The A.T.

Chapter 11

We stopped at a lean-to. It was a three-sided covered wooden shelter, with a platform for laying out sleeping bags and hooks nearby to hang our food bag up and away from bears and other animals. So far we were the first to arrive. Most people attempting to thru-hike from Georgia to Maine begin between March 1st and April 15th (according to my guidebook) and we were almost a full week later.

I laid out our pads and blankets while Jay started a pot of water on the alcohol burner. We ate ramen, carrot sticks, and beef jerky; a well-balanced meal.

After cleaning up I grabbed my notebook and settled against the base of a tree. Jay wandered off to a clearing to the side and slightly behind me. I glanced back and saw he had removed his shirt and was doing pushups.

There's a perfectly good clearing right in front of me, I thought, smiling. At school the guys had always made it a point to use the free weights directly in front of the girls on the elliptical machines. I never cared to watch though, finding it rather silly and pathetic. Now, however, I was curious. Instead, I forced myself to get back to my paper, listing possible majors and careers and pros and cons in a giant grid to analyze.

A while later Jay returned, walking in front of me to his pack. He turned to face me, and I realized I was staring with my jaw hanging open. I slowly closed it.

"You like?" he asked, laughing.

"It's just—I've never seen anyone as big as you before, not in real life, just on television."

"You want to touch it?"

"I do." I didn't know why I said that, but before I knew it I was on my feet approaching him. "You actually have a six pack," I said in shock. I poked at it with my finger. It was rock solid, and as I moved my finger back and forth the thin layer of skin shifted over top.

"How many sit-ups a day does it take to get this?"

"Oh, I don't know, probably thousands. At the gym they have machines with resistance weights. There's no way I'll be able to maintain this up here, so enjoy it while it lasts." I looked up at him and he was smiling, joking. I returned the smile, then tore myself away and back to the tree and my notebook.

The next time I looked up he was putting powder in a bottle. He caught me looking at him.

"Protein shake. I usually consume about thirty-five hundred calories and two hundred grams of protein a day; there's no way I could do that with regular food, especially not up here."

"Does it taste good?"

"It's not bad. Do you want some?"

"No thanks."

"Alright, well I'm going to go wash up and get ready for bed. I'll go up that way.," he said, pointing in the direction ahead of the trail.

"I'll go that way then.," I replied, pointing in the direction backwards down the trail. "You want to just do that from now on?"

"Sounds good."

I put my notebook back and went to wash up and get ready for bed. When I returned to the shelter I found more people had arrived. After brief introductions and a bit of small talk I climbed onto my pad and pulled the blanket on top.

Today we had only hiked a bit over 8 miles. In fact, we were only just now on the trail itself; the hike so far had been the "approach" trail. We would have to increase our daily mileage considerably if we were to have any hope of making it to Maine in less than five months, but I thought it was a satisfactory first day considering we had been up since 4:30am and spent half the day travelling by car, plane, and truck.

Jay arrived a few minutes later and lay beside me.

"You doing ok?" he asked.

"Yeah," I replied, "tired."

"Yeah," he agreed, "g'night."

"G'night."