Poignant

 

 

I still imagine hiking the Appalachian Trail.  There is not anything specific about it that I need to see or do, but the thought of it, walking a 2,200 mile trail all in one go, is something that has appealed to me all my life, since I first heard about it.  I think I always expected I would get to it eventually.  From time to time a snippet pops up on my cellphone; someone’s account of their experience that day on the trail.  A lot of people now post reflections of their time on the trail, real time.  I don’t follow any one person in particular, just whatever pops up.

 

The last one I read offered a perspective that hadn’t occurred to me.  The first day off the trail.  After months on the trail, when that has been your sole focus in life, walking that trail; what do you do when it’s done.  What happens to you and your identity?  The account I read started off with a list, with each item crossed off:

 

I am a thru hiker

My name is To Go     (Trail Names sometimes appear out of conversations along the way.)

I’m heading North

I’m going to Katahdin

I’m just passing through

I’ve been on the trail for 6 months

I started in Georgia

I walked 2,000 miles to get to Maine

 

All crossed off.  Her account went on from there, about reclaiming the life she had before the trail, and the story was fine, but that moment struck me.  Now What?  That identity, the trail identity, your focus for so many months, it’s suddenly gone.