Under the bridge just outside Harper’s Ferry, I found this. Just to the right there was an abandoned backpack, some clothing, and a pair of sneakers. I remember thinking that someone must have given up right here. How many of the ones who start leave remnants of their attempt? Do some of them come back for another go at it? 

It makes me think of recovery from drugs and alcohol. So many rehab check-ins. So few with lasting sobriety. They say that 1 in 100 of those who enter the rooms of AA get a full year of sobriety. 1 in 100. I was one of them. 

I think the trail has a 25% success rate. That is amazing I think. 1 in 4 who start, finish. 

Tomorrow, I will hike from Wind Gap, 9 miles to the Kirkridge Shelter, spend the night and another 9 to my car at the Dunnfield Creek parking lot. I may have two old HS buddies with me. One tomorrow and the other on Friday. Friday is nearly all downhill after the view on top of Mount Minsi. 

The Minsi were a tribe of Native Americans, a part or the Algonquin Nation. They had a settlement on the Broadhead Creek which flows into the Delaware River at the Gap. Artifacts found there have been dated to the Stone Age, 14,000 years ago. 14,000 years ago! They were the First Americans. Some of these glorious people liked to be called that. The First Americans. Seems fitting to me. 

So, why did I title this post “Now What?” 

I can’t remember. 😊 Guess I was in a different mood than I am now. Dinner. I ate dinner. Quinoa with chicken. Mediterranean spices. It took the “now what ” right out of me! 

I am so moody since the election. I’m wearing a safety pin while I hike tomorrow. ☮️