Re-Entry

I’ve been back a week now.

I had a marvelous time, and will blog about it soon.

Re-entry was difficult. I left my hiking partner on the trail in Georgia last Saturday, and drove 7 hours back home to NC. Traffic was heavy and it was a bizarre way to re-enter society, after an entire week hiking and sleeping in the woods. There were more people in Starbucks, where I stopped for a coffee, than we saw the entire time in the woods!

I had been gone 11 days total, so had 7 work days of email and message to catch up. Amazing how work doesn’t go away when I’m on vacation, I just have to work longer hours when I get back. Same at home, longer hours to play catch up. Now I need a vacation to recover from my vacation!

My joints behaved themselves while I was gone. For the most part, my body did well hiking the 35 miles, in 7 days, carrying a 30 pound pack. My feet were swollen by the end of the week and I have more stiffness in feet and ankles this week, but all in all, probably not much worse than anyone else who didn’t have RA would be experiencing. Certainly not any worse than they have been at other times the past two years, with nothing to blame it on. So I am content that I did no lasting harm with my crazy adventure.

This was my first long backpacking trip. As I expected, I loved it. If I could, I would leave tomorrow and hike the entire trail, and then go on hiking for the rest of my life. There is something deep in my soul that longs for the woods, the peace and quiet, the solitude and beauty of nature.

So now, my path is to see how much of the wonder of that week I can bring into my daily life. Weave the wonder of the woods into the very fabric of my daily existence.

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