VA 606

Date: 4/26/04

Starting Location: Jenny Knob Shelter
Destination: VA 606
Miles: 6.5
Total Miles: 606.9

You’d think that sometimes you have to lose your head before you start to see things in focus. Well, for me, that day was yesterday. In hot sunshine, with a body that just doesn’t seem to work right in the heat, I couldn’t seem to muster the mental strength to overcome the day–something I’m rarely if ever able to forgive myself for. But today, it pours, and I’m back in focus. Some people might see that as being quite backwards, thinking that sunny days are good, rainy days bad. Not to say a windy, rainy day hasn’t played a part in bringing me down at times, but I’ve always been one to see the good in rainy days. And it’s now I realize that making a good day out of a rainy one isn’t as grand or dramatic as overcoming your environment, but simply recognizing weather as another element of my day–no greater or lesser than any other, and never inexplicably controlling the emotion of the day. And so it went today. It rained. I walked.

Spent a great night in the countryside with the Pokey Puppies, Skyline and Sundance, and Burning Boots and J-Bird at a trailer home offered up by a very generous local named Jack. Hard to beat a drying machine and heat amongst such great company on a wet day like today.