Thursday, April 25, 2013

Changes to the Itinerary

When one is hiking, one needs to be prepared for changes to their original itinerary.  For instance, when one finds out about a Rainbow Gathering outside of Hot Springs, one must decide to take a small detour off the Trail to go visit with them.  The Rainbow Gathering is a nouveau group of hippies that go to various places in the woods across the country.  They went dumpster diving when I caught up with them, and I helped them pack their groceries down to where they were set up.  Then I helped make dinner with them, and they thanked me by giving me a cow tooth (yes, that's a literal meaning - a real cow tooth).  My hiking buddy, Outside Dog, traded a Kokopelli patch for a deer toe (also literal) and a rock.  I traded my tooth for his rock :-)  It was fabulous, and the dinner was AMAZING (not a lot of fresh veggies on the trail and this was lots of fresh veggies).  Slept out under a beautiful sky on a gorgeous grassy bald.

Fast forward a couple days, and Outside Dog's knee is acting up on him.  He nicked his leg with a chainsaw in Hot Springs and the gouge in his leg was still healing during the hiking.  He was in a lot of pain, so we decided to get to the next town a little early.  We were going to hitch hike the last 20 miles, but we found a section hiker getting off the Trail and his dad picked us up and took us to town.

The Trail always provides.  I've learned that God looks out for everyone out here.  He is good, and so are the people out here - whether they recognize Who provides for them or not.  It's a great trip, and I'm glad I can adapt away from my plans enough to meet such fabulous people as the hippies and other hikers who may not be hiking the exact same hike as me.  Well, I'm on a borrowed computer from a local, so don't want to keep him from his ... whatever he was doing.

Keep trekking!

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