Monday 11 April 2016
My face and hands seem swollen this morning, but we need to get back on the trail. My heart is heavy as well… My uncle passed away and I feel disconnected with the family. Our available communication seems blunt. The last news we got before setting out on the AT was that he was improving, and we had been hoping and praying. It is difficult to deal with these questions. A few years back doctors were almost certain he had cancer. After prayers the next test revealed no traces of cancer. We were so grateful for the miracle, which medical staff so often trivialise by categorising it as a wrong diagnosis. At least hiking provides some space for wrestling with old hurts, disconnects, unresolved issues and to talk to God about messed up and missed opportunities and about not understanding this outcome.
Before we can get back on the Trail we need to resupply. The outfitters at Neel’s Gap is outrageously expensive though and it is frightening to imagine another week without greens and other vegetables. At least we got two small oranges and two satchets of vitamin C. At 12:40 we set out on the next leg behind the hostel. We meet Susan and Betty who also plan to sleep at Whitley’s shelter: a whole 1.2 miles from the Trail.
Along the route I manage to take a photograph of a small mouse: instead of immediately running off, he sits in the path, staring at me like a rabbit bewildered by the headlights of a car. At one point we have to top up our water supply and while sitting in a clearing we are met by an enthusiastic and thirsty dog: Dexter, as we would later come to know him.
The last ascent is incredibly steep and the extra 1.2 miles do nothing to lighten our mood. Arriving at the shelter we find two Environmental studies students already propped up on their sleeping bags and reading. Another young man JC, who did Film studies and creative writing arrives. He confesses that he has a warped image of Africa. The five of us claim the shelter platform. It is our first night in a shelter and I am a bit apprehensive about the experience. Later the two girls with the dog pitch up: Dexter belongs to “Timber”. She has a really close relationship with her dog: sharing water and food. They pitch a tent behind the shelter. Later Susan and Betty turn up and also pitch a tent outside the shelter. JC and the Environmental Studies girls play cards and later dabble in a bit of card divination with JC even venturing to explain the I-Ching. I have a restless night waking up from time to time and scanning the stripped trees in front of the shelter for bears and other imagined and disturbing things: but fortunately fall asleep again.