IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
Rudyard Kipling - first published in 1895
I hope that I have the physical strength to complete the Appalachian Trail; my body can walk many miles but my mind needs to be prepared too. When we were preparing for the half marathon at Callaway Gardens January of 2012, my husband kept telling me - It's in your mind." He was trying to convince me my body may get tired but my mind will keep me going when I want to stop.
" If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'
A friend's son completed Ironman Wisconsin this month and I'm hoping strategies from Chrissie Wellington, four-time World Ironman champion will help me train mentally:
Train Your Brain
I am reading her book, Life Without Limits.
October 1, 2011 (the first day reservations were taken) we put the LeConte Lodge phone number on speed dial because it is very difficult to get a reservation. On the 3rd day we got through and reserved the night of September 5, 2012. Reservations for the season are totally booked in less than a week. We had a great time our first hike there in July of 2011 with friends, Joe and Angie, who we met at a B&B in Georgia; they invited us to join their annual group trip in 2011. We wanted to return in 2012 but could not go back with the group because we attended my 45th high school class reunion in Illinois. When we made the reservation, I had no plans for a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail.
Ready to hike & test my Cotton Carrier vest holding my camera (with waterproof cover on)
The trail follows this creek for quite some time and I love that sound.
Used leg muscles along the trail that we normally don't call into duty ...
The trail goes up for the most part and is very rocky with cables to grab onto for some semblance of security.
I was pleased with my ULA Circuit backpack. Carried about 20 lbs. in it for my first hike. Hope to keep it fully packed at 25 lbs. or less for the AT thru-hike.
Cabin #9 and our front porch on Mt. LeConte - simplicity
Double bed size bunk beds
After breakfast, we said good-bye and thank you.
A "muddy good morning" greeting from the trail
Carefully proceeding ... he'll use the cable up ahead on the left to round the bend.
Would NOT want to slip right here ....
I didn't place the leaf; all I saw was the blue flower shimmering in the rain. Cycle of life ...
Site of a recent landslide
View as we return to Alum Cave on our descent (a lot easier coming down)
The fog has lifted; the rocks remain wet and we proceed carefully ....
The grandeur of God's creation
Almost back to the trail head - beautiful tree and handsome hiker !
The Morning Glory room at Eight Gables Inn, Gatlinburg, TN
Eight Gables Inn
The wrap around porch was beautiful and so comfortable
Before hitting the road home, breakfast began with a baked apple
In this room
Delicious and nicely presented
We enjoyed the accommodations at Mt. LeConte and Eight Gables Inn - both are beautiful places and very peaceful.
As we passed by the mountains driving home, I had a sobering thought -- next time I pass this way, I will be walking ....
The sign at Clingman's Dome
The trail ....
The St. Bernard breed of dogs from the Alps in Italy and Switzerland were originally bred for
rescue in those mountains. The dogs were named for a real person, St. Bernard of Montjoux.
St. Bernard was born in 923 and ran away from his home to avoid an
arranged marriage. He went to Italy and joined the Benedictine order. In
the Alps he found people still following pagan
ways and dedicated the next 42 years of his life to converting the
local people. In 962 St. Bernard established a monastery and a hospice at the
highest point of a highly traveled and treacherous pass in the Alps
between Italy and Switzerland. Eventually that pass came
to bear his name.
The monks would go out during heavy
snow storms (as well as the rest of the year) accompanied by their dogs in search of travelers or
those who had perished trying to travel the pass. The earliest written records of the St.
Bernard breed are from 1707 from that very monastery though paintings
and pictures date back even further.
St. Bernard (the man) is the patron saint of skiing, snowboarding, hiking, backpacking
and mountaineering and the dogs that bear his name are still very tied
to the Alpine lifestyle. His feast day is May 28th (our youngest son’s
birthday).
I have pinned this medal to my backpack strap as a physical reminder that I have asked St. Bernard to pray for me in my prep hikes and during my Appalachian Trail journey and for the safety of all hikers. I have also asked family and friends for their prayers -- those who have gone before me and those living because we are the communion of saints.
by Albert W. Palmer,
Excerpted from The Mountain Trail and Its Message (1911)
"There are always some people in the mountains who are known as "hikers."
They rush over the trail at high speed and take great delight in being
the first to reach camp and in covering the greatest number of miles in
the least possible time.They measure the trail in terms of speed and distance.
One day as I was resting in the shade, Mr. Muir overtook me on the trail and
began to chat in that friendly way in which he delights to talk with everyone
he meets. I said to him: "Mr. Muir, someone told me you did not approve
of the word 'hike.' Is that so?" His blue eyes flashed, and with his Scotch
accent he replied: "I don't like either the word or the thing. People ought
to saunter in the mountains - not hike!
"Do you know the origin of that word 'saunter?' It's a beautiful word.
Away back in the Middle Ages people used to go on pilgrimages to the Holy
Land, and when people in the villages through which they passed asked where
they were going, they would reply, "A la sainte terre,' 'To the Holy
Land.' And so they became known as sainte-terre-ers or saunterers. Now
these mountains are our Holy Land, and we ought to saunter through them
reverently, not 'hike' through them."
John Muir lived up to his doctrine. He was usually the last man to reach
camp. He never hurried. He stopped to get acquainted with individual trees
along the way. He would hail people passing by and make them get down on
hands and knees if necessary to see the beauty of some little bed of almost
microscopic flowers. Usually he appeared at camp with some new flowers
in his hat and a little piece of fir bough in his buttonhole.
Now, whether the derivation of saunter Muir gave me is scientific or fanciful,
is there not in it another parable? There are people who "hike" through
life. They measure life in terms of money and amusement; they rush along
the trail of life feverishly seeking to make a dollar or gratify an appetite.
How much better to "saunter" along this trail of life, to measure it in
terms of beauty and love and friendship! How much finer to take time to
know and understand the men and women along the way, to stop a while and
let the beauty of the sunset possess the soul, to listen to what the trees
are saying and the songs of the birds, and to gather the fragrant little
flowers that bloom all along the trail of life for those who have eyes
to see!
You can't do these things if you rush through life in a big red automobile
at high speed; you can't know these things if you "hike" along the trail
in a speed competition. These are the peculiar rewards of the man who has
learned the secret of the saunterer! "
(Photo of Alum Cave Creek taken on our hike to Mt. LeConte 9/6/2012)
I hope I can take this message to heart and be a saunterer on the Appalachian Trail.
Nunc Coepi - “Now I Begin.”
Nunc coepi is a Latin phrase often heard in
seminaries of old. It means, “Now I begin.” Novices were taught to say
this every morning, signifying that what was is past, what will be is
hidden in the future, and it is only now--this day, this moment--that
counts.
Not what I did yesterday, or what I may do tomorrow. Now I begin. Nunc coepi.
Every
day is another chance and a fresh start. It’s important to remember
that. Too many of us are hyperaware of all the yesterdays we wasted or
phantom tomorrows that could bring us down. Yet we’re hardly aware of
the day that’s right here in our hands, shimmering with possibilities.
Why do we do that? Why do we so habitually discount and brush off the
wonder of the present moment?
One reason may be that we don’t trust
ourselves. Because of past mistakes, we’re afraid to get very hopeful.
In fear of failing again, we choose to downplay the possibilities and
try to settle for what comes, rather than actively creating it. This
bottom line may be that we really don’t believe in second chances.
But each day is new whether we believe in it or not. We can begin fresh each morning if we decide to live our lives that way. The
miracle isn’t that the chance is there; it always has been there. The
miracle is what happens when we reach out to embrace it.
As long as there is life, there is the chance to start over."
From the book, Believing In Myself, by Earnie Larsen & Carol Hegarty.
(Photo taken on Sept. 7, 2012 as we walked up path to Clingman's Dome)
Nunc coepi will remind me that
each day on the AT "I begin once more with your help, O Lord."
