Why

I suppose it is only appropriate that I start this blog with the question of why would I want to do another ordeal (oops, I mean trip) especially after knowing the hardships of long distance travel. This is an especially hard question to answer. Just as the desire to hike the AT steadily built over a period of several years, my desire to paddle the NFCT has also steadily built since returning from the AT in August 2008.

I can not seem to think about my pending NFCT trip without also thinking of my AT experience. The two seem to be connected. I once had a dream after returning from the trail that I could never go back to the trail, which is not to mean that I could not physically return. It just meant that the experience would be entirely different if I did go back, and I would need entirely new reasons for going back. Maybe this is partly why I have such a strong desire to paddle the NFCT. The NFCT will be an entirely different experience.

On the last night on the trail, several of us thru hikers discussed what kept us on the trial through record rains. None of us could explain in words why we stuck out the last 250 miles of daily rain and ankle deep muck. All we could say was that in spite of the misery, it was a very good trip. Even now , I still can not answer what it was that kept me on the trail through all of the pain and hardships after so many others left the trail. Only that it was a very good experience. I hope to have the same experience with the NFCT.

The AT was a life altering experience in ways that are hard to explain. I left for the trail with the fear of hiking alone or not knowing what I would do in certain circumstances. After a few weeks on the trail, I felt completely comfortable being alone for days. I also felt completely comfortable not knowing what to expect around the next bend or in the next town. That part eventually became what I most enjoyed about the trail.

The kindness of strangers was also amazing. I remember walking into Dalton, MA not knowing where I was going to stay the night only to have someone call out to me from his front porch asking if I wanted to camp in his yard. Another time I was hiking in 90F+ temperatures when a local city worker who was eating his lunch near where the trail crossed a road gave me a frozen bottle of water. What a wonderful experience it was to have cold water on such a hot day. Stuff like that happened often on the trail.

However, I also understand that the NFCT will be a completely different experience. Few people along the way will have any idea that I am doing a long distance kayak trip. With so few thru paddlers, I don't think there will be any trail angels. I will most likely be mostly on my own during the entire 750 mile canoe route. I expect the NFCT to be mostly a solitary experience.

I suppose the two ways the trail has changed me is that I no longer worry much about anything and I enjoy the sound of the rain while in a warm bed more than I ever could have imagined before the trail. I suppose I understand now how little I require to be truly satisfied. I suspect that I will continue these changes with my experience on the NFCT.

The AT was probably the closest thing to a religious pilgrimage that one can experience in the modern world. Mount Kathidin was always so far away that I could never imagine actually ever seeing it, but I kept walking day after day until one day in the Hundred Mile Wilderness, I actually saw it in the distance. It was only at that moment that I could feel the near end of my journey. I wonder if I will experience anything similar with the NFCT.