Waking up uncomfortably early, we were able to watch the mists coming out of the valleys maybe an hour after sunrise. One region sent up a tower of mist as the sunlight hit it. I like mist a lot, and the hills had that layered, mysterious look to them. So, ater starting the morning with that view, we flicked the dead caterpillars off our tents and left camp through the Kittatinny Mtn blueberry fields. Which meant John had three or four breakfasts. Following maybe the second breakfast, we saw a black bear with its head down in the berries- it wasn’t very close, but I’ve harvested a steady fear of bears while backpacking over the past 5 years or so. That was the first one I’ve seen while hiking, and I had a healthy if unreasonable jolt of adrenaline. A couple hours later, we saw a second, much closer bear that paused, stared at us, then reared up to get a better look as we moved out of its sight. Don't know what it did after that because we were busy pretending to calmly walk away.
At a water pump by a road, we met a kid from Texas who's a ridgerunner- he makes sure hikers know what they’re doing and that they’re having a pleasant and safe experience. I don’t know his name, but he was such a genuinely friendly lively wonderful person that it made me understand that I'd probably enjoy talking to people on the trail more than I'd foreseen. One of the reasons I decided not to thru-hike this spring/summer was that I wanted to spend some more time around people than what the trail would provide. But, I'm much braver and more talkative now, apparently I can’t predict myself 6 months ahead of time, soooo ah well. I would completely love to be out there right now.
The other person we met who really affected me was an older man doing trail maintenance with his son. John and I had laid out our tents to dry while napping in the grass around a fire tower. The son came and sat down, bouncing about youthfully and complaining over pack bruises, and then the old man meandered up and peered down at us. He’d thru-hiked 15 years ago, and I wish I remembered exactly what he said, but it was something along the lines of: “Hiking the AT will change your life. It forms a base for the rest of your life and you will realize what you don’t need. Even if you don’t do the trail, do something out of the ordinary. Don’t let yourself become materialistic because then you won’t be happy, and don’t let your life become something you don’t feel.” And then he wished us a very heart-felt good luck, and you could tell he was talking about in life, not in finishing our little hike, and they left. Lately, on backpacking trips, I will start to feel more focused, more observant, and more like myself come midday on the second day of hiking. Well, maybe I’m never more or less myself, but I definitely prefer feeling the above things.
Okee doke, the third and last day out, we saw another bear much much closer, and I wasn’t afraid- I’m more convinced now that they really don’t pose much danger. This one ehhh, a mix of leaped and lumbered and fluffed quickly away when it saw us. It was kind of endearing and very ebony black. But, that's probably the last of any ATing for me for a while, though my dad and I are off to Connecticut soon for more backpacking.
