Getting Started on the Appalachian Trail

“I think I want to do a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. How should I prepare for that?”

Here’s my answer:

Go out for a day, then a night, then three or four nights. Go out for short walks in all four seasons to test your gear. One landmark in preparation is to go out long enough to have a resupply or maildrop, say 8-10 days. With the experience of finishing a 3-5 day section, taking a townstop, then going back out, you’ll have the basic idea of a long distance walk, which is really a long string of 4-day walks without going home in between! That’s the best part of long distance journeys. Resupply, rest, cleaning up and going back out!! read more

Sense and Nonsense: Useful words

Walking into my dream of creating a hiking lifestyle has been a journey of many steps. Just like in a long walk in the physical world, manifesting a dream has pauses at beauty spots where light shines and the view is crystal clear.
In my wilderness of bringing my hiking lifestyle dream into reality, a light flashed when I realized that the two realms of the sensory and the non-sensory are both accessible and useful to me.
The sensory realm is what I can access by using my five physical senses. I see, smell, hear, taste, and touch things that have become “real”. This realm puts me walking on a specific trail, or having the perfect backpack show up, or a client calls for an appointment.
The Nonsense Realm, on the other hand, are all those “realities” that are difficult to explain, to describe, to access with physical senses. And yet, I discovered that they help me bring my dream into physical form.
Intuition, gut feelings, emotions are examples of nonsense phenomena. Healers and creators talk about “chakras”, energy centers related to specific beliefs and ways of being in our lives. I started playing with these and discovered that these are phenomena in the “nonsensory” realm.
They can be strengthened and accessed through sensory activities: sound, light, color.
My favorite way is through my Nonsense Painting Journey. read more

Mingus Creek poetry

Standing next to a rushing stream in the Great Smoky Mountains Park I jotted down a poem in a “diamont” style. Nature calls me to observe her constancy amid my sanguinity.

Mingus trail stream
White rushing
Flowing unaware alluringly
Beckoning me to wilderness
Free purposeful refreshing
Journey’ s inspiration
Constancy