The Ministry of Happiness

Happiness is Relaxation: Lake Placid

Posted on September 14, 2015 by Michael Kane

Happiness is Relaxation: Lake Placid

If a man insisted always on being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of fun and relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it. ~ Herodotus

After coming off of the trail and jumping right back into the semi-normal, non-working life of wrangling and cleaning gear, planning, working out at the gym and once again couch surfing. I decided I needed a few days of pure relaxation. I wanted a beach, a chair, a good book but the process of finding the right place at the right price was much more difficult than I expected. Then, by accident while looking at places to stay in the Adirondacks I hit upon Lake Placid.

As most of you know, Lake Placid was the site of the 1932 and 1980 Olympics, the 1980 being famous for the Miracle on Ice, where the US beat the Russians and went on to win the gold medal in hockey. I hadn’t been to Lake Placid in almost 30 years but it seemed to be the perfect mix of a small, quiet town, lots of places to eat and a bit of an escape from the last throws of the Summer’s heat.

Throw in the opportunity to have dinner with some good friends, and lots of time to read, write and stare at the lake from the balcony of my hotel room and it turned out to be just perfect.

We all need to take some time to just slow down or even stop. I know a lot of you are agreeing and rolling your eyes at me because of jobs, kids, and all of the responsibilities we are constantly buried under. Well let me roll my eyes right back at you, it’s because of exactly all of those things we all need time to just stop for a bit. So, yes, it may be difficult but find a way my friends because I want you all to live a long life with lots of happy days ~ Rev Kane

Appalachian Trail Happiness: Pennsylvania Part 2

Posted on September 14, 2015 by Michael Kane

Appalachian Trail Happiness: Pennsylvania Part 2

The green tunnel in PA

As I stated in Appalachian Trail Happiness: Pennsylvania – Part 1, I really liked southern PA. The trails in Southern Pennsylvania were great, a few rock runs but nothing worse than most of the terrain up to that point on the AT. The trail was very different however in another sense. Except for the occasional SOBO thru-hiker and section hiker, the trail was full of mostly weekenders, day hikers and school groups.

I actually enjoyed the school groups, particularly one from Gettysburg College that I camped with for a couple of nights. It was fun to talk with college freshman, something I spent a lot of time doing in my former job. However, the lack of thru-hikers changes things, thru-hikers are a different breed, a breed I feel a part of, even if my knees won’t allow me all 2200 miles this year.

I also seemed to be attracting cute little critters on the PA leg.

Also a reminder on this leg that the real danger in the woods is often the little things, not the big things. This nest was about 3 feet off the trail at one of the shelters.

As I rolled through PA, you also encounter all of the midpoints, the original, the permanent and of course the current:

Finally, me and my last hiking partner rolled into Pine Grove Furnace State Park, home of the half gallon ice cream challenge. The store/grill is awesome and the owners are super hiker friendly. It was nice to walk into someplace and see an owner who was more excited about hiker customers than the general public. My stomach has begun to increasingly not handle large quantities of dairy well, so the half gallon turned into the ice cream bar challenge and a very happy day my friends ~ Rev Kane

Posted in Appalachian Trail (AT) Happiness | Tagged adventure, appalachian trail, backpacking, hiking, ice cream, nature, pennsylvania | Leave a comment

Appalachian Trail Happiness: Pennsylvannia Part 1

Posted on September 10, 2015 by Michael Kane

Appalachian Trail Happiness: Pennsylvania Part 1

One never reaches home, but wherever friendly paths intersect the whole world looks like home for a time. ~ Hermann Hesse

Amongst AT hikers Pennsylvania gets a really bad reputation, it gets called Rocksylvania, or Rattle Snakeylvania and in Northern Pennsylvania these criticisms may very well be legitimate. However, Southern Pennsylvania is a whole different story. Particularly the section from the southern border up to Pine Grove Furnace State Park.

The section is great for a number of reasons, the first is the trail itself and everything around it, the second is the quality of the shelters. I’ll address the first in another post but in this post I want to address some of the best shelters I visited on the trail.

With the exception of Antietam Shelter, the shelters in southern PA were really nice. These were newer shelters, not necessarily large, but well built, beautiful floors and they all had great camping and hammocking spaces. They also had one other very important thing in common, they had overseers who frequently visited the shelters and made sure they were being taken care of. Here are some images of a couple of the shelters including one of my favorite ideas, the snoring and non-snoring shelters.

My first Ent on the trail

Of course the cream of the crop is Quarry Gap Shelter and innkeeper (overseer) Jim Stauch who takes amazing care of the shelter. The shelter has hanging plants, a bench, a covered eating area, permanent tarps to block the wind and even a sun dial.

All in all, at least for southern PA, we need to be kinder in describing the state on the trail, it provided for several happy days my friends ~ Rev Kane

Posted in Appalachian Trail (AT) Happiness | Tagged appalachian trail, backpacking, ent, happiness, hiking, pennsylvania, shelters, tolkein | 1 Comment

Happy News – September 9, 2015

Posted on September 10, 2015 by Michael Kane

Happy News – September 9, 2015

Tonight our tour around the web to bring you the kind of good news that regular and cable news ignores ~ Rev Kane

Firefighter lays with child in accident and plays happy feet to keep him calm

California company moves domestic abuse victims for free

Moms had no way to see their hero sons so CEO picked them up in his private jet

Baby gorillas, need we say more

Posted in happiness news | Tagged good news, gorillas, happiness, happy, happy news, heros, news, positive news, positivity | Leave a comment

Appalachian Trail Happiness: West VA & Maryland

Posted on September 8, 2015 by Michael Kane

Appalachian Trail Happiness: West VA & Maryland

But I’ll tell you what hermits realize. If you go off into a far, far forest and get very quiet, you’ll come to understand that you’re connected with everything. ~ Alan Watts

So a couple of weeks ago I decided to wrap up my final piece of the AT and finish up with a total of 1200 miles. I jumped back on the trail in Harpers Ferry and quickly you cross the bridge from West Virginia into Maryland.

The trail runs along the old Chesapeake and Ohio Canal tow path and is about as flat a bit of walking as you can find on the AT. It’s a pleasant walk along the river and you even get to see a bit of wildlife.

Along the trail you also encounter the first US monument to George Washington, don’t get too excited about the caution type, no crime happened at the monument, a lightning strike hit the monument and so no one is being allowed inside.

After a couple of pretty quick days you eventually hit the PA border at the lovely Pen Mar Park.

A few hundred yards from the park on the PA/MD line is the marker for the Mason/Dixon line and the end of MD on the trail.

I was picked up at Pen Mar and brought into Waynesboro, PA to take a nearo and a zero to celebrate my 51st birthday. Kind of amazing that this year has flown by so fast. In Waynesboro I stayed at the Burgandy Lane B&B and it was absolutely amazing, super nice people, great room and the second best breakfast I’ve had on the trail. It made for a wonderful birthday and a happy day my friends ~ Rev Kane

Posted in Appalachian Trail (AT) Happiness | Tagged appalachian trail, backpacking, happiness, hiking, Maryland, mason/dixon line, pen mar, pennsylvania | Leave a comment

Appalachian Trail Happiness: Even More Fantastic Fungi

Posted on September 4, 2015 by Michael Kane

Appalachian Trail Happiness: Even More Fantastic Fungi

One of the things that has really amazed me on the trail have been the mushrooms and other fungi on the trail. I’ve already done one post on a lot of fantastic fungi, tonight a second series of fungi photos from the trail.

OTHER ARTICLES YOU MIGHT ENJOY

Appalachian Trail Happiness: My Favorite Posts So Far

Appalachian Trail Happiness: Selfie Progression

Appalachian Trail Happiness: Landscapes

Posted in Appalachian Trail (AT) Happiness | Tagged appalachian trail, backpacking, fungi, happiness, hiking, mushrooms, photography | 4 Comments

Appalachian Trail Happiness: Maryland

Posted on August 26, 2015 by Michael Kane

Appalachian Trail Happiness: Maryland

Sorry about the lack of images my connection is poor. So, except for a couple of hundred yards I’ve finished Maryland.

Not a hard or long state but the seasons have changed, the days are hotter and water is scarcer.

I have dubbed Maryland the Kingdom of the Spiders. Every day I herd hundreds of daddy long legs down the trail and walk through dozens of webs strung across the trail.

The trails have been nice, some rocky runs, some good vistas, two real new shelters and a lot of college orientation groups on the trail. I especially enjoyed hanging out with a group from Gettysburg College.

I also so the coolest fungi I’ve ever seen

The trail is also different in that besides the college groups their are few hikers on the trail. Surprisingly, given my antisocial nature, I really miss my hiking companions.

I’m taking a zero day today in Waynesboro, PA at the wonderful Burgandy Lane B&B, the breakfast nearly approached Mountain Harbour standards.

I will do 5 or 6 days north in PA, break my personal thousand mile mark, drop off at Boiling Springs and then head for NY.

The plan was to do NY &NJ but I may just do some day hikes in each so that I’ve hiked in every state. Not sure how that will pan out. I started this journey amost 6 months ago. It may be time to hang up my poles for a bit and move on to my next adventure.

The trail has provided me with more than enough for the book I’m writing. I have gained a lot of new and amazing friends. The trail has worked its magic on me personally, stretched me and given me 6 months of happy days my friends.

I’ve done my best to bring you along and will continue to do so as the adventures continue. I’m glad you’re here to celebrate the adventure and my 51st birthday. Hope you’re all having a happy day as well.

Rev Kane

Posted in Appalachian Trail (AT) Happiness | Tagged adventure, appalachian trail, backpacking, changes, fungi, happiness, hiking, life, Maryland, nature, Spiders | 2 Comments

Appalachian Trail Happiness: On the Road Again

Posted on August 19, 2015 by Michael Kane

Appalachian Trail Happiness: On the Road Again

The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness ~ John Muir

So in the morning I board a train for Harpers Ferry and then Thursday morning I start the end of my Appalachian Trail adventure. I’ll be walking from Harpers Ferry to Kent Connecticut, where I ended my southern hike a few weeks ago. I have a little over 300 miles to go to wrap up the 1200 miles I want to accomplish.

I expect that I’ll do around 12 miles a day, not a blistering pace on some of the flattest part of the trail, but it will be enough to allow me to finish up by the end of September. Looking forward to getting back to it. Hard to explain what life is like being on the trail, but it’s good and simple and there’s a connection you develop to being out there.

Sometimes we relax a lot

Sometimes we relax

Kingfisher celebrating in Hot Springs.

Meeting Hanley, the first Twitter friend I met on the trail

Rev Kane with fellow hiker and vet Mau.

Rev Kane with some of his trail family

The AARP gang with our host Lumpy on the left at Standing Bear

Awesome, Backtrack, Rev Kan, and the Kingfisher

It’s also bittersweet, I have friends completing there thru-hikes almost daily now in Maine. I’m so happy for them, a tad bit jealous, but proud of what they have accomplished. Proud of what I’ve done as well, but it’s hard not to compare yourself to folks you started with way back in March on rainy cold days in the Georgia hills.

Lots of happy days since then my friends ~ Rev Kane

Posted in Appalachian Trail (AT) Happiness | Tagged appalachian trail, backcountry, backpacking, happiness, harpers ferry, hiking, Katahdin, maine | Leave a comment

Appalachian Trail Happiness: Mt. Washington

Posted on August 18, 2015 by Michael Kane

Appalachian Trail Happiness: Mt. Washington

How glorious a meeting the sun gives the mountains ~ John Muir

So not having the opportunity or enough functional knee strength to do Mt. Washington, I decided to ride up it in a tourist van. I was granted with a relatively sunny day on the mountain something to be very grateful for on the mountain. Once on top I immediately when looking for hiking trash and found these three characters who immediately chastised me for riding up the mountain.

Jackoby, Dirt Pile and Rube

It was impressive to see how many trails crossed at the summit and there were a fair number of day hikers who had done the summit.

And of course the road crossing of the Appalachian Trail

A really cool way to summit the mountain is to come up on one of the cog trains.

And finally from this very happy day, a lot of really pretty pictures ~ Rev Kane

Posted in Appalachian Trail (AT) Happiness | Tagged appalachian trail, backpacking, climbing, happiness, hiker trash, hiking, mt. washington, new hampshire, white mountains | Leave a comment

Happiness is Mountain Biking: 24 Hours of Great Glen

Posted on August 18, 2015 by Michael Kane

Happiness is Mountain Biking: 24 Hours of Great Glen

So as I was visiting Mt. Washington, I stumbled into the final installment of the 24 Hours of Great Glen mountain bike race. So I cranked out the camera and here you go: