त्रुक्किन ओं अलोंग

Hey all~ my sweet peeps !!

So, I'm sitting here in Hot Springs, NC (the trail goes right through the center of town, so, hard not to stop) after a day a half of resting up, soaking in the hot springs(my body is so happy) eating amazing vegetarian four course meals at the most amazing hostel ever, and then going across the street for bacon and eggs! Getting ready to head back out on the trail after i write this.
This hostel, Elmer's is just so sweet. It's been taking in hikers for over fifty years, serving them organic vegetarian food, made with love by the folks who live and work there. We all eat together in the dining room. There's a music room with a piano, banjo, recorder, guitar , violin, dijeridoos, oh yeah! showers, cozy beds. It's an old historic victorian home full of cool antiques and things from all over the world and a huge library of kick ass books.....anyway, i could talk just about Elmer's all day.
It's been the most amazing rest stop, i think, because it was so truly deserved. We had some really hard weather and tough times in the smokies. Snow, sleet, hail, thunderstorms(watching lighting strike the from outside a shelter), high winds, mud, slush,slippery wet trail....everybody wiping out all over. I made the cocky mistake of stating, after days of other people falling except me, thaT 'i guess i just don't fall'....well that next day i was almost wiping out all day until finally i took the king digger that reminded me of Goonies when everyone falls off the log because Data has "Slick Shoes"....it was good. I miraculously did not land on my guitar! In the smokies there are some really amazing views at the summits..and Clingman's Dome is the highest piont on the trail, being at 6643 ft....alas they were all in the rain and fog. Near the end the sun came up in the morning, beautiful sunrise, the big moon was still up and glowing, there was a lake of clouds below us and everyone was so happy and glowing. It was awsome. I still have awsome thoughts of the smokies because evryone is so ridiculously cool, all suffrin' together, all packed in together in the shelter(you have to stay in shelters in the smokies) like sardines, lots of snoring, lots of bad gas, i haven't laughed so hard, maybe ever. We've taken to writing songs, uh, i don't know if they're good, or appropriate but they'rw pretty funny. Maybe we'll play em at trail days...that's the hiker festival coming up in May in Damascus, VA.....gonna be sOOOOOOO fun!!
I've hiked 271 miles so far. Mostly with my super hiking companion Huck Finn. We put in some killer days recently. Motivation being....smokin' the smokies and gettin to hot springs.....i needed to chill. So we did a big day, stopped at Standing Bear Farm Hostle where a bunch of hikers were staying, but we just wanted pizza and then we would hike on and camp. A hiker named James had found and harvested a bunch of morrell mushrooms and brought them in, sauteed in butter and had himself a fine meal....i didn't get to try any. We ate and were all giddy from good food, and i had a soda so i was cranked, Huck Finn, James, and myself(Many Names) decided to night hike...so we took off and hiked until midnight making it a total 25.5 mile day, and cowboy camping under the stars!! (cowboy camping is when you are not in your tent, just outside in your sleeping bag)..such a treat after having to stay with a million people in shelters. Next day we ended up doing another big day, 23 miles, it just happened that way.....and then, ahhhhhh, hot springs. Everyone's so happy to get to chill.
I've met a whole new crew of awsome people in the last 2 days, it's crazy. When you meet someone new and introduce yourself, it's always like, 'Oh, yeah, I've heard of you.....' you almost already know people and can't wait to actually meet them. Someone said that in the world population 35% are introverts, on the trail, 65% are introverts....which is funny because everyone i meet, myself included are so outgoing out here.......we figured it's just because we are with 'our people' so were just as real as we could ever be and no need to hold anything back. I met this one girl, Firecracker, we think we must have been separated at birth, we are so much alike! it's amazing. There's two deaf people hiking together (Western from san diego and Red Tree from Oregon) in their mid-late twenties, they were hooked up by friends to hike the trail together. They are super cool and our paths keep crossing,it's been slow to begin communicate but we all want to know each other..so it's beginning. Western and i had a great conversation about surfing yesterday and i learn a bunch of signs. I can say 'crazy, wierd, awsome, dreams, sad, thank you, you're welcome, focus, hike, great, tomorrow....i just need to get the alphabet down so we can really get somewhere. Who would've have thought that this kind of opportuntiy would be here un the trail. The unexpected things blow my mind. I am so in love with everyone and everything. I just feel so much gratitude all the time. I'm so grateful for the conciousness and ability to choose my own path, no matter how strange, wierd, winding or hard it might be. I choose it. And i'm happy. And the tree was happy......The forest floor is brimming with little green things growing, and smelling of spring...Hooray...Love to everyone!!!