[at-l] Re: One year ago today

[ellen at clinic.net (Bob C.)]

Developing a sense of curiosity may be the best way to enjoy a through hike --
and perhaps to complete a thru hike, though in my experience, the latter is a
bit doubtful.

I love to hunt, but I'm a terrible hunter. Rather than looking for deer, I tend
to get distracted too much of the stuff around me. I don't seem to be able to
resist exploring old woods roads, checking the bog plants, evaluating alder
swamps for potentially great hiking sticks, seeing what's around the next bend
....

The same thing was true on the trail. You don't get bored if you're obsessed
with learning the names of every strange flower, every unkown tree; peering at
every strange bug, inspecting all the strange fungi.... Even as the season
progressed and I began to worry about winter, I couldn't resist taking all the
side trails to scenic overlooks and promised pretty waterfalls. I sometimes
think I would make a wonderful three-year-old.

The days sort of zipped by -- too fast as it turned out, I had to bypass
southern New England in order to beat snow on Katahdin. There just wasn't time
to do everything that "needed" to be done.

Weary