CedarKeyHiker

"Travis McGee's still in Cedar Key
That's what John MacDonald said
My rendezvous so long overdue
With all of the things I've sung and I've read
They still apply to me, they'll all make sense in time

But now I'm incommunicado
Driving by myself down the road with a hole in it
Songs with no bravado
Takin' the long way home" - J. Buffett

It's time for me too to be incommunicado. I've got my gear together. There are a couple of shakedown hikes planned and no doubt I'll need to keep working on getting myself in shape but I'm about as ready as I can be.

It's interesting that I am getting so much inspiration from the others I meet or read about who are preparing for their own adventure. It's primarily that I recognize in them a sense of adventure and the frontier spirit that propelled our ancestors to cross oceans to get to America then explore and settle it from coast to coast.

There's a certain kindred spirit I feel with anyone who is not satisfied to live life constrained by convention. Frankly, I hope there are hundreds of people on the Trail when I'm there because I will be more at home with them than with the masses at any parade, football game, mall, grocery store queue, or any other place that people congregate. They are the leaders and not the followers that are content to be jostled about while only getting a glimpse of the world passing by.

The people I've met that are preparing and those I'll meet on the trail, despite their chances of successfully completing their walk, are truly special people. As far as I'm concerned, they are glue that binds the fabric of our society together. They're now as they were when John Muir walked a thousand miles from Kentucky to Cedar Key the ones who make a difference.

So quit reading this and get going. Go about your way making things better ...I'll see you out there...