What are the odds?

First off, thank you for all of your words of support and for subscribing!  You have been wonderful and a tremendous help.

I obeyed an inner voice that told me not to rush just because there was a group behind me.  I needed to “hike my own hike” as the expression goes around here.  Not two minutes later, an aspiring thru-hiker ahead of me popped her ankle badly, ending her trip.  We escorted her down to the road where an ambulance met her.  There is a 25% success rate for thru hikers, and I now have a lot more respect for those who made it all of the way.

Taking it slow was also the advice of an agent of the Forest Service, who does this professionally in Wyoming and who was staying at the same shelter as me the second night.  Yet I’ve learned that the pack skips from shelter to shelter (skipping camp sites), and that has made me stretch a little to reach the next one.  The second afternoon, I found myself on a rock .7 miles uphill from a shelter, wondering whether it was really worth pushing onto the shelter when some new friends encouraged me onwards to join the pack.

Then the pack fell apart, with the experienced young ones going further and a number of people calling for a shuttle into town at the highway crossing.  The problem was that the next shelters were either in bear country or far over the highest peak in GA.  Bob, who seems to be going the same pace as me, escorted me to the campsite below bear territory, where I found two of the pack and two section hikers, so I stayed the night and awoke to the sound of rain.  (Bob went forward to the road junction that evening, called a shuttle and went to a hostel over night.). It rained much, much, much more than the forecast for the town below us.

I took on the highest peak in GA, Blood Mountain, in the rain, and it was a challenge!  First challenge, about an hour up the trail: encountering a bear cub twenty yards from me, without a momma in sight in the thick woods!!!  He ran up the hill.  I prayed my rosary louder than ever for awhile, first standing still for several minutes, then while hiking the next mile.   I kept praying it out loud later, as I had only seen one other hiker that morning.  I made it over the summit without a problem, but coming down a steep summit in the rain is, well, slick.  I took part of it on my butt (intentionally), part of the bouldering parts without my pack on my back, and the rest of it exceedingly slowly, one well-chosen step at a time.  I ended the day at an outfitter/hostel on trail, so as to get dry, get a shower, get a pizza, and join a new pack and Bob (rather than take my planned off day in town).

Yesterday reinforced that I have a great mission in life, that I’m where I need to be, and that God is protecting me and guiding me — seemingly almost tangibly.  It has been very spiritual to pray out here, and I think of Jesus and Moses out in the wilderness.

This gives you a sense of the journey: I think I’ve saved a toenail from coming off. I also need to make a shoe repair when the shoe is dry enough to take it.  But all is well — my spirits are high and my body is doing great.  So, I’m doing well on my goal of 400 miles.  If anyone is betting against me, the odds may be in his favor.  Yet I may be willing to make a Dodgeball-style bet on myself once the betting odds get even sweeter.

A special thanks to Austin, who has been a huge support and has sent the best text to date: “I'm glad and a bit jealous you have started this journey. It doesn't matter how far you go just that you do what you need to do for yourself.”

My current location, Neel’s gap, is the traditional opt-out place for some hikers.  I’m pushing on, in the rain, but I accept the journey as whatever it will be, no expectations.  Each day is a grace.