Dear Trail Friends,
TRAIL JOURNAL. As you can see from the numbers this was the shortest and least strenuous day's hike of the section so far. I woke up at 4:30am and started hiking at 5:30am, with a brief pause to wake Pounder, the lovely disabled man from Quincy who leads a trail maintenance crew for this section and who is going back to school to train as a welder and hopefully go back to work. We have had several sweet encounters and conversations. He had asked me to wake him (and make sure he stood up) before leaving.
I decided to hike until noon, then rest during the hottest hours (noon to 4), and then complete my hike --which I planned to be a relatively short one.
Looking back at the day I really wish I had taken a photo of Coppertone,the trail angel who moves from location to location offering "trail magic" -- such as fresh peaches, bananas, cream cheese coffee cake, and root beer floats. You won't believe this: I ate two granola bars (which I dipped in a small container of jiffy peanut butter), a peach and a root beer float. A whole group of hikers sat around visiting and enjoying the magic. I asked Coppertone how he became a trail angel and he spoke of thru-hiking (in 2008 I think he said) and being offered so much generosity and wanting to give back. He also spoke of being a former missionary. There was some uncomfortable silence after he spoke a bit about teaching bible. And out of the silence I told this story:
I no longer believe in a conventional religious doctrine, but when I was in high school I was a Catholic briefly and I loved the ritual. When I was hiking the Wonderkand Trail around Rainier I found myself sitting resting beside a retired priest. I said to him "you couldn't, could you, just grant me absolution for all my sins, right here in the presence of the mountain?" And I burst into tears. "Well, " said the priest "it would be unconventional. You'd at least have to tell me your sins. " "I haven't been able to love the people I love as well as I wanted" I said, by this time sobbing. "I can see you are truly sorry, and I know you are forgiven, " he said. What moved me so much in this situation, I told them, was that even though he was part of a very formal organization with rules, he so wanted to be kind to me.
"He did not have the power to forgive your sins, " Coppertone said. "Only God can forgive your sins. "
"I know that," I said. "But it was so beautiful that he wanted to."
It was a very sweet gathering of hikers and the root beer floats were unbelievably good. Even at 9:30am when I arrived there the day was very hot. It's supposed to keep getting hotter. I am very lucky to be finishing Sunday and not hiking on the hottest days, Monday and Tuesday.
After all that trail magic, I saw the whole beautiful trail and all the hikers on it through the emerald glasses of a sugar high (and also a high brought on by human generosity and kindness, by amazing hospitality to strangers with no strings attached. )
Photo 1 shows the view of Mt Shasta from my breakfast stop (before arriving at the scene of the trail magic.)
Photos 2 and 3 try to share my delight in the colors and textures of this particular landscape.
Photo 4 shows the shady spot -- in a landscape without much shade -- where I took a 4 hour rest stop and wrote my blog for yesterday.
Photos 5-9 are more of the same; I love this landscape. The last part of this rim walk was particularly beautiful, the expansive view, looking down at trees and volcanic rock. There was a beautiful wind so the tree branches were dancing. Photo 5 shows how the trail at times looks like a pilgrimage to Mt Shasta (the mountain is dim in the photo but sharp and clear in real life). Photo 8 is the view from the place where I sat down to talk on the phone with Chrissy.
I walked in the cool of late afternoon and early evening, pausing to talk with Chris and arriving at my tent site about 7pm. A section hiker I met earlier, a 52 year old man named Shamrock who has also hiked the AT (Appalachian Trail) and lots of others, suggested we eat dinner together. I think it was the first time I have ever eaten dinner with someone on the trail. (As opposed to at a restaurant in a trail town). It was kind of sweet.
POOP REPORT. No leak all day despite rootbeer float and all. Go figure. If God meant for us to be rational brings, she would have created a world that made a little more sense, don't you think?
Thanks for walking with me. I am sitting in my sleeping bag, cowboy-camped, in the dark, and despite my head net the mosquitos are getting more aggressive. Bedtime. Sweet dreams.
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