THERE IS A YEAR IN THE RIVER AND IT FEELS AT HOME

As I sit in the lodge at Amicalola Falls State Park, I look out at the misty mountains and quiet valleys. A light fog settles over everything. The clouds move slowly between the ridges as if they have nowhere to be.

And suddenly I have the same feeling that a much younger Travis used to have.

Back home in New Jersey, or as we like to call it Jersey, on a trail somewhere between Sunfish Pond and Mohican Outdoor Center, I remember looking north and thinking: “Wow…this goes all the way to Maine.«

Then I would turn around and think, “And that road reaches Georgia.«

It seemed impossible. As if the path were less of a path and more of a promise.

I met my first hiker when I was about 6 or 7 years old. He had just finished his hike about a week before coming to speak to our Boy Scout troop. He was one of the fathers of the older children. He talked about hiking and camping safety, but I don’t think I heard a single word that came out of his mouth because I was amazed. His long, shaggy hair, his thin, gray beard, his rough skin, and his thin, lanky body. It looked like it belonged in the mountains. Even then, in that moment, I think I knew that would be me one day.

Growing up in the Delaware Water Gap/Blairstown area has made that stretch of trail especially sacred to me. From Mount Minsi to Mount Tammany and the beautiful river that runs between them, those hills seem less like landmarks to me than like old friends.

It was here, at home, that helped shape who I would become.

The long climbs that seemed enormous to me when I was a child. The first time I see Sunfish Pond appear among the trees as something hidden only to those willing to walk far enough to find it. And always the steady flow of the Delaware River below.

These mountains and this river hold many of my firsts. First adventures. First loves. First heartbreaks. Early moments when the world felt bigger than the small town I grew up in.

I didn’t realize it then, but every hike, every paddle, every mile of that trail was silently preparing me for this moment. bghg.

And now, sitting here at the beginning of all the south, I can no longer look south.

Because from here…

every step goes home.

-TRAV

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