When I arrived in Metaline Falls it was extremely hot. I was surprised to see a sprinkler hose set up near a bench in town with a sign saying to use it to cool down. I was tempted to spray myself, but instead I ducked into the air conditioned ice cream shop. I bought a scoop of mango sorbet mixed with a scoop of coconut ice cream. I ate that delicious confection while having a lovely conversation with the woman who ran the shop. She hooked me up with another woman in town who rented rooms to hikers.

After eating my ice cream, I went to the small grocery store and picked up what I would need to get me to Orient. Then I went and bought a can of fuel, which was much bigger than what I wanted, but as it was all that was available in town I purchased it. Finally I walked over to Joyce’s house.

I was honored to meet this woman in her late 80s who had lived quite an independent life. She seemed to have the spirit of Doris June. Joyce has done many things in her life and as far as I can tell, she never fit into any box that women were supposed to fit in back in the day.

I showered and washed my clothes before eating dinner and crashing for the night. The following day was extremely hot again, and as Joyce offered to give me a two for one on the stay, I gratefully stayed a second night. I did the usual town chores including cleaning my water filer and giving a good washing to my pee jar. The day passed lazily with me eating and writing. AfterJoyce gave me a tour of the town and surrounding area, I again crashed for the night.

In the morning Joyce insisted on giving me a bandage for my sprained foot and she patched up the sore spot on my back so my back wouldn’t be rubbing right on it. Then I set off to hike Mount Abercrombie.

I enjoyed the gradual walk up. Even though the climb was long, it was not too steep and for once I wasn’t baking in the hot sun. There were trees to provide shade and at some point clouds moved in, which provided some relief from the heat.

Near the top I plopped myself down in an incredibly beautiful meadow of flowers. Even though the distant views were hazy from both clouds and smoke of forest fires, I sat on a rock and fed my soul on the beauty around me.

I sat there for an hour eating lunch and nourasing the parts of me that had been struggling so much on the PNT. Eventually I got up and did the very long, but again not too difficult, descent to a small campsite on the side of a forest service road where there was a picnic table and an outhouse.

The following day I got an early start. At first the trail was all on forest service roads and I was able to make good time. I was sorry when the dirt road merged onto a blacktop road. I saw that I was in for an almost twenty mile paved road walk into Northport. I wasn’t sure if I would make it that night, but when I saw that the road was fairly flat and shady I decided to get all the way into town.

By the time I reached Northport my feet were screaming from the pounding of the pavement. I plopped myself down in the first store I came to. It was a lovely little coffee shop where I finally felt I understood my reason to be hiking this trail.

I had the incredible luck of meeting Shelby. Shelby heard me struggling on the phone to get some business things tied up that I needed to get done. When I got off the phone she offered me some words of kindness. We immediately hit it off. Shelby told me she was really grateful to meet me and that my words to her made a difference in her life. I know that her kindness and her words meant a lot to me.

In my struggles to have a sense of meaning on this trail, I had lost sight of the importance of the people I meet. Shelby reminded me that while I enjoy hiking, it has been the connections with people whom I have met on the trails that have meant the most to me.

Just that morning I was wondering why I was continuing. I knew I didn’t have a clue what I would do once I stopped hiking. In trying to discern this I had the thought that it didn’t matter WHAT I did so much as HOW I did it.

Whatever I did, as long as I did it with kindness and integrity it didn’t matter if I never achieved greatness. I thought about being ordinary as good enough. All my life I wanted to feel special; I wanted to feel special to my mother and then in a marriage. Neither of these ever happened and I’ve never felt that I mattered much to anyone. I’ve been working to matter to myself, but sometimes it’s a struggle. On this trail I have felt mightily tested almost to the breaking point, so when Shelby told me how important my words were to her, it reminded me that that’s why I do these hikes. It’s less about completing the miles and accomplishing some goal of finishing a trail and it’s more about the people I meet and the impact we have on each other’s lives.

These last four years, I have met so many kind people who really helped me over the devastating loss of my marriage. I’ve made many connections with interesting, kind, wonderful people and Shelby embodied that fully. She is a young woman who has not let the great adversities of her childhood turn her bitter or angry. I know I’ll stay in touch with this lovely human who gave me at least as much as I gave her.

When the coffee shop closed, I walked down the road to meet yet more incredibly kind people. I was welcomed into the home of Jami and Josh, who are trail angels in Northport. They let me set up my tent in their yard, do laundry and shower. They also fed me a delicious all I could eat taco dinner.

Both Jami and Josh are artists and their generosity to hikers is unbounded. It was easy to take a zero with them. I spent my zero day catching up on my writing, and visiting with Shelby at the coffee shop. I felt a bit better when I left the following morning, restored physically from the rest and good food that Jami fed me as well as renewed through the connections of these wonderful people. Much of the world would consider Jami, Josh and Shelby ordinary, yet to me they’re extraordinary heros who are making a difference in the world. I came away thinking that if people like them are ordinary, then that’s exactly what I want to be.