Hiawassee, GA

Greetings friends! I write you from hopefully-getting-sunnier Hiawassee, GA.

The last 5 days and 70 miles have already brought, big surprise here, life lessons and emotional transformation!

Physically I'm feeling tip top--bustin ass up and down mountains and skipping along ridges...well yeah, there's a lot of heavy breathing and sore muscles involved, but it ain't usually my body that is forced to grow.

It's my mind and spirit! Ah yes, spiritual growth...insidious and desirable.

Moments of fear--I mean real fear people, the kind you get alone in the woods in a rainstorm--oh, and the doubt, the loneliness, the sadness, the homesickness....

And I am relieved to say that those moments are but pepper on my potatoes, well more like hollandaise on my eggs but you understand--

It is the moments of gratitude, serenity, awe, and wild mountain bliss than generally fill my belly and my soul.

So how would you characterize this freshly rejuvenated hiker sitting in a hotel room in a small lovely town in North Georgia typing on his iPhone after coming through high wind, ice, and mud?

You could say that his skies look sunny and clear, because in this moment, he feels it all, and even the bad feels good, because it's the holes that make us whole.

I actually do love life.

Onward to Fontana Dam, NC and the foot of the Smoky Mountains. Stay tuned.

-Bootless