Does light have mass? ...that is perhaps a question for another day. Today I am more concerned with how lite our gear can be for the hike. Sally and I stopped into Prolite Gear here in Bozeman today. Their employee Brad was a most helpful and informative salesman. He is quite obviously a total gearhead who is absolutely amped on light weight products. It was a bit of a paradigm shift in our attitude toward just how light, lite can be. We are stoked to think that we will have everything we need to be comfortable on the trail, yet feel like we aren't carrying hardly anything at all.
The picture here is a bit deceiving. It would appear that Sally and I have already hiked the Appalachian Trail as we are indeed standing at the northern terminus. It was only a day hike however. I was doing a 6 week residency at the Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts in Newcastle, ME and we decided to hike Mt. Katahdin, the tallest peak in Maine. Starting the hike we learned that it was the end of the A.T. This got us to thinking! It was about mid September and on the way up we passed several individuals who were coming down the mountain having completed the whole trail. At the summit were a few more folks, who having just finished, were basking in the glory of a long walk complete. We talked with all of them. Upon asking the big question, "Was it all worth it?", not a single person hesitated in responding that it was pretty much "the best experience ever"! That solidified it for us. If we were able to take the time, and weren't tied down to anything, we were doing it. Here we are, no mortgage, no kids, no car payment, not even a dog. Our big concerns are for our two Koi and our plants.
It is 2012, and it seems like a good year to get out. Just getting out and walking in the woods, meeting people, sharing ideas, thinking, reading, observing and moving are what I'm looking forward to. There are a lot of predictions for big change this year. It is an election year. We've got the Mayan calender, Hopi prophecy, global economic woes, political turmoil and an environment in need of careful attention. I don't know what will happen for sure, but perhaps at the very least this will be the year that our global society realizes that we need to operate a little more harmoniously. We have amazing technologies and brilliant ideas that can make our problems part of our history, if we are able to work together. Motivating me for this trip is a feeling that our simply being out there with a positive attitude and a willingness to embrace change is stepping in the right direction. Where we go from there will be determined after we come down Mt. Katahdin, again.
