Note: I've spent years backpacking and accumulated lots of great memories. Now that I'm in my fifties, I'm finally jotting them down as best as I remember. If you're looking for sex-crazed stories, this isn't one of them. But it was a real experience I still find arousing to this day. Let me know if you'd like to hear more. βLars
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"I sure will miss hearing of your weekend adventures on Mondays," said Scott as he pulled up to the trailhead.
I reassured him that I'd be back in six months and would look forward to sharing my stories. Having worked together on a tight-knit advertising team for three years, he'd come to enjoy my Monday stories of outings ranging from trips hiking and mountain biking to shooting the rapids on Class IV rapids in nearby Tennessee.
Scott and I had both recently been promoted - he was in sales and I was now an Associate Creative Director (a fancy title that made twenty-somethings like me feel more important than we really were.) Our Atlanta firm was a good place to work, I had a good income and could get to the great outdoors easily but making a living helping sell products people don't really need had left me feeling empty. My weekend escapes were just no longer enough so I'd saved up money to buy the hiking gear I needed and I had made myself useful enough to the firm that they granted my request for a leave of absence and promised my job would be waiting for me when I returned.
It was hard to believe that five months had now passed since Scott dropped me off at the base of Springer Mountain, Georgia, the terminus of the Appalachian Trail. I'd since amassed stories for a lifetime of Mondays: hunkering down through freak April blizzards, rescuing a day hiker who'd broken her leg, having a rattlesnake strike at my ankle only to get a mouthful of leather boot. On top of the physical adventures, I had stories of the generous and fun people I'd gotten to know in the 2000+ miles I'd hiked.
Hiking solo was far from lonely. Originally I was a bit concerned about getting bored or missing friends, but I found that solitude opened me up to meet all kinds of people. I'm not talking about anything romantic β I didn't set out looking for a relationship like a few of the men and women I met. And I didn't find romance either-- this is not a story of sex-filled nights in my tent (though I did have a no-strings-attached fling with a British woman who came to the US for a week in the mountains.)