This time around

Being back on the trail... I remember being on the trail last year, and I had one focus....... Getting to Springer Mountain. I was learning everyday about life on the trail. I didn't reallly know what to expect and did not see what was ahead. Getting back on the trail has been a different experience. I love it! Even when it is raining and I am cold and tired, I remember the first time I was going through that, but this time I am prepared and know what to expect. It makes life a lot more peaceful. I am so happy to back here. This is my home, where I belong. The woods? maybe it's not just the woods, but the whole trail. The people? Derfinately the people I keep meeting. Everyone is so different, yet we are all living for the same thing. People, back home, asked me, "Why are you going back to the trail, if it was so terrible the first time?" I learned the most from those terrible moments. I learned to laugh when I was having a bad day, becasue the worst day on the trail was, still, waaaaaayyyyy better then the best day I had at home, or at any job I worked at, or anything I did back home that resembled a "normal" day. I don't think I can ever turn my back from this new life. I look at all my pictures that I have taken from the trail, and I have never seen one that I don't look 110% happy in. Can you find one? I sure can't. I knew life would change for me, and I would walk away with a new attitude about life, but I never expected that it would be this amazing. Why would I not want to come back to all of that? Now that I am here, I look back and think about.... how wondeful life had been since I met the trail. There is no bad, there is no sad, there is no worry, there is only happiness. I walk with a smile on my face everyday out here, evern though there may be a slight tear from my sprined ankle, or sore knee. I can not think of any place I would rather be then right here, everyday. Everythign is so different this time around. Last November, I was running through here, trying not to freeze, and make it home by Thanksgiving. This time aorund, the woods are alive. I have never seem so many veriaties of flowers and plants. It makes it even harder to get away from here. One of the best things about this trip is being here for someone else. I know what it is like to finish, make it, get there. I am happy to be here with Honky (Ups) knowing he is so close to that amazing moment in his life where he can say he, too, has finished, made it, and got there. All me energy is being put toward making sure he has the best time of his life, becasue this is it. I don't mine one bit that thisis his moment. I am just so happy to be apart of it. I did the last trip for Zack, making sure he gets to Springer. Why not put as much energy into making sure Honky gets there. This is my gift back to the world. I recieved the best gift from the trail, that I could ever imagine, why not give it back the same way.

What can I say....... Life is good.