Cindy and I met as part of a group that hiked the Appalachian Trail in 1980. Having thru-hiked the AT already, I attempted to show off my know-how. To lift the group’s spirits after a drizzly first day of hiking I declared to everyone: “Don’t worry, I feel dry air blowing in!”
On the second day our group encountered a hurricane. My credibility was shot even before being established.
We started this stretch packed for three days. On the second day out we encountered a downpour for the whole day. For lunch we took a side road up to the Grouse Nest Resort, where we changed clothes and a manager who looked a bit like Santa Claus put the ones we were wearing in the dryer while giving us hot soup. We also found protection at our next stop, Ash Caves. The overhanging cliffs surrounding a waterfall provided protection from the rain, which allowed us to break and enjoy the natural feature.
Unfortunately, the little bit of schadenfreude while anticipating the weather back in 1980 recurred when we set up camp that night. I felt quite proud of the way I had pitched our tents during the journey, surviving a blizzard in Cripple Creek while a neighboring tent collapsed, withstanding a fierce thunderstorm that created flash flood levels of seven feet in the canyons below. We were at a closed campground for the night, but the outhouses were open and we sat in them for almost an hour waiting for the rain to subside again before setting up the tent. Twilight finally forced us to act.
Our tent had a separate rain fly that draped over the mesh top of the tent. This system creates breathability. Just as we finished putting up the tent, but before we could get the fly on, the heavens picked that precise moment to send us a deluge. Within a few seconds of the mesh top being exposed a good quarter inch of water or more had flooded the inside of our tent.
We thought we were going to encounter the Triple-Crowners Boston and Cubby this day, according to the updates ADT trail coordinators were sending us. They would have doubled the amount of ADT thru-hikers we encountered on our journey, but apparently we missed them around the time we were hiding in outhouses. From what I understand, Boston and Cubby became the fourth and fifth Grand Slam hikers when they finished. Since we finished earlier in 2012 than they did I became the third. Ken and Marcia Powers were the first two Grand Slam hikers.
Fortunately the rain subsided by morning, allowing us to remain in camp for a while to dry out the tent. We got to dry out completely and in style at the end of the day, when the proprietors of the Georgian Manner B&B spotted us passing through. BJ and Linda King previously encountered ADT thru-hikers in 2010; when they spotted our backpacks they figured we must be doing the same thing. As an added bonus I interviewed BJ about his involvement with building the first free school in Honduras, working with Medical Ministries for a time and his current involvement with Village Mountain Mission.
Because the town of Logan was our planned stop we called Ky to come pick us up for a rendezvous with Dan Priedeman. Dan and his son Doug hiked for the first month with the Continental Divide Expedition I organized in 1985. We stored a batch of my System out of Balance books with Dan to replenish all the ones I sold during the journey …. except I did not sell any.
Despite my father being a traveling salesman, or maybe because this, selling was never my thing. Authors are supposed to publicize and market their books, but I abandoned all such activity to become Cindy’s caregiver. I doubt I even mentioned my book more than a handful of times out of all the presentations I gave about kindness and community, even though my research for the book uncovered the alarming decline in community involvement across the nation.
Systems out of Balance described how our social systems. Based on the lessons of kindness and community experienced during this journey, if I were to write that book now I would prescribe as well as describe. I doubt I will get around to publicizing Systems out of Balance when I am no longer a caregiver, instead I will work on new material to prescribe those human virtues that enhance both societal and brain health.
Fortunately, the type of reception we got at our next stay, the Trinity United Methodist Church in Logan, more than compensated for my lack of salesmanship. The time changed for our first morning there, requiring us to wake up in the dark basement of the church in order to make the Sunday church service, but were rewarded with the rising sun streaming through the stained glass windows of the sanctuary. I sang in the choir during the service and was quite proud about anchoring the choir with the bass line, despite the organ only playing the melody, until I found out afterwards the church gave up harmony for Lent.
After the service I gave a presentation to an adult Sunday School class, called Progressive Christians in Action, where they took up a collection for donations. I doubt they were rewarding me for singing bass during a unison choir sing. After a second service there would be a lasagna dinner, but we really felt like we had to get started hiking again before then. No problem, the kitchen crew prepared us lasagna meals to eat during the second service.
We set out from the UMC for an overnight camp on the Buckeye Trail. We ended up by a small stream, the light shining later in the day due to the time change, warmer weather causing both buds and spring peepers to come out. In other words, we experienced a normal day of hiking and camping, with the only abnormal event being the party balloon we discovered in the midst of the woods and carried with us, with the words “I Love You.’
The day after we experienced drenching rain again but were able to stay at another UMC church in Glouster at the end of the day. I joined their choir rehearsal that evening; fortunately, they had not given up harmony for Lent. Pastor Rick Setter and wife Vickie ordered pizza for us all to eat in the church that evening.
With the opportunity to spend more time with some of the people we met along the way, our support person Ky made a few close friends as we hiked. Rick and Vickie became two such friends. Since the journey ended Ky has been out to visit them on their farm, usually combined with cross country trips she continues to take with her teardrop camper.
We learned in Glouster that local controversy raged over Burr Oak State Park, due to imminent plans for fracking. Locals were concerned for both the degradation of the clean water in Burr Oak Lake to be used in the fracking process and the fate of the State Park. In particular, locals were worried about Burr Oak Lodge, a large employer for the region. We met park employee Erik Borchers at the shore of the lake, who happened to be an avid hiker with the shared experience of having climbed Mt. Katahdin several times. He informed us that the park would not be closing but he did not know about the lodge.
We hiked along a small part of the lake until we met two people by what was called Dock-3. Andrew Bashaw was Directory of the Buckeye Trail and he was there to meet up with Lady Bug, the trail name of a woman thru-hiking the trail. We first heard about Lady Bug from the proprietors of Rivers, Roads and Trails. She started hiking the 1500 mile trail on September 20 and was now nearing the end. Between Andrew and Byron, whom we met at Serpent Mound, we got the impression that all the Buckeye Trail staff and volunteers go the extra mile to accommodate hikers.
Our destination that evening was yet another UMC church, located a surprising distance away from populated areas. We were there without Ky, as she was spending more time with her new friends Rick and Vickie. Parishioner and neighbor Sharon Williams came briefly near dusk just to open up the church for us. We cooked our dinner outside amidst the solitude of birdsong and stars breaking through the twilight on a warm evening.
Cindy could help me set up our tent by this time in our journey, but had yet to touch the cook stove. Outside a secluded UMC church seemed like a good venue to try, given how important cooking and baking used to be for Cindy. Alas, she still shied away, as Cindy’s growing confidence in her mind did not extend towards working with fire.
