Day 1: In Search of the Promised Land
Posted on May 30, 2008 - Filed Under general |
For more than a week I have struggled to begin to put the story of my recent backpacking experience into words. It’s sad to admit, but for the first time in my life and at the somewhat less than tender age of forty-five…I found myself…in the beautiful mountains of Virginia with nothing more than a pack on my back, the friendship of three men, and a desire for adventure.
Without knowing what I had been missing, I had pretty much forgotten the priceless value of being occasionally separated from the creature comforts I spent so much time and energy in my adult life working to build.
It would be understandable if you wondered how to calculate the value of not being able to communicate with the outside world, with no roof over our heads, with no heat when we got cold and no a/c when we were hot. Did I mention there were no showers except the occasional ones from heaven…and not even a port-a-john along the way? And when it rained…there was no way to avoid getting soaked.
Any thoughts about the crudeness of our existence soon disappeared as Mike began to lead us up the first steep incline toward this unknown, uncertain, possibly even dangerous place that most of us had never before experienced.
So there we were. Four men, four friends, a four hour drive, a four hour hike with thirty-five pounds strapped to each of our backs for five miles on the Appalachian Trail, to this windblown hilltop clearing…in the middle of nowhere.
Two days, four men, out of control…immediately challenged and perhaps forever changed.
…to be continued
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