Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Spring Creek Shelter to Davis Mountain Shelter

Crossing the state line

8.9 miles

I’m having a hard time journaling now that I know I probably won’t be able to post these entries until I’m back in Chattanooga. It was depressing seeing all of these comments from friends in Cave Spring, knowing that all of you’d love to hear what’s going on, but running out of computer time to post. I have to let it go. It’s like on the boat. It’s worth writing, even if I don’t know when anyone will read my entries.

Tonight the moon rose low and orange behind the shelter. It looked like a harvest moon, even though I don’t know what a harvest moon is. Last night was both the full moon and the winter solstice, an occurrence that happens I don’t know how rarely. I watched the moon, chased by clouds, all night, staying up well past midnight by the fire.

Even tonight I’m writing more by moon light than by my dying headlamp. We’re in shelter country now. The Alabama trail association, evidently trying to live up to its Appalachian Trail counterparts, has built gorgeous three-sided lean-tos about every nine miles on their section of trail. They all seem brand new, and even nicer than the ones on the AT.

So far the trail has been well-blazed in Alabama, too, and far prettier. I don’t know how crossing an arbitrary state line can make that kind of difference, but evidently it does. It just goes to show how much a team of organized volunteers can accomplish. Not that they can make a trail more beautiful, but they can certainly make an effort to route it through more beautiful areas.

No comments: