The Closing of the Library

On June 11, the tramily was gathered again to bid farewell to a brother leaving the trail. Our party of three set up a two hour shuttle ride from the south end of Shenandoah back to Daleville, VA, to meet up with the full crew.

Sebastian, known to the trail as Paperback, was the German hiker I was traveling with for the first week of my trip and the first hiker I met at Springer Mountain shelter on day one. We talked at length about international culture and engineering while hiking together to Neel Gap. I bestowed him the name Paperback because he was packing several German novels and a journal. Later we were reunited at Muskrat Creek, where the tramily was first assembled.

Now Paperback's visa is expiring, so he will return to Berlin after a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway and a visit to Washington, DC. For his farewell party I booked the nicest hotel room in town, a double size King room with a hot tub, for him to sleep and for all of us to congregate. Then I played spa attendant, cycling the hot tub between hot and cold for foot soaking. Hiker soup was cooked in Daleville that day.

Many hugs and goodbyes later, we are back in a car heading north. After these gatherings nobody is sure who they will see again, or when. I have a feeling that many of our paths will continue to cross. Until then we keep walking, so that we can send to Sebastian our photos from Katahdin.