Testing ground

Tomorrow I embark on a journey that started just over a month ago. Well..., it's a mini-journey culminating into a bigger one. You see, just over a month ago, after struggling with who I am and what my purpose in life is, I crossed over a very recognized trail that would eventually consume me, that trail is the Appalachian Trail.  It extends some 2180 miles from Springer Mountain, Georgia to Mt. Katahdin, Maine.  It's definitely the path less traveled for many reasons, the distance being the biggest one and that the average hiker spends 6 months and some 5,000,000 steps traversing it.  Why on earth would anyone choose to hike its entire distance?  I can't answer for those that have or for those who want to, but I can say that IT choose me.

For months I was lost and disheartened by my drawings and the lack of desire to continue.  It's a something I struggle with on a regular basis, but this time I was through with drawing and I was just out on a beautiful spring day with my wife hiking to the top of Max Patch, North Carolina.  I knew the AT crossed its summit, but I had no idea that it and I were on a crash course that would change things drastically.  A hundred yards or so from its summit, there we were standing on the AT.  I looked left, then right, as if about to cross a busy intersection. I was looking for that lone hiker.  Non were seen, but what I did see was a wooden post that was clearly painted with a white blaze, 1 of the 165,000 that mark the trail. I snapped a picture with my out dated, out of focus 3G iphone.  It was at that instant that the trail called out my name.  No kidding, I'm serious, it beaconed me with a flood of emotions! I clearly remember saying to my wife, with tears that began to swell in my eyes, "I want to draw again."  Period.  It was that easy and that quick.

Now, a month later, with new equipment bought and packed and repacked many times over, I'm prepared to go on a 34 mile hike through the Pisgah National Forest to test out my gear and my spirit.  I've never backpacked alone before, nor have I camped alone. This is going to be crazy!!  Crazy because a month from now, I'll throw my heavy laden pack over my shoulders and head north from Amicalola Falls, Georgia, the starting point of the Appalachian Trial, and walk some 465 miles to Damascus, Virginia.  Not only will I be doing the usual walking, eating, sleeping and then start it all over again the next morning, I'll be sketching & drawing my way along the trail, many of which will end up in a book called: 'A Sketch and A Prayer: An Artists Journey on the Appalachian Trail'.

My journey will be a journey for all.  A journey that will open the eyes and the senses through drawings.  It'll lift one's soul just as it lifted mine on that small patch of ground atop Max Patch.  It'll be a journey of discovery and rediscovery, to find myself and to be content with the soul within. Am I scared? Oh, hell yeah, I'm scared!