Week Six, 2022

Tuesday 
April 19
Hello from the Mountaineer Falls Shelter! Yes, this is technically the eighth week since I started, but there are two weeks where I was at home paying some doctors to make sure I could get back. Let me say it was money well spent.
Getting back to the trail was a logistical feat that involved my whole family today. My sister Laura came to my house last night and stayed so that we could get up at five a.m.. We had to get to the Atlanta airport by seven thirty so i could catch the first flight to Greensboro, NC. My sister Julie and her husband Rory then brought me from the Greensboro airport right back to the spot where I left the trail on April 2. 
Julie and Rory dropped me at the trail at 2:30. We said goodbye again and I started off on the second leg of the hike. I always find it sad when I leave family like that. I don't know why. It is not like I am leaving forever, but it is always sad for me.
If you have been reading the blog, you know that I completed 395 miles before I went home. Today, I completed 8.9 miles. That puts me over the 400 mile mark! It is just another small victory for me.
I have seen two large waterfalls today. I saw Jones Falls first. It is very impressive. Second was Mountaineer Falls. The shelter in which I am staying is named for this waterfall. As I lie here I can hear the falls in the distance. It makes me wonder about the acoustical qualities of waterfalls in the woods. I wonder why you can always hear running water for a long way when you are hiking.
I will say that I am glad to be back. Two weeks ago, I did not know if I could come back. I know lots of prayers went up for me. I am thankful for every one of them. By the end of this week I plan to be in Damascus, VA. It will be another small victory to add to the stack.

Wednesday
April 20
I put 17.8 miles on the board today. I am not saying that to brag. I am saying that to tell you that it was hard. My time off trail made my trail legs soft once again and I had to stop a lot today. It was the warmest day so far for me. I am also not used to the warmer temperatures so I also drank a lot of water just to keep going. All that being said, I did get to see a great waterfall toward the end of the day. The waterfall is called Laurel Falls. The shelter I am staying in tonight is named for them. The falls are not too tall, but they are very wide and there is a large volume of water that comes over them. I did not see it, but the AT guide book warns swimmers not to swim too close to the falls because there is apparently a large whirlpool that is very dangerous.
The people who set this section of trail up were very clever. The trail descends into Laurel Gorge directly in front of the falls. When you get directly in front of it, the trail has a flat spot so you can take pictures if you like. The trial then turns right to follow the river down stream. Here is where it gets interesting. In about 100 yards the trail literally goes to the bank of the river. The right bank is a sheer rock face. At some point, someone cut the trail into the base of the rock face. You are now hiking about a foot or so above the current in the river on a shelf that is about two feet wide and not very smooth. It is a good change of pace from the mountain laurel tunnels that dominated most of the scenery today. 
I am now at the Laurel Fork shelter. I am the only person staying here so far. I must be between hiker groups. I did not see a single soul today until lunchtime. It is pretty fun to be alone with only your thoughts to keep you company. It is amazing what a brain can conjure up when it is given free reign to just go where it wants to.
Tomorrow is another long day. Lots of uphill and 15.8 miles to finish. It is 6:55 p.m. and I am about to make my bed and get in it.

Post Script
On Thursday, April 21, I injured my left foot. That injury took me off the trail for the rest of 2022. I did not hike one step until September. I was mad at myself, mad at the trail, and devastated that all the work I had put into my hike had ultimately failed on the side of a mountain in Tennessee. I came home and just sat with my sore foot in a bucket of epsom salts and tried to stay away from the world. I was embarrassed that I could not say that I had finished even one quarter of the trail. I did not want to answer the questions of Why and What happened over and over. All I wanted to do was stay in my house and sit.
As time went by I got used to not being on trail. By October, I was planning to go back in 2023. By December, I had formulated my plan to return to the AT!
As I sit here in my house, it is January 10th, 2023. I am once again planning to begin the adventure of a lifetime on the last Monday of February. That gives me roughly seven weeks to get everything packed up. I am starting from Amicalola Falls again this year. 
There is a small plastic tag that you are assigned when you register as a through hiker. I have the one that I was assigned in 2022. It serves as a reminder that I came up short. I want my 2023 tag to be a reminder of my success for years to come. As I start again in a few weeks, I plan to keep a daily journal entry of where I am and what I see. I would be pleased if you would come along as well.

JW



In seven weeks, I will have a new tag!
















































































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