[at-l] Gutsy's out there for a week

[DanandGailSC at aol.com (DanandGailSC@aol.com)]

Gutsy could not pass up the opportunity to spend a week on the AT.  I had 
been planning to drop her off at Dick's Creek Gap today, but Frank and Paula 
Looper offered to give her a lift to Springer, and she accepted.  

What a difference 8 years makes!  In 1996 she was so eager to begin her thru 
hike that she left three or four days earlier than planned.  She was like a 
race horse out of the gates--9 hiking days from Springer to Fontana Dam.  Mental 
fortitude carried her to Katahdin when Lyme disease almost stopped her in 
Vermont.

Today she found it difficult to stir from the warm spot by the heater.  So 
many thing are different.  After her 1996 thru hike she earned her undergraduate 
degree in education and is working on her master's degree.  She has a job, 
four granddaughters, all under 6 years of age, and a stronger marriage.  She has 
experienced back problems ("bulging" disk) in the intervening time, and I 
worry about her carrying extra weight for cold weather hiking.  I wish I could 
accompany her, as I frequently do, and lighten her load.  Gutsy's love for 
hiking is still strong, and she has completed 1500 miles of her section hike on the 
PCT.

As for a day-by-day "real time" journal by the stay-at-home, I think it could 
be dreadfully sad and boring.  I would favor a retrospective account.

Gutsy's Dan, veteran stay-at-home spouse