Craig and Suzy's 2006 Appalachian Trail Journal

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Day	Date	Start	Finish	Miles	Journal	Photo
92	6/17	Calf Mountain Shelter, VA	Sawmill Run Overlook, VA	2.8	Day: 92 Date: 6/17/06 Start: Calf Mountain Shelter, VA Weather: Hot and sunny Finish: Sawmill Run Overlook, VA Miles:2.8 Cumulative A.T. Miles: 858.2 Branch: Today's short mileage made yesterday's seemed long. We spent the evening discussing ending our hike here. As we hiked, my throat continued to not work. I had a difficult time climbing because I could not my breathing under control. We were still down after last night, so at the first road crossing we put out our thumb to hitch to the nearest campground so we could sit down together and write out our reasons both for leaving the trail and staying on the trail. Above all, we truly want to remain obedient to God in everything that we do. We are in a dry spell of spiritual conversation here on the trail and we desire to settle down, have a family, and get our life started. We greatly desire to see God change the lives of our fellow hikers, but we wonder if He is leading us elsewhere. I am also worried because I am finding that my throat is becoming increasingly problematic. Today we will call our family and friends for Godly councel. We will make a decision tomorrow as to what we are going to do. Clay & Branch
93	6/18	Loft Mountain Campground	Waynesboro, VA		Day: 93 Date: 6/18/06 Start: Loft Mountain Campground, VA Weather: Sunny and hot Finish: Waynesboro, VA Miles: 0 Cumulative A.T. Miles: 858.2 Clay: This morning we woke up and began heading down the hill to catch a hitch from the Shenandoahs back into Waynesboro. We must have stood in front of the Loft Mountain Wayside for an hour as people offered excuse after excuse for not wanting to pick us up. Finally, a very nice family picked us up and offered to drive us about 10 miles south to where we departed from the trail yesterday. We gratefully accepted the short drive knowing that hitches are typically easier in more remote places. We thanked the family, we departed ways at the overlook parking lot, and we began walking toward the road to catch our next hitch. We probably only took five steps towards the road when a fellow in the parking lot said, "Do you need a ride?" We were elated! I had just commented that the fellow looked like a hiker who had been trail angeling. His name was Sleeper and he had just gotten off of the trail. He had been helping his former hiking partner, Merlin, and now he was offering to take us to Waynesboro! The total hitch time in this parking lot was 1 second. It's peculiar how the sociology of hitching works. Fifty or so people passed us by and it took an hour to get a ride at the first place. At this remote location, no one passed us by and the hitch time was next to zero. Sleeper was a neat fellow. He had his Associates degree in Mechanical Engineering and he was probably going back to school in California. He had an interesting family life too. As a matter of fact, his dad was a monk at one point in his life. It was a lot of fun hanging out with him. When we got into Waynesboro, we bought him lunch at a nice Italian restaurant. He said that he enjoyed talking about the deeper things in life so we did briefly. After lunch, Sleeper took us to the hotel. There we saw Mayor Turtle. Turtle's is easy to recognize. He has a huge red beard, ear rings, and a nose ring through the septum of his nose. His parents are both blind. So, I hope he gets to meet Bill Irwin (i.e. the blind thru-hiker; www.billirwin.com) when he gets to Maine. Anyway, Mayor Turtle just informed us that we just missed Social and Dandelion by about an hour--darn. Will our lives ever intersect theirs on the trail? We got into our hotel room and we began planning. We are going to get away from the trail for a few days to think, pray, and physically heal. There is a lot at stake here and we want to be in the center of God's will. Clay & Branch
95	6/20	Waynesboro, VA	Somewhere in Kentucky		Day: 95 Date: 6/20/06 Start: Waynesboro, VA Weather: Sunny and hot Finish: Somewhere in Kentucky Miles: 0 Cumulative A.T. Miles: 858.2 Clay: Today we caught a $15 shuttle from the hotel to the airport. At the airport we talked to Karen at Hertz rental cars about our reservation. She upgraded us to a mid-sized car and we were on our way to Kentucky. Driving for the first time in three months was odd. What took and hour to walk on the trail took 2 minutes to drive on the road. Why are people in such a hurry? A big day for us on the trail is 20 miles. It took us 1.5 months to walk 500 miles. Today’s 500-mile trip will take 8 hours in the car. Driving through Virginia due West, we could see samples of the flat-topped mountains we had been hiking on. As we drove into West Virginia we joked that we had just entered our 5th state. The hills of West Virginia were really beautiful and they reminded us of home. As neared Lexington Kentucky, the traffic increased. Louisville is larger and we decided to stop short of the city for the night. It has been nice to give our weary bodies a break today. Clay & Branch
96	6/21	somewhere in Kentucky	Louisville, KY		Day: 96 Date: 6/21/06 Start: somewhere in Kentucky Weather: Sunny and hot Finish: Louisville, KY Miles: 0 Cumulative A.T. Miles: 858.2 Clay: We woke up early this morning, put on our new city-clothes, ate breakfast, and bolted to the airport to turn in the rental car. From the airport, we took a cab and we checked into Southern Seminary. The cab ride was interesting. The driver wanted to talk about Islam and she wanted to talk about the Da Vinci Code. When I was growing in Gwinnett County, GA my parents were members of two country clubs. When we got to the campus I was reminded of my polished youth. The lawns, flowerbeds, and hedges were clipped and clean to perfection. The buildings were beautiful. The staff was professional. Having just come from the mission field, Suzy and I are still dirty a little, we still smell some, and our feet and hands are calloused. The hands of everyone here are soft when we shake their hands. I feel like our worlds are clashing. The room that they put us in is nice--too nice. It runs $100 per night. For a hiker it seems opulent. Since they are paying for our food and they said we could eat what we want, having just come of off the trail, we probably ate about $75 worth of food today. We can't help it. Our bodies are still burning fuel like crazy. Maybe this bit of cushion will help our bodies to heal. We were thankful for their hospitality. When I met with the Ph.D. counselor, he said I'm only qualified to focus in philosophy and not theology even though my mentors wrote 2 of the 6 suggested books on their short reading list! How ironic. Philosophy is *much* more difficult of a program than theology in my opinion. I found it peculiar that I was qualified for a more difficult program and I was not qualified for a less difficult program—-very odd. Clay & Branch
97	6/22	Louisville, KY	Louisville, KY		Day: 97 Date: 6/22/06 Start: Louisville, KY Weather: Sunny and hot Finish: Louisville, KY Miles: 0 Cumulative A.T. Miles: 858.2 Branch: When we woke up today we knew two things. First, that God is not leading us to go to school here at Southern Seminary. Second, we believe that we are ready to go back to the trail. It is our hope that our physical problems have healed enough to afford us 1,000 more miles. So, we used their computer to book a rental car back to the trail and to look into a Southwestern Seminary to possibly attend after we complete our hike. Southwestern has two of the professors that Clay would like to learn from: Dr. William Dembski and Dr. Douglas Blount. While visiting the school, Clay was even able to promote Trail Chaplains to the school. Maybe next season’s Trail Chaplains will come from here! I am truly excited to get back to the trail. After tasting this bit of normal life, I realize that I truly love the lifestyle and the people on the Appalachian Trail and I want to help them to find the answers to the questions that I myself have worked through.
98	6/23	Louisville, KY	Winchester, VA		Day: 98 Date: 6/23/06 Start: Louisville, KY Weather: Sunny and hot Finish: Winchester, VA Miles: 0 Cumulative A.T. Miles: 858.2 Branch: Today was another day full of driving. While Clay drove the 500 miles to Winchester, Virginia, where we are going to drop off our car tomorrow morning, I worked on catching up on journals and emails. When we finally made it to Winchester, we threw our gear into a hotel room and went out to find dinner. This is a pretty big town, so we had our pick of casual dining restaurants. Neither of us had ever eaten at a Golden Corral before, so we decided to try that one. Boy were we surprised. It’s an all-you-can-eat steak buffet place for an inexpensive price! The steaks were THICK tonight. I think they lost money on us. We had a great time. -Clay and Branch
94	6/19	Waynesboro, VA	Waynesboro, VA		Day: 94 Date: 6/19/06 Start: Waynesboro, VA Weather: Sunny and hot Finish: Waynesboro, VA Miles: 0 Cumulative A.T. Miles: 858.2 We made a decision to go visit Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. It was about 8 hours away, they said they would house us for two days, and they would feed us too. What a deal! By visiting the school we can make a better educated decision about our next step in life. Even more, the time away from the trail will allow us to physically heal Suzy’s throat and my feet. If we are going to visit civilization, we need to look civilized. So, we caught a bus to Wal-Mart and we shopped for clothes. We have not worn regular clothes in three months. Heck, we have not worn deodorant in three months! How do I use a knife and fork again? When I started the trail I weighed 192 lbs. Nowadays I weigh about 172 lbs. I have dropped down to a size 34 pants from a size 36. I could fit in a 32 but it is a little tight. It was sort of fun shopping for clothes again. We look funny hobbling around town on our sore feet. We set up our car rental and rested. When we get back home we will talk to a financial planner. Maybe he or she will say that seminary is "profitable" (ha ha). Clay & Branch

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