolognese sauce, chicken fajitas mix and boeuf bourguignon in the backcountry. Of course ... having a transport for food made this possible weight wize!

Today I am on my second zero at the Aquone Lodge, having come off the trail at Burningtown Gap mile 123.8 because of impending cold weather. With a mix of rain and snow and high gusts of wind— it seemed the prudent thing to do. This is straight up deep winter in the mid-teens for temps and most of us are packed for three-seasons. I can do cold weather with my gear but too many days out in the wet conditions makes staying warm difficult.

I have been trying my best to stay off of social media on the trail with the exception of posting a photo to my FB story about once a day to stay in touch. I am very pleased with the new lightweight inexpensive keyboard that I purchased to pair with my IPhone. This has made it feasible to update my trail journal while at hostels off the trail.

On the trail is where I do all my contemplation and when you walk all day without distractions like podcasts, audiobooks, social media, etc.—thinking is your main activity. Living inside your own head and being aware of your thoughts takes more discipline than you might think. It is very much like meditation only with walking added. The struggle of the trail tends to push negative thoughts and emotions out of the way as you concentrate on staying upright with your pack and hiking poles.

Something that I thought a lot about in recent miles on the trail is my ability to listen to others. While I am aware of active listening and have been to various management course; this is an area that bears further development. My passion for certain topics and my sincere desire to help others with my expertise in those topics makes me vulnerable to jumping into a discussion and adding too much to the conversation. So on the trail I have thought about this a lot and hope to try harder when I come across other hikers. In my next post, I want to talk about functional fitness and low carb high fat fueling on the trail. Maybe it is best to write about my ideas here rather than talking so much. One of the hardest things for me to remember is that no matter how much you want to help others—you can help those who don’t want your help! So more listening and more writing for those who are interested.

Ass for actual on the trail stuff—let me explain the photo. Trail magic is this amazing thing that members of the trail community do for those of us out here on the trail. We call them “trail angels” and we are truly blessed by their generosity both in time and kindness . At Rock Gap, a former thru hiker “Circus” and several of his friends brought us many goodies and cooked hamburgers and hot dogs on a grill! They had to carry all the food, the grill, coolers and all sorts of things up the trail to us. Then they even brought tents and spent the night with us. One of us had to return to Franklin to pick up gear and then even drove her to town the next day. The trail community is really a karma-based community. It reminds me so much of my mother who used to say, “ you never miss anything you give away; it comes back to you double.” On the trail, we say “the Trail provides” and we have found that to be true. We share food, gear and support and somehow it all works out.

Signing off for now. In case you are interested, go over to my GoFundMe where I am raising funds for a project to filter water in Liberia. We hikers know how hard it is to carry all your water everyday! It’s a daily reality for many families in rural Liberia. Even if you don’t donate I would be so pleased to have you just read about the project for its interest. GoFundMe.com/cleanwaterforliberia