Time Out

I really, really, really want to hike today. It's beautiful and sunny and my pack almost looks comfortable. But I can't. My leg still hurts whenever I move it or walk. The pain is excruciating on uphills and steps, but otherwise quite bearable. I am under instructions from two separate Doctors to give myself at least a week to heal. So in a few minutes I'll be getting a ride to Knoxville, whence I can get a bus to either Johnson City where my friend Wentworth lives, or to Jackson to visit Margaret. I will take a week off, and then head back to Gaitlinburg to resume my long march North. I plan to be back in Gaitlinburg next Wednesday or Thursday. I'll have to get a ride to the Elkmont Campground and hike back up the 9 mile Greenbrier trail. I'll then backtrack .1 miles to the Derrick Knob Shelter where I stayed on Tuesday, and take it easy for a week or so to get my leg back in action safely.

I spent yesterday riding the Trolleys around Gaitlinburg. I went to the post office and sent some of my warmer clothing home, as well as my faulty headlamp. I sent Salamander his shoes... I meant to include a thank you note but the woman in the post office sealed the package before I could slip it in. I guess I'll send a letter later. I am so grateful to the "fellowship of the egg". I probably could have made it without them, but it would have been much more miserable. The Guadiness of Gaitlinburg is a HUGE shock coming from the woods. Ripley's Belive It Or Not and amusement park rides, ice cream stands, tatoo parlors, indoor ice skating rinks, and motel upon motel upon motel advertising perks such as "Coffee, IN ROOM!" or "No Cleaning Service on Sunday". The Trolley drivers each felt the need to talk to me. I wouldn't have minded a conversation, but I think they couldn't hear me due to the engine noise, and so I just listened to stories about their grandchildren.

One man told me about Gaitlinburg 40 years ago, when it was just becoming a tourist attraction. Apparently it all began after World War II, when hiking became popular as a recreational sport. All of a sudden the Great Smokey Mountains weren't just for hillbillies and moonshiners, but a vacation destination. It is interesting to me that Gaitlinburg, which became a tourist town before the Automobile Age, is all accessible by foot, and packed in to 8 tight blocks, whereas nearby Pidgeon Forge, which developed later, is strip mall paradise. Truely, technology has brought us forward. When I realized this, I also realized part of the beauty of taking six months off from it all to live in the woods. I am assuming that the "living in the woods" part of my hike will come later. So far, and this isn't a bad thing at all, but really a marvelous thing, my hike has been not about mountains or miles, but about the people: Zero, Winton, Cornbread, Felicity, Cardboard Princess, Crutch, Laura & Frank, Hikernutt, Ron Haven, the Albany Georgia Boys, Jeff & Nancy, Domino, the Fellowship of the Egg to name a few.

Dam. I can't wait to get back out there.