Good news galore! It is now one whole week since I am back on the trail after recuperating from the injury! I have crossed the roller coaster and crossed the states of Virginia and West Virginia. Tomorrow I will cross Maryland into Pennsylvania and will have done my 200 miles! But wait a minute! It does not mean that I am flying. I walked only 51.5 miles and climbed approximately 10,000 ft in one week. After walking about 4-5 miles every day, the bottom of my left leg (including where the injury was) starts swelling and hurting a little! But the next day, my feet are fully recovered! I am keeping fingers crossed that daily rigor of walking does not exacerbate this swelling.
Yessssss, I finally saw a bear. It must have been pretty close to me on the densely forested trail. I suddenly heard a thumping sound and crackling of dry branches on the floor. I was startled, suddenly stopped in my tracks and there it was! Running as fast as it could away from me! (After seeing my beard, many of my college-mates had predicted this bear-running-away scenario anyway!) It vanished even before I could pull my cell phone out. Those of you who have been on birding or safari trips, may be familiar with such flashes of seeing incredible birds and animals for a couple of seconds! Those sights get etched on the brain for a long long time. This bear was huge (a male bear?), had a classical slightly shiny black hair all over his body and had a running style resembling that of a crippled horse. But it moved extremely fast. Note that I was trained to worry not about the bear but the cubs which could be on the other side of the trail. If I crossed the trail while bear is away from the cub, then bear would come back equally fast and make me pee in my pants (which nobody would have noticed any way because of multiple reasons, such as (a) I would be dead or (b) my pant is already drenched with rain, or (c) apart from bear there was nobody within miles in this jungle etc. ). In any case, I did not see any cub, all was well and I continued.
Finally, finally after, hearing lots of noise and seeing holes in the ground, I saw cicadas (For those who have missed this story in social media and on TV, these trillions of cicadas emerge from ground every 17 years for a couple of months on eastern part of USA). They were huge compared to what I expected. When I sat down on a fallen log for my usual rest, water, peanut/raisin snack and to massage my feet, two of them crawled on my hand and a few were crawling on the backpack. After seeing the NPR documentary from 2004, I had a romantic idea of these cicadas crawling on me in hoards, I would take a nice photo of myself and show off to all of you! But in this vast jungle, I guess, such ideas need to be curtailed.
Holes from where cicadas emerge 
Cicadas marching on AT!
I think I had mentioned earlier that I have a superstition that when I see such animals or bugs, trees dripping with rain, scary and unbelievable thunderstorms, I would have a beautiful week, and indeed, the week was beautiful.
When you experience so many random acts of “giving”, so many trail angels on the trail, how can a week, a year, and even life not be so beautiful? How can I forget a lady from Wisconsin suddenly knocking on our cabin door with warm pancakes? How can I forget somebody giving me maple syrup energy packets for sipping while I was dragging my feet? How can I forget suddenly finding an anonymous cooler next to the trail in Front Royal with very cold water that gave me a quick relief from the hot 90F weather? And how can I forget the 4-year old pigtail (her trail name)! While helping her mommy to bring food to the pavilion, came to me and told me “There is a trail magic nearby. Please do visit. My trail name is pigtail”. I thanked pigtail’s mom for teaching her child a secret of happiness so early in that child’s life!
Oh my god! What a trail magic that was thrown by two families. I just can not resist the idea of writing down the spread of the food for you. Here is the spread: scrambled eggs, sausages, bacon, biscuits, at least four types of cookies, hot coffee, hot milk chocolate, hot milk, two types of cold beer, orange juice, hot dog, burgers, great fruit salad, various cold drinks, kit kat, snicker bar, chips, salad, and probably few things that I missed. And oh yes, they did offer ibuprofen (called as vitamin I on the trail). I think the most contagious bug on the trail is “generosity” and I hope that I get bitten by this bug throughout my life.
Trail magic pavilion in Washington Monument park 
Another anonymous trail magic
Trust me, I can not keep up with the stories, can not remember or even note down every day all the things happening! I saw the original Washington Monument built 60 years before the modern monument in DC mall across the Capitol, visited several other civil war sites in Maryland, battled my own demon successfully of hesitating to walk in the rain due to memories of a recent injury, shivered the whole night with cold because now I carry summer gear and temperature suddenly dipped to 42F, met two active military chaplain who struggled to provide help to a Sikh military man (I did not know that finding religious resources for all denominations and religions in the military was their job as a chaplain), met several people who have visited India, met a Caucasian 26-year old hostel caretaker learning Sanskrit because she wants to understand “real” yoga” (and not just stretching), had a sleepless night due to barking dog 2 feet away (poor thing was in misery due to hiking with his mom), met a doctor lady whose firefighter husband passed away on duty and she is trying to regain her compassion for patients by walking three months with his ashes on the trail, met a couple who smoked drugs half of the night in the shelter! Trust me, I have not told you even one third of the stories! I do not think I will ever travel with so many stories in such a short time!
I will try my best to keep up with all the things happening around me and provide the next update after about one more week. Let us continue to pray for people suffering with Covid across the world please!
Before I go, I really want to thank all of you for all your encouragement, wishes and blessings. I read each comment on website and social media, although I may not respond to each of those comments. I really appreciate your interest. Please, please forward my updates and blogs to your friends and relatives without any hesitation. Also please read other blogs on the web site www.dadhionthetrail.com
HUGE Thank you!
Very nice beginning and very good attitude. This is Dadhi spirit and you are known for that. Keep it up.
Stories are really touching… The Sanskrit learner, The Ash carrier…… And of course Cutie Pigtail….. I am living this with you across the globe.
Dadi is back on trail!! , as always, you writings are fascinating.
Thank you for sharing the life stories of amazing folks on the trail. Glad you are moving slow and steady without aggravating your feet a lot. Best wishes!
Wonderful news that you have recovered from your injury and back on the trail. All the best.
Godspeed Nitin! Enjoy every second, stay safe and keep going!!
Wonderful to read your trail stories, Dadhi. If you get a chance, please post miles walked each day. My hope is to walk the same number of miles in my town, in solidarity to your amazing trip.
Breath-taking pace, that post! Your wanting to share your joys was very apparent – thank you so much! As Gokul says, it leads to a reader close to experiencing it oneself. I too was waiting for the cicadas – they were such an unusual ‘nature nugget’ when you told me about it! May your beard grow long, Dadhi 🙂
What wonderful stories you are gathering. Thank you for sharing them.
Great to see you back on the trail! Wishing you many injury-free miles and more stories for your collection.
Yeh!!! you are back on Trail – Good Job!!!
You must have felt really nice.
Please take care of yourself.
Amazing write up, touching stories, and great experience!
Wishing you all the best and please be safe.
Keep these Dadhi updates coming. I’m hiking vicariously with you! Let us know when you get close to Katahdin.
Wonderful…..only once I had a fleeting view of Sambar when we were climbing Vasota.
Nice! The rainy days were cold and I thought of checking how you are holding up in your summer bag, but something reassured me. I saw you online at 8:17pm on Whatsapp. Remembered you make it to shelters pretty early to sort out wet n dry issues. Enjoy!
Glad to hear from you. Beautiful write up as always. Thank you for sharing amazing experience and touching stories with us and bringing us closer to the nature. Take care.
Chalti ka naam Dadhi!👍
Great write up. Wish you had video recordings of your meetings with these fascinating people.
I suppose that they are blogging about you – the bearded Indian auto industry executive with refurbished knees and hip…trekking along on a tentative foot ..while scaring the shit out of fully-grown male bears.
Reading your experience on the trail is so enjoyable your experience must be enjoyable a multiple times.Given your grit and determination your foot should stand up to the rigors of the adventure! Have fun
Great going Nitin. All the best. Looking forward to your stories. They are really awesome 👏
Enjoy Nitin & take care,stay safe.
मला वाचताना पण थकायला होतंय,आपण नक्की same age
चे आहोत का? Great ☺️
Nitin,
I am glad that you are back on the trail!
I enjoy reading your blog–veerry Interesting. Maybe think of making in a book!
Have a safe walk on the trail and hope to see you in Albany soon.
–Sudhirmama
So happy you are back on the trail and sounding very chipper! The Trail Angels are the best! We have one coming to visit us in Michigan and bringing his backpacking wife, backpacking friend and another couple. They are coming from Maryland just to visit us! You can never anticipate the amazing friendships you develop by just putting on your hiking boots! Prayers continue for you Nitin!
Very glad to see you marching ahead…… you are sharing the blessings and joys with all of us as you go along….. and they are multiplying.
Your narration is a live commentary with your art of story telling, we are experiencing these happenings on the trail with you.
Wish you the best with your health and please keep sharing all the stories.
So nice to read about your trail experiences. Enjoy and keep healthy. Suggest getting a gopro head mount so you won’t miss the priceless wildlife sightings and we can see them too!
Keep it up Dadhi! शुभेच्छा!
Yaay! Back on trail and going strong! Through your blogs, we are living all the awesome experiences you are going through each day. May the force be with you! And may you meet many more pigtails on the way.
Very nicely worded dadhi. Remarkable experience of bear and you. Pl take care of your health and foot specially. Your words give a reader experience of being at a place oneself. All the best for future.
Lovely Nitin !!! Amazing encounters…. Bear running away from you , I am totally with the Bear on this one lol !
Superb! Keep them coming.
Happy to hear you are back on the trail. Certainly, Trail Magic or is it ‘magical trail’? Keep posting.
Super, highly concentrated experience as it seems. Great determination and great going!! Really loved all your updates. Keen those coming in!!
Cheers
Great news about your restart post injury. Keep moving and enjoy the trail. We eagerly wait for your next blog 👍👍
Great to read about your adventures. Good luck with the rest of the trail
Priya
This is so amazing and so inspiring! Keep it up kaka. ❤️
Thank you so much for such a beautiful narration of your experiences and for taking us along with you on this journey! Keep it up! Take care.
Dear Nitin,
Happy to know that you are back on a trail. Thanks for sharing your lively and exciting experiences
Mrinalini
Nice to know you are marching and advancing on the trail. Despite injury you are in great spirit . Keep it up and god bless you . Anant
These stories prove that basic Human element by nature has an ample share of “generosity” … the rest (shame, anger, greed etc.) came in when built the shell of modern amenities (belongings) around us. Always fun to read the blogs … looking fwd to #6.
Fascinating from every angle.