Week 3

Week 3 Friday-Wednesday 

Listening to Kind of Blue while crossing a half dozen footbridges along a valley of cascading shades of brown and evergreen was existential today. I love all of this time alone in the woods and where it lets my brain go. I get so lost in thought. I'll start thinking something like "Why is Miles Davis so excellent?" and then that will lead to wondering "What defines excellence?...who decides?" The rabbit hole of thought goes might deep when you are walking from sun up to sundown everyday. 

Needless to say, I am enjoying my time out here. The week has been full of fun and tranquillity. I have been averaging about 15-18M per day with my group. Sometimes we hike together, other times, we hike in pairs, or alone. We will usually set a rendezvous spot for the end of the day, and however you make is up to you. 

Our stent out in the woods this time is going to last a full seven days. We were rained out one day so far, and I finally had to take my first zero (no miles hiked in a day). The rain was pounding down so hard that we couldn't get out of our tents long enough to pack up our gear without getting totally drenched. We spent the day sequestered in our tents instead, eating all of our snacks, and hiking no miles. Besides that day, we have been blessed with good weather, which makes for long productive days and good morale.  

I'm not going to lie, hiking is a lot of the same. Everyday, I wake up to the sun or rain beating down on my tent. I make coffee around 6:30 AM, I do my chores, and I hit the trail by 8ish/9ish. I walk until about 6PM everyday. At the end of the day, I set up my tent, eat dinner, and go to bed. (I am getting spoiled though with the Boy Scouts in my crew making a fire almost every night that it doesn't rain. They are the best.)

I'm sure I will hit a wall eventually and hit the "burnout" stage of this walking all day charade, but that is the nature of doing anything over and over again. It will happen, but I will adapt. I will say that throughout the days of constant walking, whenever I am not feeling it, something will happen. I will walk through a sea of ferns so long and wide that I can't see where they end or begin. I will pass a beautiful over look, or the largest Oak tree on the southern part of the trail.

I will reach a road and get to stop and have a cheese burger and ice cream for lunch, or I will see wildlife up close like I never have before. 

A wicked climb the other day brought me to a monument for Audie Murphy, one of the most decorated veterans of WWII. Regardless of what it is, there is usually a pretty awesome part of my day that makes all the walking worth it! 

Bringing up this idea of "burnout" and how most days are full of a lot of work with only a brief moment of awesomeness reminds me of how often times people will get burned out on sobriety. Some will relapse. Relapse is apart of recovery, unfortunately. Others will move to a new place, or change things around them in order to make sense of why they are doing this whole no drinking or drugging for life thing. 

For me, I have to reevaluate my purpose constantly. Sometimes, I even have to change my purpose, which can be dreadfully fear provoking. 

Either way, if you can keep going, one step at a time, one second at a time, it will all be worth it. If I could convince every addict of this one concept, I could obliterate addiction completely in an instant. Unfortunately, we are one of the most unconvincable hard headed group of people on the planet.

I always do three things in order to not "burnout" my sobriety, and keep my life fulfilling. First. I go to a meeting. I simply go to a meeting to hear from others who have gone through addiction. I listen to their stories and within minutes, I identify with their experiences, their thought processes, and their struggles. I am immediately reminded that I have an abnormal relationship with alcohol/drugs. I can't have just one, and I will never be able to have just one. That is just not how my brain works. I know this, but still I must be reminded of it constantly. The mind is a tricky thing. It tends to forget the bad and hold on to the good. I think this is a defense mechanism of some sort, but for me, I know I must be reminded of the bad in order to keep my good going. 

The second thing I do in order to keep my recovery on point is to seek accomplishments in sobriety that go beyond simply not drinking. In the past, I have taken up marathon running, and finished up a college degree. Today, the accomplishment I'm working on happens to be the AT. It doesn't matter what the goal ends up being for you. What matters is that it makes you feel good about yourself. Eventually, if you do this often enough, you find yourself becoming addicted to accomplishment... and this is a good problem to have.

Lastly, and most importantly, I constantly try to help others who are suffering from addiction currently. This help can take many forms. Telling people about my story to instill hope in others is an example. Educating young people about the psychological processes at hand when it comes to addiction is another. Even just simply lending a listening ear to another person who is struggling is a form of service. I do all of these things constantly because if someone had not done the same for me, I wouldn't be here today. Recovery is something you must give away in order to keep. So on the trail, when "burnout" happens, I will talk to others about it. I will probably pick up some side goals (the blog is definitely already one of them), and I will reach out and help my other cohorts if they are not feeling the whole 2189M thing on a particular day. With these three approaches in mind, I will hopefully keep my purpose on the trail clear, and not loose sight of my goals.

Today the "worth it" moments on the trail were visits to Dragon's Tooth and The Home Place. Dragon's tooth was this massive rock formation about 6M up a rocky climb. The decent was no joke either. When I say we had to climb y'all, I mean we had to climb. 

The climb was worth it though because the view was spectacular. 6M later, me and my five cohorts found ourselves at The Home Place Restaurant. It was an old country house on a beautiful farm with boarding house style serving. All bets were off after the extremely vertical hike we had that day. We ate our faces off.  

Thursday- Saturday Today I bark at you from the Super 8 in Daleville, VA. The last three days have been intense. My group and I have covered almost 60M since Wednesday, and the climbs have not been easy. We are taking a zero today and will be back on the trail Sunday. 

Yesterday's 19M trek had a pretty nice stop along the way though. Mcafee's Knob is the most photographed spot on that AT. They say that if you didn't get your picture on Mcafee's Knob, then you didn't really hike the AT. I stopped for several snap shots. Luckily I got mine in before the token naked hiker behind me went in for his. 

We hit a ridge line of cliffs shortly after the knob where my friend Howdy and I accidentally went off trail. We ended up hiking right below the cliffs on a very steep ridge. I almost died as usual, but didn't fall, and eventually made it back to the trail. 

I packed out a 20oz. Red Bull and ended up flying into town first (I'm never first). One medium pepperoni pizza and a hot shower later, I was almost feeling human again. The crew showed up later and I ended up eating a second dinner at a local BBQ place where they had live music and free banana pudding for hikers. It was amazing.

Today my zero is being thoroughly enjoyed. My body definitely needs it. My ankles and knees are super sore and swollen, but other than that, I haven't had a single injury or sickness. (Fingers crossed). 

I also got a marvelous hitch from the outfitter I went to today back to my hotel. A woman named Lois F. And her husband picked me up, and on the short ride back to the hotel, we were able to make a great connection. She is a former marine and current RN who runs New Freedom Farm. She is the founder of this nonprofit program which helps heal veterans suffering from PTSP and SUD through animal therapy. She gave me $20 for my KSU CYAAR Scholarship Fund and wished me luck for the trail. Full of gratitude, I told her I would share her info. on my blog for anyone interest in donating to her foundation. 

I'm nearly half way through Virginia, but still have a long way to go. My fingers are crossed for good weather as I prepare to hike out tomorrow. Thanks for reading guys! See you next week.