Long nice day on the Trail. Lots of water and snack breaks to fuel the machine as I went up and over Big Bald Mountain… about 10 miles on the ascent and another 10 descending to my end campsite for the day… had just enough light to set up properly and make something to eat, hang my ‘bear hang’ food bag, etc… then, into the warm tent to sleep!
I feel like I really have my ‘Trail Legs’ now… I rarely stop out of sheer fatigue like in the beginning; usually it’s to take a deliberate food or water break now…
Saw this big beautiful but odd ‘moth thing’ today! Huge and surreal. Delicate and scary. A cross between a tropical fish, a kite, and an evil bat that will suck your brains out your ears while you sleep.
It reminds me of my Mattel Thingmaker when we used to make Creepie Crawlies by baking plastigoop in the little Mattel hotplate machine…best Christmas present ever for kids in the 60’s. Who remembers? Who can still smell the goop baking?
Another day of decent weather. Came across this sign which is apparently an accommodation for larger people on the Trail I guess…
I found a Tennessee version of Dogtown’s Whale’s Jaw…
I hit the 300 mile mark today. There were many people stopping to take a break at this little stone number. I stopped with them and we all had a nice chat and a lunch break here…
I’ve been thinking about longevity…there is at least one 70-year-old out here who is hiking this Trail and I’ve no doubt after meeting him that he’ll complete in respectable fashion. Remarkable.
Western medicine is on a roll- perhaps even out over it’s skis at the moment.
(When I went to Afghanistan in 07/08, I learned that the average male life expectancy there was 47: yet, I was deploying there at age 48–and expecting to come home and live another 30 years. So—an astonishing health disparity on the globe which is no doubt related to the wealth disparity.)
The poor will die on schedule as their inferior diet, hygiene, and access to medicine will dictate.
But what does this mean for the wealthy nations that extend life?
It appears that the quality of life lags behind the actual extension of life as we can see in the disturbing frailty of very old people, and the even more disturbing cognitive loss which is increasingly attending old age in the form of various dementias. I worked very briefly recently as a hospice care volunteer and I saw how sad this situation can be.
Yet medical research marches on as we devolve to wrinkled bags of skin in wheelchairs who can’t remember who our own children are.
I hope brain research yields relief to cognitive loss and, who knows?, maybe we can also find ways to strengthen and support skin, bones and organs into deep old age…I am more hopeful about the former than the latter. If I’m right, then the case might be made for us to evolve to ‘brains in a bath’ and the 1960’s science fiction movies will have the last laugh. We are already in an interim step—that of us turning more and more robotic as parts get supported /replaced and our systems get adjusted with all manner of medicine, regulators, and supplements. But eventually, I think our tissues will die, even brain tissue, despite the best diet, hygiene and medicine and we must be approaching the upper limits now: is it 110? 120? 130? And we do want to live forever, don’t we…?
The pace of this evolution is staggering. My great-great-grandchildren will probably look and live very differently from me. They could be greatly improved humans, or manifestations of avatar, or even straight-up robots.
Long delay in the morning waiting to meet Forest Gump’s girlfriend who had arranged to meet him here at Standing Bear Farm. We all agreed to wait and meet her because it seemed important to him but it meant that we didn’t get going until early afternoon. She was very nice and I’m glad we got to meet her.
We hung around the fire area in the morning and Doodge and Fastlane played guitar.
This guy in the black leather jacket held my interest for a long time. I talked to him about his Army experience and all his patches and convinced him to let me take these pictures. Oh, you mustzoom in and read the patches. I would say he is definitely sporting a certain ‘look’, dontcha’ think?! Coming soon to date a daughter near you . . . (I’m just being awful– he was a really nice reasonable guy to talk to!) If I were him, I’d insure that jacket for $50,000.
Was brutalized by going up Snowbird Mountain for the first 5 miles but, again, I had decent weather, though hot, and great health. I was drenched in sweat all day and for the longest time on the ascent several drops of sweat would drop from the tip of my nose and brim of my hat at each step up. But, I felt like I was ‘purging my system’ to an extent and kept myself in plenty of water and a few snacks enroute . . .I prefer the heat over freezing to death. ..
Penultimate 
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