End of the Trip: Return to Mussoorie

The past 2 weeks have been pretty uneventful. Somewhere along the line, after over 4 months, traveling in India ceased to be exciting, so I bought a ticket back to the States. However, I'm not going home. I still want to keep adventuring, I just want to do it in my own country. Honestly, traveling in India has made me realize how little I know about the United States and Canada (both, in their own way, where I come from), and I got the urge to explore them as I am exploring this country. I also just read a book by Bill Bryson called The Lost Continent, about re-discovering small-town America. I can certainly relate to that after my trail experiences. However, there's so much I haven't seen. Much of California is unknown to me - even though I grew up there, I never explored it as an adult. And so many other places - New Mexico, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, and pretty much all the midwest.

Some of you know that I was planning on working on organic farms in Europe after India. But I suddenly found myself wanting to hike the Appalachian Trail again, and go to the Trail Days, and do trail magic. When I finished my hike last year, I thought I was done with heavy-duty hiking for a while. For maybe a year. I still wanted to do the Pacific Crest in 2010. I put down the backpack, and picked up a different one for traveling.

A well-documented phenomenon that occurs among thru-hikers is "Springer Fever" - referring to Springer Mountain, the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail in Georgia. I didn't think it would happen to me, but as soon as the season starts to roll around (as it is now), you get the itch to throw on your pack and start walking north again. It's the weirdest thing. I don't plan on hiking the entire trail again, just a quarter of it, the famous 500 mile section of Springer to Damascus. I'm excited to hike that section again, especially because it includes the Smokies. I'm aiming to be in Damascus around the middle of May, when the Trail Days festival begins in that town.

After Trail Days, I'm planning on hopping in the car with a Trail friend of mine, Bound, and making our way across the country to Montana. Then another friend of mine, Low, wants to do the 500 mile Colorado Trail, and I would very much like to join him.

I also just finished the book Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, and now I really want to go to Alaska. It's almost amazing to me that I'm 25 and have never been there - like a whole country inside another country. Also - British Columbia in Canada, any many other places besides in that country. It's going to take me years to do all the adventuring I need to do.

Mussoorie is nice as ever, but it's lost a bit of the feeling it had when I was here last. I'm in the Internet cafe owned by my friend (and former neighbor) Balai, and he was like "last year was fun, wasn't it?" I'm telling you it was - it really was. All the good friends we had, our awesome house in Sister's Bazaar, the parties we would throw...

Now Sister's looks pretty deserted and all the westerners I knew have moved on. I'm staying with my friend Vikas, but he lives on Woodstock school-owned property and I'm not allowed to be there, and apparently suspicions are being aroused, so I asked Balai if I could crash at his place for a while. Most likely I will be able to, but they have a family friend visiting so he just has to make sure. I'm also visiting my friend Ravine at his house tonight and will probably try to shamelessly elicit an invite to sleep over from him.

So here's what my schedule looks like, I think:

1. March - Stay with Trail friends in Florida and Georgia
2. April - Hike from Springer to Damascus
3. May - Trail Days and road trip
   
4. June - Colorado Trail?
   
5. July - Back home in San Diego?

If anyone wants to do a road trip that might include Canada and Alaska, let me know.

Sister's Bazaar