The hardest 26 miles of my life…
May 25th, 2006Hiking the Mid-State Trail on the Atkins Diet – Via Flickr
I still need to sort / delete and in some cases rotate, but you can get the gist just by looking.
Monday: Woolrich to Ramsey/Bonnell Flats, Tuesday: Ramsey/Bonnell Flats to Little Pine State Park
While I was watching the slideshow I had an idea. It may be out there already, I don’t know. Anyway, the whole time I was watching I couldn’t help but to wonder what you (and/or K) were thinking. I thought it would be “neat” if say with each picture there were a narrative. “This turtle about scared the bejesus out of me” or “This pile of shit smelled better than the last”. While it may sound silly, I am being serious. I’m sure it would be time consuming, but I think it would be worth it. Then of course you, you could always have the narrative as an option.
You have a bunch of gorgeous pictures in the sets. Some I would call amazing. A couple thoughts. Nice Pearl Jam reference with the pic of the yield sign. No matter fresh or aged, you seemed to find every pile of shit in the woods…
Something else I find interesting. Your love for those things at both ends of the scale. You love to get back to basics. Camping/hiking. Going on the trail with no more than the pack on your back. Then the other end, the technology. No matter how far back I go, I can always remember this about you. In all your adventures, it all gets shared through modern things. Digital cam/comp/internet. It’s interesting how you blend opposite ends of the pole together so well.
Maybe one of these days you can humor yourself with a training wheels hike. Something Julie and I could go on without killing ourselves or loosing my foot along the way. Viewing everything and with all the wonder I have, I feel like I’m missing so much. I’m sure it was tough, and I’m sure you loved it.
That is an excellent idea, creating the narrative. I have a couple short movie clips that somewhat had that idea in mind, sorta capturing (at first) the peace and beauty of the trail along with (later) the grim determination bordering on despair that came with the pain and knowledge that there was another 6 miles to go and my body was slowly failing…
I started adding comments to the pictures in that set, if you bypass the slideshow. I put them in chronological order, by looking at the map I should be able to figure out what happened where.
I think computers, complexity, modern society makes me sometimes need the simple facts of 1) everything I need for the next 48 hours is on my back and 2) the only thing I have to do or think about is this little trail through the woods.