AT – Days 40 to 41 – Moon Over I-70

DATE:  Nov. 25 to 26

START:  MD 17 Wolfsville Rd, MD

FINISH:  Stealth site close to Sky Meadows Side Trail, VA

DISTANCE:  67. 2 miles (108.2 km)

DAILY AVERAGE:  33.6 miles (54.1 km)

TOTAL DISTANCE:  1202.3 miles (1934.5 km)

Moon over I-70: Whilst making my way over the walk bridge which spans I-70, I was struck by a sudden urge to moon the oncoming traffic……..Twenty five years ago I wouldn’t have given it a second thought…….Automatic…….But now I’m 43. A semi-respectable citizen. My beard flecked with grey, my hairline receding, my bladder ever more active in the wee hours (get it?)……….I paused…………just one for old time’s sake?……….channel my inner Dylan Thomas (see below) and “rage, rage against the dying of the light”??………….but no, those times have passed………..with bowed head, an ironic grin and a melancholy twitch in my bum cheeks, I walked on…………like a retired gunslinger in the old West with an itchy trigger finger; the will is there, but the nerve is gone……….the nerve is gone………

Harper’s Ferry Blues or John Steinbeck meets the Appalachian Trail: I arrived in Harper’s Ferry just after 4pm on Sunday, November 25. The plan was to pick up my resupply box at the ATC office, and get back on the trail ASAP. Alas, the best laid plans of mice and long distance hikers. The folk from the ATC hadn’t collected their mail since pre-thanksgiving; I had no choice but to wait until the following morning and go directly myself to the post office. So that’s what I did. It meant an extra few miles walking back from the Harper’s Ferry hostel, which I wasn’t over the moon about, but such is life. On the positive side, it was good meeting Dave T and Laurie at the ATC office and the hostel, run by the indefatigable Lauretta, was a cool place to stay and one which I would highly recommend to future AT hikers. I finally left Harper’s Ferry about 10 am on Monday morning. I had lost half a day, but on the flip side had met some great people, saw sunrise over the Potomac, received some surprise cookies from Sweet Pea and Beardoh and managed to down a quart of eggnog before I hit the trail. Love that stuff.

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on that sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Dylan Thomas