CDT Day 65 (7/22/23)

Miles 1582.7 (Red line 1801.5)- 1616 (Red line 1834.8) (33.3 miles)

Verbatim

Today has been a great day, and despite my camp sight being inundated with mosquitoes, I mean completely encompassed, I’ve made a stand-by solution to being eaten alive. It’s not perfect, but it’s getting the job done. I put my tarp over the upper half like a blanket! There’s plenty of room beneath this “bubble” for me to write and brush and study the next day’s map. It’s not too hot, which is the current problem with cowering under my sleeping bag, and the mosquitoes which do somehow get in through the cracks are generally disoriented enough that they spend more time trying to escape than biting me. And a few do get in, because there are hundreds outside…

I met more Mormons today! Jason and his stepfather (who was very talkative). They’re scouting Knapsack Col for a youth group camping trip Jason is leading next week. Jason is expecting his third child! They gave me some fruit chews and a salami sandwich. I ate more pork on trail! It was very yummy… Yesterday there was a kind couple form Denver who gave me some fruit snacks and a coco-coconut energy glop thing. So much trail magic from other people!

I also got to talk to a family with two young boys out on a camping trip. They’re from Alaska. it was fun to see the little ones with their little backpacks. They said, “It’s too hot here!” hahaha.

The Col was a fun climb and I got to FaceTime my dad from the top! There were supposed to be ice caves on the side glacier I ascended rather than the trail. I couldn’t find them! That was a bummer.

Oh, and the wildflowers today were amazing.

Post Note

Whenever I encountered Mormons on the trail, which happened enough times to be notable, I always asked them if they’d seen The Book of Mormon. You should watch it. It’s a great show. This one talkative step-dad, who again was super kind and sweet and lovely, worked for the PR department of the Mormon church! Yes he had heard about it. Score. hahaha. I liked that play because I thought its critique of Mormonism had a lot to offer Seventh-day Adventists (my childhood Christian denomination) as well. I felt spoken to when I watched The Book of Mormon.

That sandwich man. Salt and fat and protein on bread with some mayo? Dang… that’s good. That’s the good kind of trail magic. The kind that just seems to spontaneously erupt when people realize they have something to sacrifice for one another. I was dreamy about food. I could spend whole days imagining the process of making pies, pasta, granola, applesauce, sautéing onions and garlic and ginger. Even doing the dishes. Anything to feel the warmth and satisfaction of home. So yeah. The forty seconds of a coco-coconut ball stuck in my throat or a salami sandwich tasting funny in my mouth was wonderful. And I was an inspiration to these guys. I was proof you could make it up and over the Col. I was the bringer of good news. Surely that was worth celebrating with a salami sandwich!

I remember the couple from Denver. I caught them just as we arrived at a shallow but wide stream crossing. There was no way to keep the feet dry so we three paused and a moment to take off our shoes and conversation opened up. They were both beautiful humans. I remember asking them on the other side of the water, as they were putting their shoes on and pulling out coco-coconut glop, what they did and how old they were. They were professionals from Denver on vacation in their young 30s. I remember looking at them both really intently and telling them they were a sort of vision of what my life might be like. I was trying to decide if I believed that could happen to me. None of this striving alone. None of this “monumental task” BS. Just hanging out together. No contemporary friction noticeable between them. Just thankful and looking around while happily munching on a family recipe. It seemed like a myth. Something I had which fell apart. Or maybe never really manifested.

I remember L was really frustrated with my drive to do all these hikes and the fact that I pressed myself to do them so quickly, harshly, and intensely. She was sort of like, at least how I heard and can reword it, “Slow down and let’s just let the adventure begin together. Why are you rushing to finish your adventures before me?”. And I was like, “I have to finish this triple crown as fast as possible because it’s a beautiful dream I have and it’s something I need to do while I can rationalize it with my summer breaks and then I can finally be present and we won’t have to worry about these burdensome trips anymore”. It wasn’t about finishing the adventure before I could commit to her or begin the adventure with her. It was about honoring the fact that who I was, and what it meant to adventure with me at this time in my life, was someone who needed to go do these trips. I was trying to be as efficient and responsible as possible about both being true to my own dreams and available and honoring to “us”. I totally missed her. And then here are these two adults from CO just hanging out eating the homemade coco-coconut stuff that’s a family recipe they carry on together. Oh. Oh yeah I see now. That looks wonderful. I wanted that too, you know. I just also wanted to thruhike by myself.

The rest of the miles after coming down from the Col were a real cruise. I remember that I was feeling really good. I almost stopped at the campground but decided to throw down another mile and a half. Then I slept in a cloud of mosquitoes. It was a bad night even though my evening journaling has a tone which implies it wouldn’t be. Apparently there was a real hiker party at the campground that night. I learned about that later in town, if I’m remembering accurately. I would have enjoyed that…