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Published: September 19th 2007
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Sim, Claire and me
The three of us in Harper's Ferry, WV., on the AT last year. A year and a half ago, I quit my job to go hiking.
Last night, I did it again.
Yes, folks, I just quit another job.
Last time I did this, I spent almost six months hiking the Appalachian Trail. This time, I'll spend six weeks hiking -- and other stuff -- in Nepal. The plane leaves in less than three weeks, and the friends I will be meeting, Claire and Sim, are already there, waiting for me.
Actually, this whole adventure started when I first met these guys last year on the AT, on the summit of Standing Indian Mountain in North Carolina. I was packing up my camp after spending the night near the summit, and a blonde-haired girl about my age came along and, in a British accent, asked me about the path to the viewpoint at the top. It was foggy, so she wasn't likely to get any views, but I told her she might as well go on up there, since it wasn't far. I pointed her in the right direction, told her I'd keep an eye on her backpack, and off she went.
As she trotted up the hill, she told me a couple of her friends were behind her and would be coming along soon, and could I keep an eye out for them? Sure, I said. I must have been busy stuffing my tent into my pack or something when they passed right by...
She hiked on ahead of me, but it wasn't long before I overtook her. First I saw her at a stream crossing, waiting for her friends to catch up with her. She asked if I had seen them. I said no.
A couple of hours later, I saw her again, this time when she caught up with me during a break. She asked if I had seen her friends. I said no.
Then, another hour or two later, I came across her at the turnoff for a shelter, where I was stopping for some water. She was sitting on her pack in the middle of the trail, smoking a hand-rolled cigarette. She apologized for pestering me as she once again asked if I had seen her friends. I said no.
She was still sitting there, smoking another cigarette and anxiously waiting for her friends, when I passed by her as I left the shelter.
I later found out that she reunited with her friends that night, at their pre-arranged campsite.
A few days later, I met one of the elusive friends. A third member of the group, an American woman, had dropped out by then after fracturing her foot. That left the two British girls: the blonde one, Sim, who some of you may remember from last year's e-mails as Sees Bears Everywhere, and Claire, known at the time as Sun Worshipper.
It was at the Nantahala Outdoor Center, a river rafting place with a hostel, laundromat, gear shop and restaurants. It was a "dry" place, so Sim hitchhiked to a nearby store to get beer. After taking a shower, doing laundry and picking up a mail package of food, I stopped to get a sandwich on my way out. There were Claire and Sim, sitting at a picnic table by the river, drinking beer. They offered me one, which I thought was incredibly generous, since it hadn't been easy hitching into town to get the beer, and they only had a 12-pack.
Some more hikers came along, and they were given beers, too. We all had a nice chat, then I was off by myself to find a campsite down the trail. They stayed behind to spend the night at the hostel.
We met up again just a couple days later, this time in a strangely empty, off-season resort town just outside the Smoky Mountains. It started with dinner in an overpriced and far-too-fancy restaurant. Due to the lack of ATMs in the town, I could only afford a salad, and Sim could only afford four stuffed mushrooms. But others had cash that they were willing to spend buying us beer, so the party moved out to the deck. Then it moved again to someone's hotel room.
It was somewhere in the hotel room that the whole thing became a bit of a blur...there was a party, there was smoking, there was a guy hitting on us girls (I think), there were peanut butter and jelly sandwiches...and when it was all over there was me back at the shelter outside of town, very, very drunk, trying to pitch a tent in the dark, on a hill. Claire and Sim thought it was pretty damn funny, the way I kept swaying in circles adjusting and re-adjusting the tent, nearly falling down the hill in the process.
We've been friends ever since.
After the AT, they came to visit me at my mother's house in the Witch City -- Salem, Mass. -- and I believe it was there that someone mentioned, I think just in passing, something about a reunion in Nepal.
We had a few days of fun exploring Salem, going on whale watches and whatnot, before Claire and Sim flew off to much more exotic locales on the other side of the world to continue their adventures. I've been following their travels through the South Pacific and Asia all year.
The idea of meeting up with them in Nepal never left me, and when I decided a little while back that it was time for a major career overhaul, I figured it would be a good time to take an extended vacation. After all, it had been nearly a whole year since I took those six months off work to hike the Appalachian Trail. I was due for a long break.
So I bought a plane ticket and told Claire and Sim to expect me the first week in October.
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