For months, my friend Storm and I (REMINDER: Some of my friends have “trail names” which were given to them during their thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. For those uncomfortable with this notion, her real name is Patrice.) had been planning to meet somewhere in between the two of us for a weekend visit. Storm lives in New Jersey and since I’m here in southeast Michigan, we thought Pittsburgh would be a good compromise – until the night before we left and we changed our destination to the Allegheny Mountains near Cooksburg, PA. We thought we’d do some hiking or canoeing and relax a bit. We thought we pretty much knew what to expect for the weekend. Especially since I’d been there before. But then we met Rob.
As we were eating dinner on Friday night, Rob introduced himself as the lodge’s wine guy (I really don’t think that’s what came out of his mouth but nor did “sommelier.”). We talked for a bit about where we were from and that was that. After a bit of a stroll around the lodge grounds, Storm and I headed back inside for one more glass of wine. Rob poured me his favorite sauvignon blanc and poured Storm some pinot noir. Then Storm started to tell him why we had both driven to meet in the middle of nowhere and how we’d met. Before she could spit out how we’d both hiked the A.T., Rob finished her sentence. He went on to tell us that hiking the A.T. had been a dream of his when he was about 16-years-old and how he now does some work with the US Forest Service. In there somewhere was also a mention of the Student Conservation Association (SCA) which got my mind running. I knew my dear friend, Melk (Real Life Name: Liz), who I hiked with from Virginia to Maine with in 2007, was working with an SCA group in Pennsylvania for the summer. I didn’t know where, I didn’t know when. Actually, I didn’t really even know she was with an SCA group. I just assumed based on her Facebook status saying she’d be in PA for the summer. We hadn’t talked in a few months and it had been about a year since we’d seen each other. But I threw it out there. Rob’s response was, “Liz is here. And if she is she’ll probably be at a party we’re all having tomorrow night.” But he said he’d let us know for sure the following day.
So, the next day at dinner, Rob informed us, “I can’t confirm that it’s your friend but I can confirm that there’s a Liz from Rhode Island.” That’s pretty much all I needed to know my friend Melk was nearby. How many women named Liz can live in Rhode Island but also be working in PA for the summer? I sent her a text message just to be sure and, as we raced to the party through the hills behind Rob and Jody, who’d also come along from the lodge, she called to confirm. When we arrived to the party, it was dark and there was a large group gathered around a campfire with a few folks playing various instruments. I scoured the illuminations of the fire on each person’s face until I saw Melk. When our eyes landed upon each other we ran and hugged and started shrieking and talking about how in the world all of this had happened. It was a great moment. And I was so thankful it was happening.
We spent about thirty minutes talking before Melk had to leave with her group. Storm and I spent the rest of the evening around the campfire with a handful of people we’d just met talking about a handful of topics and realizing what great company we were in.
I told Rob later in the evening that it seems every time I’m near the A.T. or am with any of my trail friends, something incredible like this happens. He said it was serendipity and the fact that we were open to it all and had put ourselves out there. It seems that, even though I thought the story of my hike was over, I’m still learning such great lessons from it all and I’m still finding so much magic and so many amazing people. I feel lucky to have learned over and over in my life just how many wonderful people are out there in that great big world of ours. I feel so lucky to have met Rob and Jody and to see Melk again!
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Speaking of seeing Melk, here’s a photo from our reunion! Thanks to Storm for sharing the photo!
And here are a few we took back at the lodge after the festivities. Thanks to Storm for her masterful self-timer action (through which I appear to be sleeping) and to Rob for getting a photo of Storm and I.
