I was feeling confident so I declined to pack my headlamp for the last stretch of the day, certain I would finish my miles before dark. But by the time I had climbed and descended a notorious stretch of trail named Jacob’s Ladder, the sun had set. I ended up having to use my phone as a flashlight. But my mistake led to a small piece of grace, a hallmark of the trail, I would come to discover—the dense darkness of my final mile or so sparkled with thousands of fireflies, making me feel less like I was in North Carolina and more like I was in outer space. It reminded me of my childhood in
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