I value this thought:

"Conversations that clarify, improve, and expand or extend our thinking are respectful and uphold trust; attacks that just trash a work break the trust in which the work is shared. We want free speech, differences of opinion, and a field that doesn't have to be overly cautious. But trust abused silences people, and that is not free speech either!!!"
http://www.ruthmalan.com/ 

I want to refer to this in the future, so I thought it best to document the link here for easy access later.

Hiking again

On the Appalachian Trail in Georgia, winter is releasing its grasp, and spring is barely starting.
This little flower was along the AT between Gooch Gap and Woody Gap in the North Georgia Mountains.
We hiked 6 hours along the AT, from Coopers Gap to Woody Gap, in preparation for hiking El Camino de Santiago, in Spain.  The distance is shown as 8.4 miles in my old out-dated guide book.  I used Endomondo to track our route on my cell phone, and it measured 16.5 km (10.2 miles).  Being that the app was paused for 20-30 min. while hiking, I think we actually did a little more than 10.5 miles.  I had paused the application during a break at Gooch Gap shelter and forgot to restart it when I got back on the trail.


I learned yesterday that my Michelle had never seen the inside of a shelter on the Appalachian Trail.  Here's our picture at the shelter.

At Gooch Gap Sheter

 When we started the hike at Coopers Gap, which by the way, is at the tip of beautiful Gaddistown valley, it was very windy and cold.  The wind was literally roaring through the trees as we climbed the mountain out of the pass.  Michelle was grieving over the fact that our #1 son, who was hiking towards us, was wearing a windbreaker and no other sweater or jacket.  She regretted not giving him one of the pull-overs she was wearing.

At Coopers Gap
The road behind us goes to Springer Mountain, the start or end of the Appalachian Trail.
The other end of the trail is Mount Katahdin , in Main.

Once we got over the mountain top, it was much nicer.  As it turns out, num-one-son and his friend were hiking on the sunny, down-wind side of the mountain.  They never got cold.  This is the view they had during the first part of their hike.

They started hiking from Woody Gap and we started at Coopers Gap.  We met in the middle and exchanged keys.  Well, it wasn't quite in the middle.  They hiked much faster than we did, so they got to our car earlier than we got to numonesones.

We are sore today.  This pain has made me realize I should not invite anyone else to join us on El Camino de Santiago.  The pain is made tolerable when taking into account the reward.  In one regard, hiking is like fasting.  When it's done without purpose, it's just enduring pain.