MP 1055   The herd of thru-hikers continues to thin out.    The only other person I have seen is Shutterbug with whom I camped this evening.    I think a significant number of hikers have quit the trail.   It is hard to know for sure about this, however.    No one announces that they are quitting the trail.   They just disappear.      
     I feel far more at home in the wilderness now.    There is no feeling of loneliness or of uneasiness or disquiet.   I feel that I belong here.    I am acutely aware of the environment and nature's cycles.    The full moon is like a beacon now.    I wake at sunrise and retire at sunset.    One might expect that after several months one would begin to take the natural beauty for granted, but that has not happened to me.    My aesthetic appreciation of it has, if anything, become more acute.    As the reader has surely noticed, I am no longer aware of the days of the week or the date,  but orient myself instead only according to the number of miles traveled.   My pack feels like it is part of me.   I rarely take if off, even when I stop for a break. 

Shutterbug: