#177 Stealth Camp to RPH Shelter - Day 102: MM1414.9 - MM1431.8
Some of it’s magic, some of it’s tragic, but I had a good life all the way - He Went to Paris (1973) Jimmy Buffett
Apr 28, 2024
Sitting high on a jagged boulder eating breakfast, I’m overlooking the trees and mountains I’ll be hiking later this morning.
Yesterday was such an eventful day that it felt like two days’ worth of activity and changes. It was exhausting and I could have used a better night’s sleep last night. Sleeping at a bit of an angle on the mountain top, sliding around a little, I somehow slept most of the night.
Once, I awakened to what I thought were whistles blowing. My mind started thinking about sirens of rescue vehicles until fully coming out of a deep sleep, realizing then that I was hearing were bats. I laid on the ground listening to them I drifted off again.
The sunshine is short lived. The temperature feels to be in the fifties. I’m happy those early April waves of heat in West Virginia and Pennsylvania are behind me. It’s as though this month has been working its way backwards on the calendar from hot to cold.
I blame my trail diet for the weaknesses and clumsiness I’m experiencing today. I’m hiking more slowly than usual. My mind is working more slowly than usual. My coordination is a bit off. I feel tired - not tired from lack of sleep or from overexertion, but a tiredness from deep inside. I’m certain I am malnourished.
There’s no possible way for long-distance hiker to eat enough food each day to compensate for the energy spent. I estimate I’ve lost at least fifteen pounds over the course the past twenty-eight days, covering four-hundred miles so far.
It’s good the terrain is forgiving today. Otherwise, I’d have to hike a short day or take a chance on getting hurt.
An old telephone attached to a marque by the trail arouses my curiosity. This isn’t an ordinary telephone, but a The Wind Telephone. A wind phone isn’t connected to anything but serves as an avenue to connect with people who have passed on.
Borrowed from Wikipedia-
In 2010, Itaru Sasaki, a garden designer from Ōtsuchi, learned that his cousin had terminal cancer with three months to live. After his cousin's death, Sasaki set up an old telephone booth in his garden in December 2010, to continue to feel connected to him by "talking" to him on the phone. According to Sasaki, the wind phone was not designed with any specific religious connotation, but rather as a way to reflect on his loss. In an interview, he stated, "Because my thoughts couldn't be relayed over a regular phone line, I wanted them to be carried on the wind."
I pick up the phone and put it to my ear hearing only the sound of wind, almost like putting large seashell to your ear on the beach, but more mysterious, eerily comforting.
Before snapping a selfie for the Blog, I spend a few minutes reflecting on friends and family that aren’t with us anymore.
