But why?

After I got off the trail, I was genuinely happy to be home. It was good to get back into the groove of home life,  being back with my partner, our dog and seeing friends. There were chores that needed to be done – spring cleaning and the like. And since I was home before planting, I turned my garden over and weeded it. Even planted some onion sets.

I went through my phone and deleted some contacts that I knew I would not use again. I trashed the notepad that had all the music quotes I used throughout my blogs. In case you missed it, many titles of my blogs are song or album titles. I love music and missed it dearly while hiking. 

After a few weeks passed I started to think about why I left the trail. It’s true that my knees were in pain.  It’s also true that I was over carrying 35 pounds on my back. The snow and cold took alot out of me those last two days and the thought of spending hours upon hours by myself in that shelter sent me over the edge. But honestly,  loneliness should not be the reason I gave up on my dream. And the more I zeroed in on that, the more it gnawed on me. The last straw was watching a Ramdino on the Trail video and seeing all the hiker updates, knowing that I should be somewhere up in Virginia.  I teared up and turned to my partner and said,  “I’m so sad”. But she knew. She knew for awhile that I was unsettled being home. 

Last Wednesday we made calls to board Ripley (surprisingly they had a late cancelation). I called Mountain Harbour and they had a private room available.  And just like that, I was packed and ready to go within an hour. The next morning we headed out at the ungodly hour of 1am because Dawn couldn’t sleep and we got to the hostel around 4pm. Friday I was back on the trail. 

I’m around all new hikers. There are no familiar faces. I’ve bumped into a few repeatedly already. I learned how to download music to my phone to help combat the loneliness that will creep in. My challenges now are the hiker bubble (which is why I left February 27) and norovirus (same reason). Bears have woken from their hibernation and snakes are afoot. The snow that I encountered in March is now rain. 

I have a huge day planned tomorrow so I can hit Boots Off hostel in 2 days. The forecast calls for a steady dose of rain for the next 3 days. Welcome back.