Inspirational

Some folks said to me before I started the hike "I hope you find what you're looking for". I appreciated the sentiment while knowing I found what I was looking for 25 years ago.

Nevertheless there was definitely some inspiration along the way and the first was Oct 2010. On my way to Tulsa to spend time with Alec:

I stopped for a night in Nashville and preached at the Clarksville Highway church of Christ on Sunday. Before services during breakfast I met a man they called Papa Smurf (Charlie Moffit) who shared some of his experiences having thru hiked the AT twice in his 60's and once with his wife. Can't imagine how he got the name:

That was the first bug in the ear, blip on the radar. Papa Smurf later went on to help build a shelter in Elizabethtown:

Well having passed the halfway point I'm still finding the experience tremendously inspirational. Indeed there are some sketchy people out here but most are cool and friendly just like life. And of course no one would ever look at Sparky crawling out of the hills all dirty, sweaty, unshaven and think "sketch"....right? 

The sabbatical side of the trek affords hours of time to think of future hopes and plans as well as present prayers and the family and folks I love. The current heat wave inspires me to seek and find air conditioning, bahahaha.

The Shenandoah Range inspired Cool Breeze to take the following pics:

Guess I'm the only one not to have seen one of these:

Thank you Papa Smurf and Cool Breeze

I had been looking forward to the Half Gallon Ice Cream Challenge in Harpers Ferry but strolled in too late. Theeeeeennnn I found another, even more famous at the General Store at the Pine Grove Furnace State Park! 

Not many folks are able to finish an entire half gallon of ice cream but I had been previously inspired and planning ahead. And that's the reward for success:

Thankfully one didn't need to eat using that spoon. The new owners of the ancient store had considered a more elaborate prized spoon but were told to keep this one instead.

As Cool Breeze learned recently, thru hiking is at least a full time gig. There's a list of things before, during and at the end of the day's hike that must be done each day and night. Setting up the tent is an obvious necessity, if it's raining or threatening I can speed up the process by humming the theme to Mission Impossible. Here, let me inject it into ur head: da da daaanana nat.

Speaking of routines, there's a great line in the following devo which speaks to the potential to get trapped inside them:

Wonderful Respite

While Scott Jurek completed his incredible journey I reached what most consider the half way point of Harpers Ferry.

I got into town late and actually ate and ran with a goal reaching my longest hike of 26 miles in 1 day as I wanted to reach my sisters the next day. 

Someone needs to change this sign to Summer as its July and 90.

The Patomac:

If you are able, read to the last line which speaks to when man plans and the "uncertainties of life":

An empty tomb

Another monument at this park:

There's so much history along the trail here, Washington Monument:

Personal as well. My sister Karen, mom, niecey Gina banina, bro-in-law Donald. Mom's in good hands.

I had an awesome visit and the rest did much for my feet. Kudos to Keen and thank you Phil for turning me on to them a few years ago as I put over 1,000 miles on them before buying a new pair:

My dear sweet mom suddenly showed me what she thought of my facial hair:

And my sister and I went for a 10 miler to get a pretty full experience of the trail:

In just a few short hours we went from torrential rain to sunshine:

We stopped at a shelter for lunch and met 3 other hikers then trekked on.

We saw a couple critters along the way:

And had a very close call which could have changed an otherwise great hike into a traumatic disaster. In 1,000 miles I had been warned of but not come across a poisonous adder. I had seen signs on the trail of rattlesnakes ahead (like the yellow jackets) even one that read of a rattler at eye level in the rocks near a view point. Karen was hungry so we stopped on the trail. As she sat a young hiker (20's) Tommy Boy and his mom Dr Quinn (because she carried so many meds) who Denise and I met back in Waynesboro came up. As I was talking to him, after a couple minutes, he said "COPPERHEAD!" He pointed down behind me but I couldn't find it. It took me several seconds to finally see it.

It was literally about 18 inches behind me and poised to strike. Had Tommy Boy advanced to pass vs stop before me and talk, I would have stepped back to let him pass and spent the rest of the day in the hospital.

Thank God and thanks to those who continue to pray as this was another occasion where this trek could have taken a sudden drastic turn for the worse.

My sister Karen is huge. No obviously not  that way. Early in this blog I mentioned an event in my life that changed my life forever. During a 2 hour family intervention the setting of which I remember vividly I can remember only one phrase that was said. I was leaving, my mind made up. My fiancé, mother and father had exhausted every argument they had. Tears in her eyes seeing my blind conviction Karen said only one thing "Jim, all I want you to know is that I love you and the church is praying for you."

Within hours of her utterance I would come to the unmistakable conclusion that I had not only been entirely deceived by the same evil that had captured my friend Kevin who I never heard from again, but that I had been rescued from it. The cult I was in remains ever stronger and more powerful to this day and known to many by the movie stars it has captured including one who visits it 5 days a week and undoubtedly has "donated" millions to. While it calls itself a church it is evil and for what damage it may have done it also gave me a heightened sense of not only cultic behavior which I can smell a mile away but a passion to help others who might need help recovering from such. Additionally, while surveys show most believe there is a God, most do not acknowledge the existence of evil or a force behind it. How advantageous to one who seeks to deceive, kill, eat and destroy than to have so many wallow in ignorance.