Southwest Virginia Musings

Southwest Virginia has been pretty nice so far. Everybody says that Virginia is easy - well, I would NOT go that far. We are still in the mountains and there are plenty of ascents, descents, rocks, and roots. However, there also seems to be a fair amount of relatively level trail, with a nice clear footpath. We can listen to the pocket radio and get NPR programming from pretty much anywhere, now that we are close to towns on a regular basis. Some nice church group has been leaving bottled water at a lot of the road crossings, which is awesome. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous, and the spring plants and leaves are starting to come out. The aroma of the forest and fields we walk through can only be described as the scent of Green...a rich, lush, perfume-y smell. A few days ago, M and I ditched about ten pounds of gear, including our tent, and have been...

strolling along with lighter packs. We had our first adventure in tarp camping, which was largely a failure in simply dewy conditions, and would have been disastrous if it had rained, as the weather report predicted. So we are at the library, looking up tarp pitching methods so we can try again. The tent weighed almost six pounds and the tarp weighs just over one pound, including all stake and rope, so we are highly motivated to figure this out.

We've been hearing a lot about the shootings at Virginia Tech, since we pass pretty close to Blacksburg. A lot of VT students come from this area, and it's been evident that several towns we've come through have been personally affected by this tragedy, by the memorials set up and the names of students posted on every gas station and Dairy Queen sign along the road.

A couple of days ago, we met some awesome people from a Methodist church, who picked us up at the trail, gave us an all-you-can-eat breakfast, provided cards and stamps for us to send a note home, and sent us back to the trail with goody bags filled with home-baked muffins and cookies. There are a lot of churches along the trail who minister to hikers, and I have to admit, it's been somewhat puzzling to me. After all, none of us HAVE to be out there, so whatever supposed suffering comes from living outdoors and walking on punishing terrain is self-inflicted. Hikers are not a demographic that seems particularly at-risk, at least in the traditional definition. Isn't it kind of like being on vacation?

I was talking to M about this the other day, and we came to the conclusion that these churches see hikers as seeking something important, something that has been missing in their lives. It's a pretty big leap to give up everything you have at home, including your home itself, in a lot of cases, and do this long hike. If you are satisfied with what you had at home, you wouldn't do this. So I guess what has been troubling to me about all this ministry is that I am among that group of hikers...the church ladies see a void in me that I have been ignoring. By pretending that this is just a vacation, that I will just go home at the end of this and resume life, I've been ignoring the very things that drove me out here. It's not too often that I've been in a group that is ministered TO or served, usually I am among the providers.

The church ladies of Bland, VA "did Jesus right", as M and I said as we were leaving, by feeding body and soul, and loving us without knowing us.