Serenity

My hike that I did on the Appalachian Trail was difficult. None of those who went on it with me would argue that.

We ended up finishing the 41.1 miles in 72 hours. Little did we know as we were going along that the trail was expanded and relocated on one of our hardest days. Some of the moments were wonderful. The views from the tops of the mountains were great. Here’s a picture I took of the valley our campsite from the first night overlooked:

The next morning we had our quick trips up two mountains that knocked us around. The first one was a 1000 ft rise and the second one was 700 ft from that. They got up there. Let’s just say I was tired!

I titled this entry “Serenity” because of my favorite moment of the entire trip. No, it wasn’t when I got to put my pack off my back for good (although that’s a close second). After the first full day of hiking when we had the added sections, we camped beside a river. Have you ever seen the movie version of Norman Mailer’s A River Runs Through It (directed by Robert Redford I think)? In it, the closing scene is an old man fly fishing in a river with dark tints from the gorgeous sunset overhead. I had a moment where I could only say Thank You to God. I was filtering water (I ended up doing almost 8 liters at that stop) and I’d climbed over some rocks and was sitting about three feet into the river on a flat rock that was level with the water surface. It was gorgeous to just look down the river. Then something truly serene happened. I only wish I’d have had my camera with me at the moment (then again, I probably would have completely missed the point). Two Canadian geese flew overhead and landed about 50 yards upstream. They then paddled down the river until they were within 10 feet of me. They stopped and looked at me as I kept filtering the water. Not only could I not believe it, but then I couldn’t believe how long they stayed. It had to have been around 20 minutes with them that close to me. The only thing that kept going through my head was a line from the Joni Mitchell song “Both Sides Now”: I look at life from both sides now … it’s life’s illusions I recall / I really don’t know life at all. The amount of times this is true will be uncountable as I go through life. What’s clear is that this is one of them.

I made Bill promise me when he was planning this that there’d be some great views. The previous year we’d hiked to the top of one or two big mountains that didn’t have any views; they were just clumps of trees with no outlooks. This hike was hard, but the views were great. We topped mountains and could see 360 degrees around us. We went through valleys with luscious green ravines. We went by a great waterfall on the last day. The one view Bill couldn’t have planned for was two Canadian geese on a gorgeous river at sunset that made the entire trip worth it. Serenity. It’s something which we can rarely create. We passively fall into it and actively enjoy its benefits.