[at-l] shining moments... and music music music

[sloetoe@xxxxxxxxx (Sloetoe)]

Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2003 08:25:43 -0500
From: Felix <AThiker@smithville.net>
...
And, the Flys' "Got You Where I Want You"  puts me right where
the sidetrail to Spence Field Shelter and the AT meet. The air,
mid 20's at best, kissing my neck...the sun, proud of the
incredible beauty it had just cast over my little world, had
settled comfortably behind that mountain, and then the
next...and, so on. I imagine, if there was a way to prove, or
gauge such a thing, that moment...the moment when I got back to
the AT from the shelter...and, that song started...and, the
memory of that incredible sunset was still trying to find a
place in my head...that may have been the most complete moment
of my existence.
However pathetic that may be...

### Felix J., you be sooooo wrong. And what's more, you *know*
it: that's why you wuz out there. VT (Little Rock Pond?) in the
rain, ME (Barren/Chairback?) in a hurricane, or in lurid blue...
I had a couple of candidates. Where space and time and effort
alllllll come together.

(I think that's often what I'm searching for when I run an
ultra-marathon -- those periods when it alllll comes together.
That was my thought with my first ultra [just NW of your
cabin-in-de-woods]: I'd never experienced anything so close to
an entire throughhike as to run 50 trail miles in a day. Sad to
say, but I don't think I've come close since that first one.
Gotten hints, slight tastes -- but what the hashers call "gross
athleticism" sneaks in, and makes it a "race" [and the hashers
scream "Competitive behavior! Competitive behavior! Down-downs
to him!!!"]. Sunday afternoon, when I motored down to Fontana
Dam from Russell Field in the Smokys -- *that* was a taste -- a
goodly bite, really. Just riding the ribbon of the trail as it
lay over the mountains, ridge upon ridge, ripple upon ripple,
feet crunching steady and loud, passing trees like they were
standing still. *Big* taste, of all just coming together.)

### MMMMMmmmmmUUUUUUsic? Ahhhhh.
* Bob Dylan's "Tangled Up in Blue" still puts me back at Hawk
Mtn with the Perham Bro.s and the rest of the 4/8 starters.
* Down south, I always started out slow, and finished in a blaze
of glory. Going through my head in the morning wuz Marshall
Tucker Band's "Desert Skies", but by Jingo, come evening, we're
talking Eric Clapton's "The Core" from Sloehand. Yeah!
* Hiked through the Smoky's blooming flowers with Renaissance'
"Carpet of the Sun" -- one of my favorite songs...
* Did Frank Zappa's "Montana Song" in a frigid, packed-full Ice
Water Springs leanto, to loud applause.
* Lots of pre-"Duke" Genesis -- "Follow You Follow Me" and such.
* Lots of John Denver -- I could do the entire (LP) "An Evening
with..." album start to finish, including the chit-chat.
* Going into Port Clinton, I got Ozark Mtn Daredevils (one of
their lesser known really sweet songs) in my head, and when I
hit the little 5 & dime, they were on the radio. I flipped out,
yelling "Turn it up! Turn it up! PLEASEEEE turn it up!" till the
woman obliged. Phew!
* But right after that, I found myself going back to a song
that, anti-DISCO boy that I wuz, grossed meo outto. "How Deep Is
Your Love" from the Bee-Gees. But I wuz cruising at just the
right clip, and would find myself humming along, and then the
words would pop into my mind, and "EEEWWWWWWWW!". This happened
often. Scary.
* And if you can imagine this, I bushwhacked/blue-blazed into
Stratton, Maine... I not only wanted my food drop, but I wanted
to get into *and*  *out* of town that day. I came down to a what
I guessed wuz the correct unnamed road (on the map) -- it wuz
headed in the right direction, as wuz the lay of the land, so I
went. CRANKED. And into my head came The Beatles' "Get Back".
Man! You ever want to cover some ground... try *that* little
ditty in your head. Sheeesh! That could *hurt* somebody.
* Neil Young's "Comes A Time" sooooo acoustic, playing on
Jonathan Higgenbotham's beautious stereo in Stratton Maine --
brand new house, and the only thing set up was the stereo and
the fridge -- completely full of Molson Golden Ale -- looked
like a TV commercial.

Nowadays...... Dead, Dave Matthews, other (and old) tunes I sing
with the SmallBoys, and ye ol' Capricio Italian and Rhapsody in
Blue (forgot to mention those from '79...) Getting on the trail
last Saturday, I had Jack Johnson locked in my widdle bwain.
Great stuff.

Yeahhhhhhh, and it alll llllll llll shines.
Sloetoe
(currently playing Keb' Mo' "Big Wide Grin")

=====
Spatior! Nitor! Nitor! Tempero!
   Pro Pondera Et Meliora.

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