Eloquence by Guacha, 2009 A.T. Thru-hiker

It's that time of year, when a couple thousand people don backpacks and start hiking the Appalachian Trail at its southern terminus on Springer Mountain in northern Georgia.

Most of them are thru-hikers, who intend to hike the entire length of the A.T., finishing 2175 miles north at Mt. Katahdin in central Maine. For many of us who are non-hikers or past-hikers, it's the time of year to start watching for journal updates from this year's hikers.

This week, I ran across the blog of one of this year's hikers, Guacha. Her April 16th entry is quite an eloquent description of the spiritual aspect of long-distance hiking. It is especially insightful for someone who is just 100 miles into the journey, when a person could still be adjusting to the significant shift from street life to trail life.

I won't attempt to paraphrase, except to say that what she writes is just as applicable to street life, where it may be more difficult but still possible to pull some attention away from "survival thoughts" and notice the glorious gifts of the Universe.

Blessed be!