Today we got up and had our last pot of coffee with Mountain Man and Karma. It was a very difficult morning for me. I packed my things slowly and headed over to wake my trail family up to all have coffee together and say our goodbyes. When it was time to go I hugged Mountain Man and Karma. When Karma and I hugged I started to cry, and not the graceful one tear down your cheek cry, but an ugly Kim Kardashian cry (if you don't know what that means type in Kim kardashian crying on Google). When I hugged Karma I could feel how much she loves me and I hope she felt my love too. We hugged tight and long and then some more! Then I turned and walked out onto the Appalachian trail, softly sobbing. I felt like I left a big chunk of my heart with them. I literally experienced heartache. I don't think I can explain how close we got. I don't think unless you have long distance hiked, that you can fully understand the friendships. The trail brings all sorts of people together that may have never interacted in the "real world" but we all share a common goal out here. We all go through the same problems. And knowing that I am not going to be sharing these experience with two members of my trail family hurts.
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| Mountain Man, Karma, Bubbles, Sprout, and Whiskers last morning together |
As soon as we got on trail it started to rain. I told Karma the gods were weeping today because we were splitting up. I cried as much as the sky did, I couldn't help it. Whiskers hiked with us today and that made me feel a little better and I tried not to cry as much in front of him. We are grateful to be hiking with him. It makes it easier.
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| I love the wildflowers on the trail |
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| Moss covered rocks |
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| Whiskers traversing a stream |
When it really started to rain hard we sat under an overhang of rocks right before a cracked boulder on the trial (it’s similar to the Lemon Squeezer) Robby, Whiskers, and I ate some food and relaxed, trying to wait out the rain.
The rain didn't let up. When we got to the campsite it started to rain even harder. Putting up a tent in a torrential downpour is a challenge. We figured it out by putting the rainfly up first and then got underneath and put up tent. Everything was wet. I sat on a hemlock stump and cooked dinner. Water was streaming off both of my knees and the hood of my jacket like I was a gutter. I was laughing until the Lightning started. Then, I started to get scared! Not because of the lightning, but because I looked up and all the trees were swaying way too hard for me. I thought to myself "I'm going to die tonight" We didn't die though and the rain let up. I went to bed thinking of my dear friends and how much I missed them.
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