Kevin's AT Thru Hike

Day 9, Friday, 3/25 – I woke up before dawn this morning. Steven was breaking camp early and I’m a pretty light sleeper. Since I was awake I started packing up too. I left camp at 8:00am, and started my hike solo.

The hiking was great today. The view from the summit of Standing Indian Mountain was awesome, and there were plenty of other great vistas. The trail was also well graded and there were plenty of water sources which meant I didn’t have to carry much water weight. I continued to listen to Anna Karenina on audiobook as I hiked. It’s all Russian life and relationships in the 1800s. It’s 35 hrs long, but I’ve got nothing but time. Also Maggie Gyllenhaal is the voice actress, and I love her voice.

I met Ryan early in the day. Our interaction was initially short, but then I ran into him again after lunch. We got to talking about jobs and such, and he mentioned that he worked for a non denominational church. I love talking religion and faith.

I bounced a theory off of him that has been in my head for a while. I think that we there are elements of a religion on the Appalachian Trail. Hikers all joke around with concepts such as Trail Angels, Trail Magic, adopting a Trail Name, saying things like “The Trail will Provide,” etc. But I’m not convinced that it’s all tongue and cheek. There are just too many corollaries for this to be coincidence. There’s also a very strong community associated with the Appalachian Trail that is reminiscent of a religious community. Ryan and I also talked about our own faith.

Sprite ran into Ryan and myself as we were filling water. I hiked the last 4 miles with Sprite, which were the hardest 4 miles of the day. We summited Albert Mountain, which included some rock scrambling. This was mile 100! Sprite can really hike, I was struggling to keep up. Sprite and I get along well, the conversation comes easy.

I rolled into camp exhausted. I set up the tent and made dinner. Liz and Genie rolled up too! Liz remembered that my birthday is tomorrow and started plans for a birthday dinner in Franklin tomorrow!

I walked 16 miles today, which puts me at mile 102.