“off the trail”
i sit now in a comfortable chair in a corner of the study at the williams house. a week ago i left the appalachian trail. it is still, i presume, in the mountains where i last saw it. i have no imediate intentions of returning to the trail soon, but, given time, i am sure i will find it again. no longer under any presumtions that i could call myself a thru-hiker, but with the title i now whole-heartedly embrace, that of a section hiker. so, that said, i consider the past month and a half the first of my, posibly several, long section hikes.
roughly a week into my first appalachian trail excursion i realized that i was not made for thru-hiking, but for, at most, month long trips into the woods. i would explain the whys and what-fors to you now, but there is a more fun idea brewing in my mind. as i am “off the trail”, to use the language of a thru-hiker when refering to those who were once of the same mindset but have now chosen the path which i have enbraced, i am at liberty to spend more time in telling the story of how i came to be in this chair.
over the next month i will post my journalings from the trail, as well as things i may have to add to my sometimes brief observations. consider it my homage to 24. the story is written, but i will not give it up all at once. i will dole it out daily, as it occured, over the next month. feel free to wait a month and come back if you want to get it all at once, but i don’t promise that it will be short enough to finish in one sitting. if you’ve ever tried to watch an entire season of 24 at once you’ll know what i mean (the last few hours you’ve just gotta prop your eyes open…but i digress). i do however promise to continue providing photographic samplings from the trip, and hopefully to introduce you to the characters in them as we go.
sorry to those who would have liked to see me go farther. the decision to cut the intended trip short was made fairly quickly, but with many good reasons behind it that hopefully will be made clear in the telling. thats all for now. thanks.
