The Junction

Greetings from the comfort of home! I returned from a ten day vacation in France with my friend Eugenie, a worthwhile indulgence for working in the mud all year. A glamorous countryside, a wonderful opportunity to gain weight, and a home to kind people, France was everything I could desire before setting out on  a trek through the woods. It is wonderful to absorb all the history and human presence of a foreign place. Being immersed in a sprawl of people ironically fed my eagerness to begin the AT too, for as well as reinforcing my love for travel, it gave me the itchy feet for leaving plush society. On the plane rides I read Into the Wild and Awol on the Appalachian Trail, both enthralling accounts of living in the wilderness. Into the Wild is an excellent depiction of the primal pulse that drives most of us crazy hikers into the mountains. It portrays the melancholy effects of transcendentalism on disgruntled people, which can be both sad and blissful. Awol on the Appalachian Trail is a much more lighthearted reflection of the joys and pains of discovering oneself- what I hope my journey will be like. Anyways, I now feel at the junction of adventures- both nostalgic for secure past, but excited for my nebulous future. I am at the crossroads of life!

Which is in fact very appropriate, since in two days I will leave for Springer Mountain, and become a vagrant for some time.