The climbs are hard. In three different places, fire watch towers still remain from the time when personnel were stationed in the towers to report possible forest fires. The towers are now popular hiking destinations, giving hikers the chance to rise above the treetops and take in the majesty of the mountains. The John Byrne Tower is a stone structure. It is currently only two stories, as the guard infrastructure on the third floor where the ranger had lived had to be removed in the 1930s because ice and snow during the winter cracked and weakened the structure. In the 1980s, the Forest Service renovated the remains of the tower until it left the structure as it stands today. The views are fabulous, however, being a musician, the magic of the tower lies in the interior stone structure.
reverberation
Reverberation is a sound effect that occurs when wave pressure expands from a source, such as a singer’s vocal cords or the vibrating device of an instrument, and that wave bounces back in the same relative vicinity of the source. This is an echo in its simplest form. As notes become more complex, they become overlapping echoes, called reverb. As I approached the tower, I felt exhausted from the climb. I dropped my backpack and immediately started making some dinner. As I struck up a conversation with another nearby hiker, I noticed my voice echoing through the door leading to the ground floor of the stone tower. I finished dinner and, with no one else around as it was later, I pulled out my guitar, put my bear barrel on the floor as a seat, and started playing. It was amazing. I played and sang many songs moving from positions in the tower playing with the natural reverb. I realized that my backpacking guitar couldn’t produce enough wave energy in its little soundboard when I tried to strum the beat. However, when I picked out individual notes of the melody, the room came to life. Then I started singing. I have never sounded better with my voice, in my opinion of course, since there was no one else to judge. I was having so much fun that I didn’t realize it was getting late and I still had to walk to find a place to camp since the tower area is prohibited for camping. It was worth every step taken to get there.
Not just donuts
One of the best parts of the trail is experiencing the joy and passion of business in the truly American city centers along the trail. One of the highlights is the conversations that can be started. While at Not Just Donuts in Franklin, North Carolina, the owner and I were having a great conversation about how the community comes to buy donuts in the morning and start the day in a friendly way. On the street, across the square, an old blue VW Beatle pulls up. When talking to its owner, the beloved car is named Bubbles. Bubbles the Blue Beatle. With ’70s soft rock playing through the donut shop’s speakers, it reminded me of my high school auto shop. In high school I had one English class, four hours of auto shop, and two gym classes for my senior schedule. It was an amazing auto shop. We had an instructor who had just retired from the Air Force and was totally interested in teaching us how to work on cars. In November we started receiving Volkswagen beetles from teachers. At this time it was very popular in our area for teachers to have beetles. The Beetle has an air-cooled engine and cylinder number three (of the engine’s four cylinders) is hidden beneath the rest of the engine. It has a propensity to burn the exhaust valve. That is the valve that gets hotter. So the instructor taught me and a friend of mine how to take out the engine, take the kit that you would buy from Volkswagen and replace not only the blown valve but also replace the rest of the cylinders and rebuild the entire engine. We did the first one and it worked very well. Word spread and teachers started saying, «Can I bring my beetle? He’s acting like number three is burned out.» The auto shop was open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. We had a late lunch. My friend and I became so good at doing rebuilds that in December we could drop the engine, rebuild it, and have the car running perfectly by the time the class was over with time to spare. It was just a fantastic auto shop.
Small Town American Pride
Franklin, North Carolina is simply a fantastic example of a great small American city. As I finished exchanging stories with Not Just Donuts customers, I noticed that in Town Square they have bronze plaques engraved with the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. I approached and stood with great pride before those founding documents. I started to cry thinking about all the people who have made this country great. It made me sad to think that we are forgetting these sacrifices and our ability to love our neighbors while we are tearing ourselves apart for no reason. Standing there in front of those documents, tears streamed down my face, frustrated by our current national situation. We may disagree. We can argue, but it doesn’t have to be something like “I win and you lose” and that’s killing me. I’m here to take the journey trying to be a kind, respectful, proud American while deepening my relationship with God and trying to embody some love to everyone I meet.
a tribute
Important information from the other side of the arch may take time to reach hikers due to signs and location-specific characteristics. I heard that an old friend of mine passed away. The beauty of being able to reflect on memories with meaning and depth as you travel for miles alone is a gift. This woman was the matriarch of an entire community. She brought more people into a spiritual reality and brought them closer to walking with Jesus than anyone I could imagine during the time she was active in our parish. She always preached the Gospel and when she needed it, she used words. I met her when she was 20 years old. I had just moved to California and had joined the local Catholic Church’s folk music group. We played at the 5pm mass, the “Peter, Paul and Mary” mass, as it was known. The nickname comes from the popular folk group of the time and the names also correspond to three very important people in the time of Jesus. My friend was the backbone of the group. She and her husband, who passed away many years ago, started one of the first Small Christian Community groups in the parish. The group remembers her husband because the Google Group email is named after him. There was no Google when this group started. Some of our closest and longest-serving friends are in this SCC group and it’s all thanks to that founding couple. This woman full of faith embodied love. She was very practical. She was Sicilian, so she got straight to the point, but with openness and love. I can see her now looking down from heaven telling me to follow that path as that is where you are currently taking your spiritual development to the next level, so you stay on that path and continue. I found a rock overlooking a beautiful valley and played a couple of songs that reminded me of it. We always sang the song City of God at Christmas, and the lyrics are exactly what she did. She built the city of God. She was the spiritual director of the building of the city of God within her influence and her circle. The other song is a very deeply spiritual song, We Shall Rise Again, and the fifth verse is very moving. I know that when she entered heaven, her husband and family were there with open arms next to Jesus or Jesus had his arms around all of them and with the number of friends and people she influenced, I think God had to have Saint Peter get the angels to make more room for all the people who welcomed her. This is my tribute to her along the way, on this side of the arc. I’m sitting here on a beautiful day. The spring flowers are blooming and I cannot thank you enough for the legacy you left in my life through many things too numerous to list.
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