Damascus, Virginia

I’m in relax mode today (April 20th), taking a day off from hiking at the Dancing Bear Inn in Damascus, Virginia after arriving midday yesterday. In three days I’ll have been hiking for one month and have covered about 500 miles, making this the fastest start I’ve had for any thru-hike thus far. I’m not hiking a faster pace, but rather am walking longer days and taking fewer breaks, thanks to feet and legs that are holding up extremely well. Maybe 60 really is the new 40? 😂. It’s only been a few days since my last post so I don’t have too much in the way of news or updates to share, but I’ve got a few new photos and also posted several new videos to my YouTube channel (31-40), so check those out too if interested.

I’m finally starting to encounter the same hikers’ faces a couple of days in a row, implying that I’m starting to encounter hikers maintaining similar pace as me, so that’s fun. I’ve gotten to know two hikers named Jukebox (one man, one woman), Chattahoochee, Wrong Way, Sunshine and several more who’s names escape me. All of them have been very friendly. Trail magic continues to be significant, nearly every day I’m encountering new trail angels. Clearly the NOBO hikes have their advantages! I’ve also managed to read (well, listen to) a bunch of books so far on the hike. Here’s a partial list of the ones I’ve completed: Into the Wild and Into Thin Air, both by Jon Krakauer, Endurance by Alfred Lansing (about Shackleton’s failed but epic transcontinental journey across Antarctica), Kitchen Confidential (Anthony Bourdain), The Appalachian Trail (outstanding recent history/”biography” of the AT by Phillip D’Anieri, M.A.S.H. by Richard Hooker (as a kid I loved the first three years of the TV show and the movie, but the author’s writing drove me crazy and I quit halfway through), Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig (a great memoir about his personal struggles with anxiety and depression which illuminates his amazing insights in The Midnight Library), The Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel (incredible true story about a hermit who lived up in the Maine woods, alone and undetected for decades) and reread Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods (also about the AT). I also tried reading a couple of books by other thru-hikers about their journeys, but these tend to be overly sentimental, myopic and not very well written. Jennifer Pharr Davis’ Becoming Odyssa and Hiking Through by Paul Stutzman are two examples- both authors writing styles annoyed me and I gave up early. I’m currently wrapping up the very interesting biography A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar (about the mathematician John Nash, played by Russel Crowe in the film version), am 7 or 8 chapters deep on both The Deerslayer by James Fenimore Cooper and Nicholas Nickelby by Dickens and just today I downloaded another Bourdain book (Medium Raw), another Bryson book (A Short History of Nearly Everything), and an old favorite from my childhood, Beverly Cleary’s The Mouse and the Motorcycle 😀. When it comes to passing time during long days of hiking, nothing works better for me to keep the ol’ mind occupied than a wide variety of really good books. Ok, that’s enough for now. Love and encouragement to you all and we’ll see you down the trail! Max