Only a couple of weeks ago, I had decided to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail. Some people plan for months and sometimes even years, but in my case, only days. Living simply does have its advantages.
Before the trail, I only needed to purchase a train ticket, new shoes, and lighten any equipment weight possible.
This was the first time I had travelled by train in the United States, and the first train ride since visiting France in 1996. Surprisingly, Amtrak no longer services Houston per se, instead, they shuttle the passengers by bus to Longview, Texas to catch the train to Chicago. There was a 4-hour layover in Longview, but the dead time allowed me to meet some people. During the ride, I met a couple of cool travellers, Jill and Joe (travelling seperately). Jill was fluent in Spanish, but my poor Spanish from school and working in Monterrey had withered to a few simple phrases. Making the journey even better was the uncrowded conditions all the way from Longview to Chicago.
One young man took me by surprise with his answer after I asked him where he was from. He admitted he was a gypsy, and I think that was the first time I've ever met a gypsy.
One passenger gave me an earful for a couple of hours when he decided to entertain me with his life story. When he ran out of things to discuss, he reiterated subjects as though I was deaf the first (or second or third) time. When the repetition started, I was in the "uh-huh, yeah, uh-huh, cool, uh-huh" mode. Even when I felt a bit drowsy he kept jabbering away. I thought, "It's at least 12 hours to Chicago...oh man...." This must be akin to being forced to watch reruns of Larry King Live. Apparently, he must have had some sympathy and decided to head back to his bed in the sleeper car. What was funny was he told some of the stories during the wait in Longview. Well, I guess it was more endurance than funny.
The only reasonable complaint was the outrageous food and drink prices. For example, a can of 12 ounce Pepsi was $1.50. That was not a typo. I haven't paid that much for a soda since paying $4.00 for a can of Dr. Pepper in Paris, France, in 1996.
The trip from Chicago to Harpers Ferry was a totally different story because the train was quite packed at times. Harpers Ferry was a not a quaint town. It was situated in a national park, and hence, very touristy and expensive. All I wanted to do here was get some unleaded gas for the camping stove and immediately hit the trail. Maybe Harpers Ferry did have some charm, but I wouldn't know this time around.
I spent over 2 hours walking out to the highway and trying to head into a nearby town to get gas before I just gave up and returned to Harpers Ferry and then the trail. I'll just have to eat the figs purchased months ago for dinner. At that point I hadn't eaten in over 24 hours and only drank a single Pepsi. It turned out I left the toothpaste at home also.
To make a short story even shorter, I met Mark and Robin at the underpass of US 340. They were actually trying to find Weaverton Cliffs, but were going in the wrong direction (as I discovered later after I just passed them). Later, I crossed them again about a half mile before Ed Garvey shelter. They offered to drive me to the nearest gas station about 6 miles away and back. At the gas station I fueled up and bought an expensive tube of toothpaste.
The clerk looked puzzled when I asked to buy 20 cents of gas, but the registers only offered a minimum of $1.00 in gasoline. I paid with a buck, got just enough fuel inside the fuel bottle, and pumped the rest into Mark's Forrester. They happily drove me back to the trailhead as we discussed the merits of backpacking the Appalachian Trail. I explained trail angels were people who help hikers (usually on a regular basis). The do things such as shuttle, feed, provide lodging to the backpackers. And today, Mark and Robbin were trail angels for me because they helped me out tremendously even though the whole meeting was approximately 20 minutes. When we parted ways, Mark offered a sandwich which I gladly accepted after starving for over a day.
To top off the day, I was the only person at the shelter and could easily sleep late. This trail was going to be very good to me.
