Dear Reader,
Congratulations to Stacey Somppi, one of the Honorable Mention recipients in the 2018 Write a DearReader Contest. Stacey reminds us there are angels everywhere, if we are looking, especially on the trail.
In 2017, our son thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail, Georgia to Maine, 1850 miles. This year he is tackling the Pacific Crest Trail, Mexico to Canada, 2650 miles. While I love the pictures he sends of impressive vistas, and we appreciate learning about the gear he uses, I am a sucker for the stories about Trail Angels.
Trail Angels are everyday folks along the way who are kind to hikers, doing small good deeds to make their hikes easier. Last year I could not get enough of these stories.
He told us about the grocery store manager who saw our son restocking hiking supplies at his store about two miles from the trail. He came out of his office to tell our son that he'd give him a lift back to the trailhead. The store runs a daily bus, but that wouldn't be until the afternoon so the manager volunteered.
Imagine our son's surprise at coming upon a cold stream stocked with beer and a sign indicating that the hikers should help themselves. He also encountered impromptu cookouts set up for hikers, often hosted by previous years' hikers or youth groups.
One retired woman spends her days giving rides to hikers from various trailheads into nearby towns and back to the trail. She follows the flow of hikers along the trail so some lucky folks encounter her more than once. She is the star of many selfies.
The manager of one hiker hostel has a box of scrubs for hikers to wear as they do their laundry, allowing them to wash everything at once. Our son said he and the patrons at the local diner looked like a bunch of interns.
This year on the other side of the country, angels also exist. The first was the couple and their many friends who graciously pick up hikers at the San Diego airport, allow them to camp in their yard, feed them dinner and breakfast, then provide rides to the trailhead one-and-a-half hours to the south where the PCT starts. And they won't accept any payment.
Our son's landlord in New Mexico is a Trail Angel in absentia, forwarding General Delivery packages of replacement shoes and supplies to him along the way.
Once we get the chance to visit with our son at the end of this summer's hike, I know I will have new stories to add to this collection.
For the most part, these Trail Angels are usually anonymous benefactors who fill very specific needs for hikers in their area. These are not random acts of kindness, but targeted acts of generosity.
We don't have to travel to iconic national trails to become Trail Angels. We can each provide specific help to those we meet daily on our own thru-hikes of life.
Stacey Somppi
Honorable Mention
Write a DearReader Contest 2018
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]
* This month's Penguin Classics book is THE BOOK OF EMMA REYES: A MEMOIR, by Emma Reyes. I have a copy of the book to share with a lucky reader, so start reading and enter for your chance to win.
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