Delaware Dave and His Walking Stick

"If you see a man with a bandanna and curly dark hair...that's Delaware Dave," said All In, as we took cover with Quest Seeker in a lean-too from the driving drops. After the skies stopped crying and the puffy cotton-balls parted to reveal the blue, Quest Seeker was eager to press on. All In was a bit hesitant, "the father in me wants to stay here so that you won't be alone tonight, but the hiker in me says that you decided to do this alone...as I'm walking away just say, 'It's okay dad, I'll be fine.'" Alone and with some of the day left, I decided to press on.

Tall, blue vibrant eyes, and permanent smile, I rounded the corner to find Delaware Dave. "Do you mind if I take a picture of your feet?" He asked, "I don't have a foot fetish, I just want to document this." I positioned my feet on a rock and he talked about how awesome it was as he focused and snapped. 

"I like your walking stick," I said. He gave it a squeeze and said that there was a lot of positive energy in it. It was tied with about ten multi-colored hemp bracelets. "My friend makes them for me every time I go on a camping trip. They all represent a different positive energy, I wear the bracelet on the trip and after it's through I tie it to my stick." 

He had been on the trail, heading North, for five months and so I asked him if he had had any issues. "I have lot's of issues," he laughed as he pointed to his temple with his index finger. I laughed and specified physical issues. Apparently he's only had one blister the whole trip and it was from borrowing another man's shoes for a day after his soles had had enough with duct tape. After the bubble trouble, he called the outfitter right away and ordered a new pair of his trusty kicks. Other than that...nothing!

"Some people on the trail, wake up in the morning, look at their guide books and decide on a daily destination, but I just hike. When people ask where I am going to that day I say North. You see one time I planned on having my friends pick me up at a checkpoint and the thought of needing to get somewhere at a certain time changed my whole hike. I finally called them and told them I would let them know when and where to pick me up. So, I don't make plans anymore." 

Delaware Dave delivers a powerful message, that in order to walk through this life with happiness and health, it is necessary to go with the flow and to let intuition be your guide. 

He wished me a physically, mentally and spiritually healthy hike and then we parted ways but I like to think that some of that positive energy radiated to me. 

D.A.R.

I stayed at the Lakeshore House Lodging & Pub in Monson, ME where Ms. Rebekah, allows certain individuals to work for stay. It was while I was in the laundry matte washing bedding and towels that I saw this man in his sixties sitting at a table by the window. He looked like a cross between George W. Bush and Robin Williams and he had these bright blue enlightening eyes that drew you closer to him without you realizing. "Are you a thru-hiker?" he asked. "Doing a work for stay I presume?" "May I ask what your ethnicity is?" "Irish, Scottish, and a bit of micmac Indian," I replied. He was holding pamphlet about colloidal silver and its applications. This has been a practice for thousands of years dating back to the Greeks and Romans. In fact, the use of sliver colloids for treatments of  infections was used up until WWII before antibiotics became the standard (http://health.centreforce.com/health/silver.html). (you can check out this website to see all the applications of silver colloids).

So after this man showed me his pamphlet and I scrolled through some of the uses, he started saying that everything has a silver lining and that we are all connected. God is really Mother Nature and if we are good to Mother Nature, she will be good to us. He spoke of his friend, a pure bread Indian, of whom he attributed   much of his teaching to. He started talking about this idea of a spirit, that our physical bodies house an invisible power that can connect with people. It's the vibe you get from people, you can tell what state their spirit is in. This man kept saying that he could tell I was doing this walk to be closer to nature and that I need to remember to "walk the walk." At this point I was only a couple of feet away from this man and I was getting goosebumps but I knew it was because our spirits were connecting.

He told me that he could tell I had good parents because I was not averting my eyes as we spoke but I could not stop looking in his eyes, as if I were in a trance.

He suggested that I meditate. He also told me to take my time finding a mate because he could tell I was still trying to figure some things out about myself and the union of two people, when it is right is a bridge between the male and female hemispheres of the brain, a powerful connection that is worth waiting for. "Walk the walk" he continued to say. He claimed he was not crazy but that he has been accused of being so and it even cost him his marriage, but he has experienced many miracles.

He said that everywhere he goes he goes for a reason and that he came to Ms. Rebekah's to do laundry but he realized it was also to meet me.

"I hope I have helped you," he said. Then I shook his hand and thanked him, for what I was not sure at that point, but I knew that he had helped me in some way.

I think of this man everyday. I had a few epiphanies after I met this man and while I was home on break due to Achilles tendinitis, one being my love and need to pursue further education in the realm of alternative medicine, and two being the need to confront several people in my life for the health of my spirit.

After confronting was complete I went to the library to get a book on osteopathic medicine, an alternative medicine practiced among medical doctors. I found the book and continued to scan the shelves when my eyes caught, "The Anatomy of the Spirit; The Seven Stages of Power and Healing," by Caroline Myss, PH.D.

I opened to the foreword and the first line read:

"On rare occasions, you may meet a unique person who dramatically alters your perceptions of the world and of yourself."

Instantly I was flooded with that goosebumpy feeling and I thought of the man with the bright blue eyes back in the laundry matte in Monson. So I checked this one out as well.

The book is about medical intuition, the ability to determine a persons site of illness and the factors contributing to it by mere visualization. Dr. Myss, reminds us that it is not a gift but a skill that can be acquired with years of practice. She talks about the seven spiritual centers of the human body and how they radiate energy and that they thrive or become deprived, which can be detected by a change in frequency of this vibrational energy. Thoughts, ideas and perceptions start off as chemical messages and eventually get stored in the bodies tissues, therefor, our mind and body are intertwined and cannot be separated. Myss says that illness does not randomly strike people, instead it is due to any of the seven centers running low on energy due to negative thoughts.

Dr. Myss uses the words power, energy and spirit interchangeably as they all are synonymous with each other. Your second spiritual center your second chakras is about your relationships with people and it recommends that you do not hold grudges, and that you need to forgive others, in order to release the negative energy inside of you that may lead to illness.

I was amazed because I cleared my "rackets" with the individuals in my life that were draining my spirit and I did this after I met the man in Monson, before I knew how he had helped me and before I had any knowledge of this book on the shelf of my library back at home.

The silver lining is starting to show its glint, because I got tendinitis and stepped off the trail and decided to go to the chiropractor I discovered my love for alternative medicine and therefore visited the library and found this book and it is this book that made me realize what the Man from Monson helped me with- clearing my body of negative energy.

She Chose Down

 When I left my spirit back at the Pleasant Pond Lean-too in Caratunk, ME, 150miles from Katahdin, I was on a Greyhound bus thinking what do I do now? I yearned for the trail because I still had life's questions incessantly knocking at my door reminding me that, "you're not in high school anymore, you're a college grad, you can't get away with having an entire degree under your belt and pull off, 'I don't know what I want to do but I know that I could never see myself in a cubicle,'"

The truth is I had no direction in my life so I chose South. Maybe I did this subconsciously, but while my college peers were applying to grad schools, or going to job interviews, I was, during my fifth and final year of text books, saying, "ummm, I want to be on my own, know that I can take care of myself, experience the wild, and figure out what I want to do with my life."

I am not speaking for all thru-hikers, but the ones I met shared a similar story whether it be that they dallied with college but had no idea for a career path (myself included), or they just got laid off or quit their dead-end job, therefore put themselves on a path that had a clear and defined direction: AT heading South to Georgia or AT heading North to Maine.

On the road again

Out with the itinerary and in with the moment. From the wise words of the Dali Lama, "do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment," so this is what I am doing right now: I am typing, digesting, and my brow is furrowed...I need to stop doing that.

Take a Hike!

I got realigned about a week ago and I feel as if I have a new set of legs. I can sneeze without worrying about Valsava's maneuver tweaking my sciatica, after long periods of lying down I can spring up with the spunk of a ninja, and in the morning I get up and get going, I still get a kick out of the lack of pain. I am telling you, if you have any issues with your body...go see the chiropractor.

Now I can look and feel my age!

So I guess in a way I was doomed from the start of my hike. I had the foot problems just waiting to happen due to my slanted sacrum throwing off my alignment. But now that I have been adjusted  my injuries have healed up quickly and I am ready to take a hike...again.

My feet feel as if they have toughened up over the past 2 weeks, thanks to all the good nutrients and overabundance of food. So I am ready to take on the trail barefoot and all for round...three.

Round 1- hiked until I had to get off and shed some pack pounds and get away from Jon (a topic for another post)
Round 2- Hiked until my tilted sacrum caused Achilles tendinitis and foot pain
Round 3- We'll have to leave this blank for now.

You see, I'm starting to realize that you can plan, plan, plan but life happens and we are left saying, "damn, damn, damn."  My experience is proof of this, as I had planned this trip for ten months and had to make adjustments in all aspects including: footwear, clothing, bug protection, food, gear, itinerary, expectations, and my bodily alignment.

My mother reassured me the other day while we sipped our lemonade on the front porch that my story was a perfect example of learning by doing.

So enough with the plan and more with the do. From now on it will be "one quarter mile at a time."

Because plan backwards is nalp which, if said quickly, sounds a little bit like somebody from Maine saying, "nope," which is a reminder that things don't always go as planned, but according to the wise words of Malcolm Forbes, "failure is success if we learn from it," and let's just say...I've learned a lot!

Realigned

My Achilles tendon is still a bit sore, although it doesn't creak anymore, and the top of my right foot feels as if one of the metatarsals is fractured, but this is speculation since I am not a doctor...yet.

After discussing these physical drawbacks with my parents they suggested that I visit the chiropractor, "they'll be able to realign you," they coaxed, "and tell you whether or not it's a good idea to be hiking barefoot."

So, I made my appointment and they were able to slip me in same day.

"One leg is definitely longer than the other," I told Dr. Elad.

"Don't ever let anyone tell you one leg is longer," he said as he drew my legs together and pulled to see where the two lined up, "because your legs are the same length."

I was shocked. I thought I was just asymmetrical, since there is proof of being so in my feet, the right one is larger, my eyes, one is lazy, I have a more photogenic side to my face, one clavicle sits lower than the other and the fingers on my right hand are whole ring sizes bigger than the digits on my left. So I didn't bat an eye to the thought of my left leg being longer.

I have also seen proof of this in the soles of my sneakers that I have had since 2007. Whereas my sister expires her sneakers every 6 months (which means I get a new pair of kicks about twice a year), mine never retire. At least this pair has not, they have hung around for the past 4 years. They have been up and over Lafeyette, through the subway of Kings Ravine, over Mt. Madison, reached the summit of Mt. Washington and selected for a few first dates. How would anyone be able to part with them? Today they have holes, the seems are busting, the insoles are almost worn through and they feel more like slippers.

Before I left I was out on the front porch getting some sun. My trail runners were set side by side in front of me and I inspected them as I lay on my stomach. That's when I noticed the asymmetry of the vibram soles. Whereas the inside of left sole is worn down more than that of the right shoe, the outside of the right sole is worn down more than that of the left shoe. It looked as if for the past 4 years I had been walking sideways on a slope. That day I made a mental confirmation of my uneven legs.

So back in the examining room, Dr. Elad explained that my sacrum (the triangular bone that sits behind your hips (it is sandwiched between L5 and your coccyx) was askew and pinching my L5 (the last vertebra of your lower back.

This can cause pinching of the siatica (the longest nerve in your body that runs from your lower back, through your gluteus maximus (your buns) down through your leg and to your big toe. I have suffered the pinching of my sciatica for at least 7 years. I have been embarrassed to say it because I am young and it makes me  feel like a geriatric. It acts up quite a bit and it the worst when I get out of bed in the morning. I end up doing this slow-motion routine where I roll on my side slowly slide my legs over the mattress' edge and plant my feet and rise while I brace myself for the shooting pain. Yes...that is me at 23.

It also affects circulation since it is slightly cutting off one of the biggest suppliers of blood to the lower limbs. This explains my compartment syndrome. When I was in high school, I was dancing intensively, six days a week and I was experiencing a burning sensation just above my ankle on my left leg. As this fiery state continued a hard grape-size lump appeared.

The surgeon explained that you have compartments in your lower legs. Think of a hot dog in its casing, the hot dog being my muscle that was being constricted by its casing. So she performed what is called button-hole surgery where she made little incisions and sliced the compartment. In theory, this would allow the muscle to expand before the casing closes up, resulting in a larger casing and a hot dog that can breathe easy.

Imagine that, the surgery cost thousands of dollars, but $40 for a chiropractic visit was all I needed to discover the route of my symptoms and to get popped back into place. It is curious to note that the surgeon said, "we don't know why this happens." We had to pay her to say she didn't know the reason for something that she was conducting surgery on to fix (can you really fix something if you don't know the route of the problem?). The irony is almost unbearable.

So with a torque and a body slam (that's what it seemed like) there was a loud POP! "Ok, your sacrum is back in place," said Dr. Elad. "Wow, just like that?" I said, "just like that," he said with a twinkle in his eye.

He went on to explain that your body will try an fix itself. For me, my sacrum was tilted so the bones in my skull were tilting in an opposite direction to counter the attack (this is all physics). So he proceeded to torque my head and adjust my vertebral column.

"Let's check out your legs now," he said.

He had me lay on my tummy as he pulled my feet out, "there," he said, "same length."

He also said that I was going to feel like a new woman, that it was fine to hike barefoot, and that it was probably time to expire those exhausted shoes "it's going to feel weird walking in them since both legs are planting normally now."

So thank you Dr. Elad, whom we mid as well refer to as "Elad"-din, since he definitely has a genie looking out for him, giving him all of these super powers.

So, long story short, if you have a problem with your body, go to the chiropractor first. It will definitely pay off.

The Social Network

At first I wanted to hike the AT "to be on my own." I craved some solitude so that I could clear my mind, however, you learn very quickly that the AT is a very social experience, which is alright by me.

In fact, I look foreword to the end of the day, after a long tromp, when I see the tin roof break through the trees and I smell smoke, a sign that there will be company tonight. I don't really talk to myself when I hike, though my mind is active, but when you see fellow hikers at the end of the day you understand why Maslow did not list "solitude" in his hierarchy of needs.

You get to reminisce about the day, the things you saw, the individuals you ran into, the terrain. You get to share your reasons for hiking the trail, where you come from, who is missing you, and what you plan to do after.

You get to learn from each other: between the gear, the camp routine and hiking philosophies.

A day has yet to pass that I don't see at least one other hiker. I only had to sleep in a lean-too by myself once. It was at the Leeman Brook Lean-too and I later learned that it was in this log bungalow that four vagabonds froze to death. It was pretty difficult to get to sleep that night because my mind was conducting a slide show of images of all of the terrible horror movies I'v seen.

That's the problem with scary movies, your mind is permanently scarred after seeing them. It would be great to have Will Smith bloop me with his blooper from MIB so that I could erase all of the bad images from my mind...then I would be completely fearless.

"I am soooo glad I didn't know this beforehand," I said to the Boys from Maine after they told me this. "There are probably many stories like that on the AT," said Adrian.

The exciting thing about lean-toos is that you never know who is going to bunk down with you. It's always a thrill to have a Nobo crawl in, because they are the wise people of the trail, at least for the beginning of a Sobo's journey.

When you have hiked 100 miles and they have hiked 2,000, there is a certain respect that a Sobo holds for a Nobo. "How does it feel to almost be done?" "What are you going to do afterwards?" "What was your favorite section?" Many of them say New Hampshire which is a let down because NH is so early on that we fear there is nothing else on the trail to keep us going. Not true. there is the Zoo in NY, the ponies of Virginia and the great smoky mountains.

This Nobo, 3 Stoves, strolled into camp and he had so many stories to share, it made for an entertaining night. "I should have had the name Bear Punch," he said after he told us that he went backpacking through the Whites to train for the trip. At one of the lean-toos a fox was pestering him, drawn in by his food. That night he slept in his bivy sack and heard sniffing about 6" from his face. Thinking it was the fox he gave it a good punch to the snout, however, it was a hard punch. He crawled out of his sack to see a black bear scampering away.

This story seems unbelievable, but they say when it comes to black bears you're supposed to act aggressive if they approach you.

This same guy said that a tree fell on him. I have yet to share this incident with my mom because I know she would absolutely freak, but it is too good of a story not to divulge. There are trees blocking the way throughout the AT and no matter how often it is maintained it is inevitable that there are going to be trees that keel over. 3 Stoves was hiking along with his earbuds in and heard the crack but thought it was his music. The next thing he knows he's trapped under a tree. He even snapped a picture of himself at this point which he passed around the lean-too for everyone to see. "I was able to wriggle out of my pack and get out from under the tree," he explained. "Then a day hiker came along and was able to help me lift the tree enough to get my pack out."

Talk about intense!

What's great about the AT is that everyone you meet shares the love for the trail and it makes it really easy to get to know someone. In the civilian world, sometimes there are walls that are put up which prevent an introduction, but on the trail there are no walls just canopies, and paths that lead to good communion.

Log Books

Every lean-too has a log book. It is a journal that allows hikers to communicate. It's how we heard about the Sobo whose shoes were too tight and had countless blisters that he ended up losing a toe. Another trekker, called Bubbles wrote about his massive blisters covering his feet resulting in a rescue crew coming to practically carry him out.

"Some people just don't realize the intensity of the terrain when they come out here," said one MATC trail maintainer, that I happened upon, referring to Bubbles.

News travels fast on the white blaze corridor. If you are thru-hiking you are guaranteed to at least at one point  hear and say, "Oh, I have heard about you," when meeting another thru-hiker.

Some draw pictures, others write poems, today I shared my story of why I was hiking barefoot and why I was being held up in the Pleasant Pond Lean-too.

Everyone had continued on and I had to sit and wait out what I thought would only require a days rest. I turned on my solar/crank charged radio. I never made it out of my sleeping bag so I settled in even further as I lay on my sleeping pad tummy down with the log book open to page one.

This journal dated back to the accounts of thru-hikers from 2010. Lots of them suggested the breakfast at Harrisons, saying that it was totally worth it to carry the extra toilet paper that would be needed later on. Northern Outdoors was another hotspot, for its great wings, hot tubs and pretty women. many commented on the ferry ride across the Kennebec River, "It felt weird to not be hiking," said one Nobo.

Then I got to HedgeHog's entry. He wanted to thank a few fellow Nobos: Day Tripper, Rehab Squirrel and MJFox. "MJFOX!!!!!" I said out loud. "No way!" no one was around to hear but I was so excited to see mention of him in the log book. This made my morning.

For all of you newcommers, MJFox is a thru-hiker from a neighboring town who I interviewed prior to my leave. He has an amusing story to tell and I mention him in many of my posts: “Power of the Pink” and 
"Another Visit with Michael J. Fox."

*****************************************

This poem goes out to all you thru-hikers out there...keep logging.

A Thru-Hiker's Log

Thru-hikers log

in a book 

As they sit in a log

shelter

After dropping a log

off in the privy

After passing many log

roads

Eight Legged Suspense

You get over your squeamishness for bugs really fast on the Appalachian Trail. At the Potowaja lean-too Techy looked up to find a palm-sized wolf spider with all 8 of its eyes looking back as his two meat-ball-sized eyes from its throne on the ceiling beam. If I could read spider I’m sure this arachnid was signing that’s right, you’re in my territory now…want to play king of the mountain lean-too? That night Techy and I popped our tents inside the lean-too…it was going to rain and we didn't want some man-eating spider raining on our parade.

From that night on I got into the habit of inspecting the log bungalows for cob webs and their long-legged weavers. I would sleep with a bug net over my head, my mummy sleeping bag zipped up all the way, with my arms tucked in.

The morning I decided to get off the trail due to my injury I awakened, stretched and looked up to find a spider suspended from its sticky silk line. It had dropped from the beam above and was just inches above my head. When we locked eyes, however, it retracted as if its thread was a winch and retreated it back to the ceiling. This made me laugh.

Often I see people get freaked out when they see bugs, and squash them out of fright. But I have always practiced the rescue and release method to dealing with the insects that make a wrong turn and end up lost in our house. I set them free. Now it is I who has taken the turn onto the white blaze corridor, only I am not lost, I am visiting. Our world has made us accustomed to living separately from nature but I want to be apart of it.

The golden rule is to treat others the way you want to be treated. Since I have been good to those weary winged travelers who are just trying to get back outside, I suspect they will be good to me as I sleep out in the open without a bug net, my arms outstretched, breeze on my skin, with the loon song lulling me to sleep.