Friday, April 20, 2012

Pesach on the AT

This Passover was definitely different from years past.

I think it was the first time in my life I didn't have a single bite of matzah, and honestly, I missed having it. This was also the most challenging Pesach yet (for pretty obvious reasons).

Not only do we eat trail food that we can cook in the wilderness, but we eat KOSHER trail food that we can cook in the wilderness. And for one week in April, we eat KOSHER FOR PASSOVER trail food that we can cook in the wilderness.

I'll just sum that up by saying, "Nom nom nom not easy."

But we did it. And successfully. Not to pat ourselves on the back, but I think it puts it in a little perspective for us. We didn't have the typical luxury of having nice Passover foods and meals this year... instead we had nasty never do I wanna eat this again Passover food.

But at least an Egyptian army wasn't chasing us down to slaughter us (though we were invaded by an army of slugs one night), and I know our God was watching over us as He always does, providing for us and delivering us from trouble, like He did for our people many years ago.

And here we were celebrating an age old tradition as best we could, as thru-hikers on the Appalachian Trail.

That's pretty cool if you ask me.


Saturday, April 14, 2012

Cast of Characters

We are now in Virginia!

One fourth of the entire Trail is in Virginia.

Exciting. And kinda scary. But mostly exciting.

We haven't had as much reliable cell service as I thought we might have had passing through some of these trail towns, so this post is just a little fun one.

These are some of the trail names KitFox and I have met along our journey so far. Some started with us at Springer. Some are trail angels that greatly helped us. Some are hikers that have dropped out already. Some have passed us and continued north. And some we have just met recently.

The Trail has been an extraordinary place to meet and observe all kinds of various characters. Like people watching at the mall, but instead of walking through the food court, you're walking through the woods trying not to die.

In no particular order...

Cicada
Sunshine
Rocky
Chief White brow
Baltimore Jack
Lightning Jack
Mandela
Mandego
FireFox
Squirrel
TrailMix (Gorp)
Grok
Guac
Boulder
Quest
Baloo
GrayBeard
Badger (VA)
Badger (WI)
Bread n' Butter
GloWorm
Ron Paul
Chicken Little Chaz
Honest Abe
Jeff Davis
Bomber
Hercules
Fal
Stride
GingerSnap
Socks
Grasshopper
BrickLayer
Rat Bucket
Dog Pound
Happy Feet
Philly Ben
CoffeePot
Tarzan
Fancy Pants
Renaissance Man
Good Deeds
Thor
Uncle Spider
Lion
Old Hiker
Animal
My Time
Salty
Curry
Foster
Skittles
Scotty
Jonas
AchyBreaky
Tickle Monster
The Dark Knight