Mile 78

Her feet hurt, but there’s a smile on her face. She is moving at a brisk speed. She is covering miles and greeting hikers along the way. Every time she meets someone, it could be the last time she sees them. Her pace will define her community. It is beautiful in a way. Since they exist in this ecosystem of tempo, hikers are their best selves to one another. Her persistence has been rewarded. Less than ten days on the trail, she is celebrating her first state border crossing. While she covers miles, some of the party people are taking days off or calling it quits. She is proud of herself for not being tempted off the trail. She tries to stay as close to the white blaze as possible. Others hop on and off trail at nearly every junction.

She has adapted to her new life, but there are moments so brief you could miss them when she is overwhelmed by the enormity of it all. She has climbed hills so steep she could spit. Sometimes she looks back and can see the peak she came from just hours ago, way off in the distance. Sometimes, she shouts just to let the hills swallow her voice whole. There are times like now, as she sits in the sun across from the Georgia-North Carolina border tree, that she simultaneously wants to go home so badly, yet at the same time never leave.

They all begin their hikes from the peak of Springer Mountain, but no thru-hiker is complete without a trail name. Some are named by others, a gift bestowed upon the person for their most outstanding trait. Others are born as a result of some fantastic story. She is an anomaly. Unlike other hikers pairing off and teaming up, she flows between those groupings. She is a puzzle piece warped in the sun and has yet to find where she fits. Finally, she realizes that she is a misfit, even among misfits. And so it goes, although her hike has already begun, the journey of Misfit starts today.