Comet Kid.

Yesterday I stumbled across the MySpace page of Dustin Matthews, with whom I hiked more than a few miles on the Appalachian Trail in 1996 (trail name “Comet Kid”), and was surprised to read that he died a couple of years ago. He was only a few years older than me. From what I can piece together, he committed suicide. Comet Kid had an unusual mixture of a mischievous zest for life and a Buddhist calm about him. He was unpredictable, but in a good way — his spontaneity made people want to go along with him for the adventure.

We first met on my third day on the trail, at the Walasi-Yi Inn in Georgia, and hiked more or less together for a few weeks. We met up again in October, just south of Maine’s Baxter State Park. We summited Mt. Katahdin on the same day, October 20th, though he characteristically started shortly after midnight in order to reach the peak at dawn — making him the first person in the country to see the sun rise — planning to take the Knife Edge down the north face of the mountain. The night of October 19 was the last time that I saw him. I’ve often wondered since what became of him, but never tracked him down. I should have tried harder.