Day 7: Maryland At Dawn, Light Worker At Dusk

DENTON, MD —

March 31, 2024

Day 7:

Roughly a dozen steps beyond a strewn, vulture-plundered deer carcass, I passed over a small dirt path intersecting the ADT this Easter morning, signifying the pierced threshold of the Delaware/Maryland state line.

My day would not end in such a flavor of carnage.

As I moved northwest towards Denton with one state of eleven accomplished, another man in a truck, this time red, drove up alongside me as I made stride of road.

He introduced himself as Lee Weaber, and, despite already having 40 family members over for the holiday, offered to host me at the day’s end. Just as the McClains, he would pick me up wherever I finished and drop me off there the following morning—something he has been doing for ADT thru-hikers the past 20 years.

I gladly accepted and completed 10 miles of hiking before stopping at a Walmart to restock and be retrieved by vehicle.

On my way to the store, I was greeted at the front of a driveway by an enthusiastic man in an orange sweater named Jim. He had just gotten back from lunch with a quadriplegic nephew who, like Greg, had endured a spinal cord injury. We shared a happy moment as vibrant as his sweater.

When I arrived at the Weaber household, I was warmly introduced to the entire family. Then, to a warm shower.

After a conversation surrounding my walk and a tangential one on the tragedy of the recent bridge collapse in Baltimore and how the nation rushes to haphazardly fix things to save face rather than actually fixing them, Lee fed me Easter leftovers, which included the best apple cider I’ve had in my life.

He later toured me through a paint collection by Thomas Kinkade, an artist whose works display a fascination for working with light.

After I retired to my quarters for the evening, Lee knocked on my door, then handed me a small note on which his granddaughter Addy had sketched an image of me.

She, too, worked with the light, for I was beaming.