Welcome to My Brain Concert
It’s March 20th, and I hiked 8.3 miles today. It’s 7:23 in the evening, and I'm already in my tent at Lance Creek. So, three days in, 32 miles total, 24 miles on the actual Appalachian Trail. And this is the first campsite I’ve stayed in where my tent is actually on (fairly) level ground.
The first two nights, I got to camp very late, and it was slim pickings for tent sites. So I ended up sleeping at a pretty steep angle. Both nights, I kept waking up having slid down to the base of the tent, with my feet and my things all crammed up against the edge.
Several times throughout the night, I’d have to move everything back to the top of the tent, only to have it all (me included) slide down again a few hours later. So that was fun. It'll be nice to sleep on a relatively flat surface tonight.
In terms of my expectations versus reality, I don't have my trail legs yet, so I'm pretty tired. But the terrain's been pretty rugged so far. I expected Georgia to be a little bit friendlier, but maybe that's just a case of me being out of “hiking” shape, and that’ll remedy itself over time.
I ran into a bit of trail magic earlier today. Just past Gooch Gap, there was a guy in the parking lot — this is a common place where people leave their cars to go day hiking — handing out Gatorades. Best Gatorade of my life. It never tasted so good.
One thing I was asked a lot before I left is whether I was going to listen to things as I hiked. And I haven't yet. But when you're going along, and you just have your thoughts with you, some pretty strange songs kind of pop into your head.
One of them is the Numnum cat from YouTube. I blame that on S., who was listening to it pretty regularly and singing it around the house in the days leading up to my departure. [Wife note: Apologies if it gets stuck in your head, too, now.] Another one is the song Matthew O'Donnell does at Decipher Brewing that everyone loves so much. [Wife note: It’s called “Big Strong Man.”] I can't remember it all, but I just start singing random stuff in my head. My brother something. Big chest and big boat. Lady's leg. Stuff like that, which is a little strange.
And when I’m going up a hill, there’s one that comes into my head from my Pine Island days called “The Grand Old Duke of York.” It goes something like, “The Grand Old Duke of York, he had 10,000 men, he marched them up to the top of a hill, and he marched them down again. And when you're up, you're up. And when you're down, you're down. And when you're only halfway up, you're neither up nor down.”
So those have been going through my head. And for whatever reason, the victory theme from the video game Arkanoid played through my head when I hit the peak of a very tough climb.
I have no idea where that came from, but maybe some other songs will find their way into my consciousness.
One last thing... at Dick's Gap today, about five miles into the hike, I came across some more Trail Magic. Two separate groups had set up in this little parking area at a trailhead, and one was cooking French Fries to order, which were delicious. And the other table was manned by a couple who hiked the AT last year, and they were serving donuts and coffee. Wow. That was nice. People are out helping hikers, so that's a good thing.
