Day 95: High Point State Park.

It's cold, way too cold to wake up early.

Sleep was bad, again. We shared the shelter with a dog. A dog who decided to  eat its feet all night. By "eat its feet" I mean "loudly slurp and smack and make horrendously disgusting noises". I try to sleep with headphones, but anyone who does this often knows that it sucks ass and hurts one's ears crazy bad. I surrender to the sound of feet eating rather than kill my phone battery attempting to drown the sound out.

We walk. 

Me and Stevie spend most of the day talking about the years we spent in a touring band. Parts of it were dope, parts of it were stressful. We relive the dope parts; we laugh about the stressful parts. We fantasize about what our lives would be like if it never came to an end.

We get our drop boxes at High Point State Park just before it closes. I quickly figure out that I don't have anywhere near enough food, this informs our decision to hitch into Port Jervis. Hitching eats most of our day. It's hard to hitchhike in states that have made it illegal (like New Jersey).

After getting back to the trail we don't make it far before deciding to cowboy camp on a wooden observation deck. Unfortunately nine other thruhikers have the same idea. So now there are twelve of us up here.

We watch the sunset and I can't get a good picture because everyone is in the way. Someone plays Mumford and Sons on their phone for all of us to listen to (whether or not we want to), and I listen to the other hikers make stupid offensive normal people jokes about things that aren't funny. 

I try to tune them out but can't help but overhear them talk shit about Scott Jurek and his decision to bring champagne to the top of Katahdin for his dramatic finish.

For those who don't know, Scott Jurek is a vegan ultramarathon runner who just set the record for the Fastest Known Time on the Appalachian Trail. I have mad respect for this dude.

Also for those who don't know, Baxter State Park (which contains Katahdin, the northern terminus of the AT) is incredibly irritated with thruhikers and their disrespect for park policies and rules.

Yes, taking alcohol up Katahdin is against park policies, and yes, Scott got fined for this. What frustrates me is not this fact, but the fact that the hikers talking shit are currently in a state park that bans alcohol (and other substances) whilst drinking alcohol and smoking weed.

But enough complaining about other hikers.

At this moment I'm laying on my sleeping pad on the observation deck, spooning chocolate peanut butter onto gluten free sandwich cookies, not a cloud above me in the sky, feeling very enthusiastic about observing the rotation of the earth in the movement of the stars.

I feel good. It feels good. To sleep under a clear sky, to adhere to no schedule, to see both sunset and sunrise.

And just like that, the Long Suffering of the Times That Came Before is worth it. 

All of it is worth it.