(Notes on the photo; I took several pictures with my camera and used them to form this panoramic from that day as best I could. This is not a fabrication, I assure you)
There’s a saying "The trail will provide" that, as you continue along your hike, becomes something to take comfort in. Moments when food is provided or water sources found after fully accepting a hopeless situation and the only explanation is that the trail provided. I certainly do feel the trail has the power to influence one’s thru hike. Every hiker who sets foot on the AT is looking for personal growth in some form or another. The lessons you expect to learn are rarely what you take away with you. The trail has something unique to teach each and everyone out there. One enters the secular pilgrimage open to experience and growth. Without question, I too found growth that I rely upon everyday. On my AT thru hike there were three separate occasions where I found myself stopped dead in my tracks with no possible way to explain what just happened. I'd like to share those experiences with you.
About a month into the hike this happened; it's Saturday and it's rained all day. 47 degrees out, 16 miles from Ice Mountain shelter to Jerry's Cabin shelter. I'm sitting next to a guy who goes by the trail name Shortcut and he looks exactly like my grandpa Pete in every way. He's even wearing his winter hat the same way my Grandpa wore his by not folding it at the bottom causing it to form a nipple shape on top of his head. We didn't get a chance to talk because he got in his sleeping bag and went to sleep just after we got there. I didn't connect the dots until several miles into the following day but Grandpa Pete's real first name was Jerry.
Now I'm in Vermont and I posted a photo with text across the front that read "Don't be afraid to move on and start a new chapter" with it I included a little caption that, in summary said how glad I was that I decided to hike the trail and how great the whole experience was going. The mother of my best friend from high school reached out to me with a text saying how inspirational my journey has been. She went on to say how I gave her that little extra motivation she needed to take a leap of her own. She was planning to enroll in school for Chaplaincy. The next day I reached Stratton Pond and took a break with another thru hiker, an older retired gentleman. Stratton Pond is famous for being the very spot where Benton Mackaye, in the 1930's, would have the very idea for what would be the Appalachian Trail. Sitting here looking out on the lake I tell my friend I'm going to get moving and hike out. I drag my pack closer to me and start getting ready when he asks me to pass him his backpack as it's slumped over in the grass on the other side of me. I drag it up onto my lap and notice a patch is sewn to the edge of the waistband. It read "Trail Chaplaincy, hiking in the spirit of the journey". I stared at that patch for a few long seconds.
The last day of the entire journey, the day I arrive to Abol Bridge campground after five months of hiking; The tent site we've been given has the greatest view of Khatadin, a massive and wondrous mountain serving as the northern end of the trail. The mountain is elusive, mythical, and sacred ground to indigenous people of the area. So many people dream of hiking the trail in its entirety yet so few make it. We'd summit Khatadin the following day completing the thru hike. It's raining out, as it did most days in Maine. Suddenly the rain stops and the sky begins to clear so I move to sit on the picnic table facing the mountain. As the clouds are parting, just to the east of the mountain, appears a rainbow. Bright blue skies over the mountain I've been almost afraid to talk about is standing right before me, and a bright rainbow should appear. This moment was powerful.
An AT thru hike is a secular pilgrimage of the grandest proportions. I'm blessed to have been a part of it. I'm grateful for these experiences and I wouldn't trade them for anything. The reality we live in is a mere fraction of whats going on around us. Try to open your heart and see it. The lessons you’ll learn are yours.
