Step by Step

Today I walked 16 miles with a full pack, and damn did it feel good. I once again went to breakfast at Wilson's, best breakfast on trail thus far. I then packed up and got a shuttle with Ron Haven back to Winding Stair Gap, I once again lost my purist status by not walking across the road. Normally, today's hike would have had great views everywhere, but since I was walking in a cloud for most of the day, I had no views. In Franklin I picked up a small portable radio, and I listened to it all day today, headphones of course. I rocked out to Stairway to Heaven as I went up a hill here in North Carolina, it was amazing. Every now and then I stopped to take a picture. I was quite fonds of the cloud I was walking in, we had a special connection by the end of the day. I no longer look at my maps as ferquently as I use to. I know where I am starting for the day, and I know where I hope to be by the end of the day. Everything else in between is just in my way. That is the way the General put it to me, and it makes perfect sense. I am now at Cold Spring Shelter, and it is raining. There are several other people here, I believe we are all long distance hikers. Hal, Travis, Hilbilly, Wasabi, Snake, Whitefish, and myself are here for the night. It seems I might be spending the coming days hiking with Hal, a New Englander from Vermont. And that's the way it was. Kirby

Ga>ME 2008