Monday 6 August, Day 27 AT v2.0, 9.6 miles, Shamrock Inn, Dalton MA. By Papa Wolf - Well, the monster storm came as forecast so we were glad we were in a hotel room...so good call on cutting it short yesterday. We also decided that this place was way to nice and inexpensive not to stay another night...that vote was unanimous. :) So Today we went back to the cookie ladies house to start off where we left. We were slack packing again and the plan was to do the nearly 10 back to Dalton, have lunch in the room, As we kept it for another day, and then do another 9 to Cheshire. So off we went. The terrain was excellent and before we knew it, 9.6 miles had disappeared in just over 3 hours...for us that Is very good. We met up with Tailbone and went two doors down to a sub shop. Two problems we had...the sub shop was awesome so we ate way too much, and the room was two doors down so when the food coma hit, the future afternoon 9 miles were rescheduled until Tommorrow. :) it actually worked out well as we had yet to resupply or organize Sir Lanch-a-lot to make things more functional as a support vehicle. So we utilized our afternoon wisely and got a lot of the logistical stuff we need to do done. We then ordered pizza and spent the evening watching the Olympics which was great as we had not been able to see any so far...thats a bummer as we all love the Olympics. Anyway, Another great day and night in Dalton MA.
Tuesday 7 August, Day 28 AT v2.0, 20.4 miles, Shamrock Inn, Dalton MA. By Crocadilly - Oh wow this is by far one of my favourite days so far. I have sumitted my highest elevation so far on the trail and so of course climbed the most feet in the shortest period of time, finally have achieved my golden twenty mile day and achieved a new personal best in terms of my hiking rate. These are all goals I have set myself but I am pretty sure they are very much a staple of the goals that each and every hiker sets themselves! And I am nearly at the end of another state. I can't believe it! The sun is shining, I feel super fit, I am finally in my stride, everyone seems happy as to how having the support vehicle is panning out and life is good! My poor shoes are already suffering and so the good people at Oboz are sending me another free pair in exchange for my old ones! I so far have only one blister which was actually caused by my ankle support! We had a fairly late start considering our intended plan of doing over twenty miles today! That is the problem of staying at such a comfy motel - there is too much coffee to be drunk and it is hard to get out of bed! We had a good plan having spoken to a few of our friends yesterday. What seems to be the best way to attack mount Greylock which is a significant mountain in this range and certainly the highest I will have climbed so far is if you are headed north bound to actually attack it backwards and also to slackpack to make life easier! The hikers staying at the hostel are offered this option by their hosts and many take it up! So we decided to also do it! It meant hiking southbound but we would still be hiking the whole thing but rather than a slow steady 7 mike slog uphill if you come from the other direction you only hike 3 miles uphill and the rest down! It was a great hike, not too hot which was awesome and a very pretty walk through piney forests which smelled amazing! If fairies and goblins do exist they live in the forests on these mountains! The forest floor is carpeted with spongy mosses, fairytale toadstools and pretty flowers. The towering pines shade you from the sun above and with so many people enjoying the countryside it was a fun place to hike! We saw quite a few friends we hadn't seen in a while, hobo joe and ragweed, Daffy and Hashbrown going the other way! We had a lovely picnic lunch at the summit and enjoyed the views! At the top is a tower which was built as a monument to remember the war dead of Massachusetts- it really was impressive. You can climb to the top but we decided we wanted to crack on and started our descent. On the way down I met a guy from Staines! I was amazed when all of a sudden we only had four miles left to go until we reached our motel room and finished! It was relatively early and we were way ahead of schedule! I was feeling fantastic and determined i was going to complete the homestretch in record time. Scott had us getting in about 2030 to 2100 and I wanted to beat that so I got my pace on! all of a sudden we had reached Dalton! It was 1930!!! I had just done my best ever mileage - 3.7 miles in just over an hour! I couldn't believe it and neither could my feet. The last half a mile was on pavement and my feet were seriously aching and my knees felt shot but I felt great! I was on such a high! I got my 20 mile day in, we finished an hour or so earlier than expected (based on half an hour miles) and I got my hiker legs!!! And Mojo stank because he found a stinky body of water to swim in! We got to the motel room and I felt like collapsing! Got changed and headed to Applebees for dinner where I celebrated my achievements with a big beer and steak and shrimp! The dinner was delicious but didnt even touch the sides! We were both looking forward to big hearty meals but applebees appears to have gone all health conscious which is great but not on a hiker diet! Scotts dinner looked the size of an appetiser and we were both still famished when we were finished. So what else was there to do but hit Friendly's for dessert - I have never been to this restaurant before but I loved it! I never have dessert but the hiker diet is corrupting me - two waffles and ice cream and sauce and nuts later and finally I was full! Needless to say I slept incredibly well that night! What a high of a day!
Wednesday 8 August, Day 29 AT v2.0, 17.2 miles, Congdon Shelter, By Crocadilly - After the complete high of yesterday I was half expecting to wake up full of aches and pains and stiffness but I felt good! We had a leisurely morning making the most of our last few hours in the Shamrock Inn! It feels like MA answer to the hotel California! Having spoken to many a hiker this town seems to suck you in! There is no way you can just stay one night! It is so hiker friendly and conducive to hiking and getting back to!!! We have spoken to people who have spent nearly a week here! The record for this year is twelve days. There are a couple of free hostels...actually former hikers who have opened up their homes to hikers! I fear if we don't leave now we never will!!! The lady who owns the Shamrock thought this was absolutely hilarious!!! So one final shower for the foreseeable future and goodbye to a comfy bed and tv and Olympics! Mattie dropped us off at Notch road and we started back heading north towards the Vermont border! I was finally feeling happy and relaxed with our new set up and felt like we had got ourselves into a good rhythm! Today was a big day in terms of milestones for both myself and papa wolf. We had a relatively easy ten mile or so hike (we were slack packing) to where Mattie had parked Sir Lanchelot! We hit the Vermont border which felt absolutely awesome!! Lots of pictures were taken. I can't believe I have made it so far! Four states already under my belt and today marked my 300th mile and papa wolf's 1000th and also marked four weeks on the trail for me! A big day and after yesterday's achievements I feel great! Because we had started so late we didn't get to where Tailbone had parked the car until gone five pm so the thought of doing another seven miles after that including hiking in the dark was pretty overwhelming all of a sudden...although I had no doubt we could do it! It's funny, once that would have felt like half a days worth and not even feasible at such a late hour- now all of a sudden it is just another couple of hours of walking after the big miles days we have been pulling! We had just passed a shelter at the ten mile mark and I have no doubt if we had not had the car we would have stayed. Its funny, far from making life easy, having the car if anything makes the logistics of hiking the trail that much harder and the spontaneity of the trail Is now much more difficult to keep! Figuring out places to stop and meet is not easy and is only going to get harder the further north we go. It does not help that papa wolf's beloved trail maps for this and a few other states are lost in the mail somewhere along the east coast so we are solely reliant on cell phones which don't always have signal, a map which does not have enough fine detail of the smaller roads and our trail guide for the various sections. So all in all a new and very different challenge but I think a good one. However...little sidebar about the car...whilst I think I have turned the corner on my initial Gut reaction to doing this, which was it was going to be hard, i am now a few days in embracing it and loving the new challenge it involves... Especially overcoming the thought that the car is there we could just yellow blaze the next few miles which to me is just not an option and I would never contemplate it. There have been glimmers of a couple of moments Which we have worked through for papa wolf when he wanted to yellow blaze...for example just a mile thru town because it was hiking on pavement! This was something that would never have happened before and because he no longer feels like a thru hiker I think having the car with us is actually in some respects harder for him mentally than it is for me. I have managed to kind of block out it's presence for the most part whilst hiking and am able to treat the trail as if it isn't there at all a lot easier than i thought I would! I so far have only used it to store some fresh fruit avocados tomatoes oranges and apples and some cheese!! I am loving slack packing but have promised myself it will only happen these few days as we try to make the miles up to get back on schedule. So It's moments that papa wolf contrarily have had to my experience of having the car present. having been hiking now for four weeks and understanding the experience better have really shown me the extent to which the burglary has ruined the trail for him as it would for anyone who had set out to complete the whole thing. The loss of property and trust are bad enough, but the loss of a goal is so much worse to me and makes me mad. Whilst I truly thought I understood and comprehended what a wholly devastating circumstance someone else causing you to not complete the thru hike could be, I have fast discovered that this is not possible unless you have experience of the trail which, with three hundred miles under my belt, I am beginning to appreciate. The thought of someone else ruining any chance I have of finishing my own goal would be gut wrenching and completely unacceptable so for someone to do that to papa wolf and prevent him from completing his goal of twelve years is just mind blowing to me and something that I have been thinking about the last few days. Not completing the trail due to injury or because it is not the journey you anticipated is something entirely different to someone who, knowing we were away, purposefully set out to do this; a calculated break in to our home and taking advantage of a situation. It is just so upsetting and we will never get this back. Anyway digression over with. We have promised not to yellow blaze and we haven't. We may choose to in the next few days simply because there are a couple of possibilities that may make life easier on all three of us which would be awesome! I have decided that any miles I do yellow blaze I will make up at the end.... Somehow. I will let papa wolf fill you in tomorrow!!! Any way all of that to just tell you we reached the car where tailbone had left it!! She had hiked the 7 Miles already to the shelter where we had planned to stay. Figuring it would be super dark by the time we reached it (of course up hill) I agreed to driving to the next road where we could take the trail back up heading south bound and hike only four miles... So we only didn't really hike three...whilst i wasn't super keen on that, i was less keen on getting into camp gone ten o'clock! :) As it was, the first part of the hike saw us climb 800 vertical feet, steeply uphill, in just over 0.7miles which was a true test of my hiking power with my pack on for the first time in a couple of days! In the end we didn't get in until gone 9pm anyway since we had a quick snack and had to make sure we had everything we needed in our bags (see having the car you never just pick up your bag and walk... Things get taken out, put back in etc etc etc!). And so I got another first in - my first night hike which despite falling over twice (thankfully not in water) but scraping my knee and rolling my ankle for a fourth time) I really really enjoyed! We set up camp quickly and I had packed out what turned out to be my fave camp dinner so far...mashed potatoes with hotdog sausage, shredded cheese and baked beans all mixed together! What I am eating now deeply disgusts me - I have never eaten so much junk and processed foods but I am loving it and just burning calories!!! With a full belly and a late ending I was asleep within minutes!!! I didn't even really chat to any of the chaps who were already there! Oh I almost forgot right towards the beginning of the hike today I passed over Pattison road!! Of course I had to have my piccie taken - cheesy I know!!
Thursday 9 August, Day 30 AT v2.0, 4.3 miles (plus a yellow blaze), Camp site near Manchester Center VT. By Papa Wolf - We have had the support vehicle now for one week, and frankly it has been a mixed bag. Yes it's great having fresh water and carrying a lighter load, but logistically it's a bit of a nightmare. Instead of just waking up and walking, we now have to figure road crossings with parking areas with how far to a shelter, etc. etc. Plus, if you can believe it, we missed carrying our packs. We looked like day hikers, felt like day hikers, we had a vehicle to be driven around, etc...it was starting to take a bit of the experience and magic of the trail away...so something had to change. So yesterday we called for advice from our friends Rampage and Mango whom we stole the idea from and who having been utilizing a support vehicle for months. Initially we were going to meet up with them so Mango and Tailbone would have company during the day, but they got pretty far ahead and we did not want to yellow blaze that far. Thanks to a couple big days for us, and short days for them we discovered they were only one day ahead of us. After talking with them we decided we would bite the bullet and yellow blaze one day ahead to meet up with them. It was not an easy decision to make. We feel guilty, almost dirty, like we are cheating and letting everyone down. All the other hikers have been great, and a fair few have said "they owe the trail" a few miles themselves, but having walked every foot of the first 700 miles, and all but a few of the last 300, this was a tough pill to swallow for both Crocadilly and I. So for good or ill, that is what we have done with Crocadilly laying down the ultimatum that this is a one off...any more talk of yellow blazing and we're done...i like her style. ;) We met up with Mango this afternoon and so far We think it was a good decision. Mango will not let Rampage or Apollo yellow blaze one mile so perfect for us. We also decided yesterday the full packs are back on from now on. Dont get me wrong, we wont carry six days of food, but pretty much everything else is walking with us. So we think this will be a good solution which was sorely needed, Plus it gives tailbone and mango company and support which will be really important as we hit the White Mts and there will be a few days without roads and they are on their own.
Friday, 10 August, Day 31, 17.7 miles, camping on USFS Rd 10...literally. :) by Crocadilly - I am writing todays blog from a very picturesque spot on the above service road! We are camped out with mango and rampage, Apollo, Wheezy and a few others plus a multitude of dogs! We were going to go into the woods to find spots but after large amounts of food no one could be bothered to move so we just pitched where we parked! It was either that or get ripped off at a campsite up the road offering pitches for 19 bucks a night per tent! Erm no! Today has been overcast which has been nice making the weather cooler. The only problem now is when you stop and sit you get cold! There was a few drizzly patches and a couple of claps of thunder but none of the bad weather forecast came to pass. With the smell of pine and a fine mist in the air as we made our way through the forest and up today's mountains I could have been forgiven for thinking we were hiking in Scotland in the autumn! I had a great morning - we climbed Bromley mountain part of sun mountain ski area - yep actually hiked up a ski run today (skiing down is more fun by the way). The inclusion of sun in the title was a little ironic since visibility was limited, there was no view atall to the valley below and no sign of the sun whatsoever ! There were several other peaks we hiked including Peru.... I really feel like I am getting a good rhythm now and am consistently hiking more than two or three miles an hour including uphill-papa wolf welcomed me to hiking as it really feels like I have crested a peak and have joined the rest of thehikers now I can go this fast!! The day flew by! It was nice - we got up early and had hiked five miles by about ten o clock! By lunchtime we had hiked ten leaving only seven for the afternoon! Despite the afternoon drizzle they went by fast. Today was good fun and had good banter with many other hikers north and south bound along the way! We had a lovely leisurely afternoon hanging out, chatting with Mango et al and deciding where we were going to camp tonight! Apart from a slight problem with the car battery which was fixed easily we have had a smooth day! Long may this continue! Despite feeling incredible guilt over the lost miles yesterday am so glad we did this. Today has made it totally worth while! Everyone has had fun and I really think we are in a good rhythm set now... Fingers crossed! Plus I got to meet Miss Janet who is something of a trail and trail angel legend! A former thru hiker herself she now spends her summer up and down the trail helping out hikers and providing a shuttle service! She is a wonderful lady and does a lot of good! A trail mommy for all of us hikers! There are good people on the trail and I am so lucky to have met some wonderful people in the month I have been out here! Yep a month tomorrow - the milestones are racking up now I can't believe it. It's flown by but I feel like I have been out here forever! "normal life", whatever that may be, seems light years away to me out here now! I miss everyone back home terribly but know I am having the journey of a life time...and pushing myself further each day! :)
Tuesday 7 August, Day 28 AT v2.0, 20.4 miles, Shamrock Inn, Dalton MA. By Crocadilly - Oh wow this is by far one of my favourite days so far. I have sumitted my highest elevation so far on the trail and so of course climbed the most feet in the shortest period of time, finally have achieved my golden twenty mile day and achieved a new personal best in terms of my hiking rate. These are all goals I have set myself but I am pretty sure they are very much a staple of the goals that each and every hiker sets themselves! And I am nearly at the end of another state. I can't believe it! The sun is shining, I feel super fit, I am finally in my stride, everyone seems happy as to how having the support vehicle is panning out and life is good! My poor shoes are already suffering and so the good people at Oboz are sending me another free pair in exchange for my old ones! I so far have only one blister which was actually caused by my ankle support! We had a fairly late start considering our intended plan of doing over twenty miles today! That is the problem of staying at such a comfy motel - there is too much coffee to be drunk and it is hard to get out of bed! We had a good plan having spoken to a few of our friends yesterday. What seems to be the best way to attack mount Greylock which is a significant mountain in this range and certainly the highest I will have climbed so far is if you are headed north bound to actually attack it backwards and also to slackpack to make life easier! The hikers staying at the hostel are offered this option by their hosts and many take it up! So we decided to also do it! It meant hiking southbound but we would still be hiking the whole thing but rather than a slow steady 7 mike slog uphill if you come from the other direction you only hike 3 miles uphill and the rest down! It was a great hike, not too hot which was awesome and a very pretty walk through piney forests which smelled amazing! If fairies and goblins do exist they live in the forests on these mountains! The forest floor is carpeted with spongy mosses, fairytale toadstools and pretty flowers. The towering pines shade you from the sun above and with so many people enjoying the countryside it was a fun place to hike! We saw quite a few friends we hadn't seen in a while, hobo joe and ragweed, Daffy and Hashbrown going the other way! We had a lovely picnic lunch at the summit and enjoyed the views! At the top is a tower which was built as a monument to remember the war dead of Massachusetts- it really was impressive. You can climb to the top but we decided we wanted to crack on and started our descent. On the way down I met a guy from Staines! I was amazed when all of a sudden we only had four miles left to go until we reached our motel room and finished! It was relatively early and we were way ahead of schedule! I was feeling fantastic and determined i was going to complete the homestretch in record time. Scott had us getting in about 2030 to 2100 and I wanted to beat that so I got my pace on! all of a sudden we had reached Dalton! It was 1930!!! I had just done my best ever mileage - 3.7 miles in just over an hour! I couldn't believe it and neither could my feet. The last half a mile was on pavement and my feet were seriously aching and my knees felt shot but I felt great! I was on such a high! I got my 20 mile day in, we finished an hour or so earlier than expected (based on half an hour miles) and I got my hiker legs!!! And Mojo stank because he found a stinky body of water to swim in! We got to the motel room and I felt like collapsing! Got changed and headed to Applebees for dinner where I celebrated my achievements with a big beer and steak and shrimp! The dinner was delicious but didnt even touch the sides! We were both looking forward to big hearty meals but applebees appears to have gone all health conscious which is great but not on a hiker diet! Scotts dinner looked the size of an appetiser and we were both still famished when we were finished. So what else was there to do but hit Friendly's for dessert - I have never been to this restaurant before but I loved it! I never have dessert but the hiker diet is corrupting me - two waffles and ice cream and sauce and nuts later and finally I was full! Needless to say I slept incredibly well that night! What a high of a day!
Wednesday 8 August, Day 29 AT v2.0, 17.2 miles, Congdon Shelter, By Crocadilly - After the complete high of yesterday I was half expecting to wake up full of aches and pains and stiffness but I felt good! We had a leisurely morning making the most of our last few hours in the Shamrock Inn! It feels like MA answer to the hotel California! Having spoken to many a hiker this town seems to suck you in! There is no way you can just stay one night! It is so hiker friendly and conducive to hiking and getting back to!!! We have spoken to people who have spent nearly a week here! The record for this year is twelve days. There are a couple of free hostels...actually former hikers who have opened up their homes to hikers! I fear if we don't leave now we never will!!! The lady who owns the Shamrock thought this was absolutely hilarious!!! So one final shower for the foreseeable future and goodbye to a comfy bed and tv and Olympics! Mattie dropped us off at Notch road and we started back heading north towards the Vermont border! I was finally feeling happy and relaxed with our new set up and felt like we had got ourselves into a good rhythm! Today was a big day in terms of milestones for both myself and papa wolf. We had a relatively easy ten mile or so hike (we were slack packing) to where Mattie had parked Sir Lanchelot! We hit the Vermont border which felt absolutely awesome!! Lots of pictures were taken. I can't believe I have made it so far! Four states already under my belt and today marked my 300th mile and papa wolf's 1000th and also marked four weeks on the trail for me! A big day and after yesterday's achievements I feel great! Because we had started so late we didn't get to where Tailbone had parked the car until gone five pm so the thought of doing another seven miles after that including hiking in the dark was pretty overwhelming all of a sudden...although I had no doubt we could do it! It's funny, once that would have felt like half a days worth and not even feasible at such a late hour- now all of a sudden it is just another couple of hours of walking after the big miles days we have been pulling! We had just passed a shelter at the ten mile mark and I have no doubt if we had not had the car we would have stayed. Its funny, far from making life easy, having the car if anything makes the logistics of hiking the trail that much harder and the spontaneity of the trail Is now much more difficult to keep! Figuring out places to stop and meet is not easy and is only going to get harder the further north we go. It does not help that papa wolf's beloved trail maps for this and a few other states are lost in the mail somewhere along the east coast so we are solely reliant on cell phones which don't always have signal, a map which does not have enough fine detail of the smaller roads and our trail guide for the various sections. So all in all a new and very different challenge but I think a good one. However...little sidebar about the car...whilst I think I have turned the corner on my initial Gut reaction to doing this, which was it was going to be hard, i am now a few days in embracing it and loving the new challenge it involves... Especially overcoming the thought that the car is there we could just yellow blaze the next few miles which to me is just not an option and I would never contemplate it. There have been glimmers of a couple of moments Which we have worked through for papa wolf when he wanted to yellow blaze...for example just a mile thru town because it was hiking on pavement! This was something that would never have happened before and because he no longer feels like a thru hiker I think having the car with us is actually in some respects harder for him mentally than it is for me. I have managed to kind of block out it's presence for the most part whilst hiking and am able to treat the trail as if it isn't there at all a lot easier than i thought I would! I so far have only used it to store some fresh fruit avocados tomatoes oranges and apples and some cheese!! I am loving slack packing but have promised myself it will only happen these few days as we try to make the miles up to get back on schedule. So It's moments that papa wolf contrarily have had to my experience of having the car present. having been hiking now for four weeks and understanding the experience better have really shown me the extent to which the burglary has ruined the trail for him as it would for anyone who had set out to complete the whole thing. The loss of property and trust are bad enough, but the loss of a goal is so much worse to me and makes me mad. Whilst I truly thought I understood and comprehended what a wholly devastating circumstance someone else causing you to not complete the thru hike could be, I have fast discovered that this is not possible unless you have experience of the trail which, with three hundred miles under my belt, I am beginning to appreciate. The thought of someone else ruining any chance I have of finishing my own goal would be gut wrenching and completely unacceptable so for someone to do that to papa wolf and prevent him from completing his goal of twelve years is just mind blowing to me and something that I have been thinking about the last few days. Not completing the trail due to injury or because it is not the journey you anticipated is something entirely different to someone who, knowing we were away, purposefully set out to do this; a calculated break in to our home and taking advantage of a situation. It is just so upsetting and we will never get this back. Anyway digression over with. We have promised not to yellow blaze and we haven't. We may choose to in the next few days simply because there are a couple of possibilities that may make life easier on all three of us which would be awesome! I have decided that any miles I do yellow blaze I will make up at the end.... Somehow. I will let papa wolf fill you in tomorrow!!! Any way all of that to just tell you we reached the car where tailbone had left it!! She had hiked the 7 Miles already to the shelter where we had planned to stay. Figuring it would be super dark by the time we reached it (of course up hill) I agreed to driving to the next road where we could take the trail back up heading south bound and hike only four miles... So we only didn't really hike three...whilst i wasn't super keen on that, i was less keen on getting into camp gone ten o'clock! :) As it was, the first part of the hike saw us climb 800 vertical feet, steeply uphill, in just over 0.7miles which was a true test of my hiking power with my pack on for the first time in a couple of days! In the end we didn't get in until gone 9pm anyway since we had a quick snack and had to make sure we had everything we needed in our bags (see having the car you never just pick up your bag and walk... Things get taken out, put back in etc etc etc!). And so I got another first in - my first night hike which despite falling over twice (thankfully not in water) but scraping my knee and rolling my ankle for a fourth time) I really really enjoyed! We set up camp quickly and I had packed out what turned out to be my fave camp dinner so far...mashed potatoes with hotdog sausage, shredded cheese and baked beans all mixed together! What I am eating now deeply disgusts me - I have never eaten so much junk and processed foods but I am loving it and just burning calories!!! With a full belly and a late ending I was asleep within minutes!!! I didn't even really chat to any of the chaps who were already there! Oh I almost forgot right towards the beginning of the hike today I passed over Pattison road!! Of course I had to have my piccie taken - cheesy I know!!
Thursday 9 August, Day 30 AT v2.0, 4.3 miles (plus a yellow blaze), Camp site near Manchester Center VT. By Papa Wolf - We have had the support vehicle now for one week, and frankly it has been a mixed bag. Yes it's great having fresh water and carrying a lighter load, but logistically it's a bit of a nightmare. Instead of just waking up and walking, we now have to figure road crossings with parking areas with how far to a shelter, etc. etc. Plus, if you can believe it, we missed carrying our packs. We looked like day hikers, felt like day hikers, we had a vehicle to be driven around, etc...it was starting to take a bit of the experience and magic of the trail away...so something had to change. So yesterday we called for advice from our friends Rampage and Mango whom we stole the idea from and who having been utilizing a support vehicle for months. Initially we were going to meet up with them so Mango and Tailbone would have company during the day, but they got pretty far ahead and we did not want to yellow blaze that far. Thanks to a couple big days for us, and short days for them we discovered they were only one day ahead of us. After talking with them we decided we would bite the bullet and yellow blaze one day ahead to meet up with them. It was not an easy decision to make. We feel guilty, almost dirty, like we are cheating and letting everyone down. All the other hikers have been great, and a fair few have said "they owe the trail" a few miles themselves, but having walked every foot of the first 700 miles, and all but a few of the last 300, this was a tough pill to swallow for both Crocadilly and I. So for good or ill, that is what we have done with Crocadilly laying down the ultimatum that this is a one off...any more talk of yellow blazing and we're done...i like her style. ;) We met up with Mango this afternoon and so far We think it was a good decision. Mango will not let Rampage or Apollo yellow blaze one mile so perfect for us. We also decided yesterday the full packs are back on from now on. Dont get me wrong, we wont carry six days of food, but pretty much everything else is walking with us. So we think this will be a good solution which was sorely needed, Plus it gives tailbone and mango company and support which will be really important as we hit the White Mts and there will be a few days without roads and they are on their own.
Friday, 10 August, Day 31, 17.7 miles, camping on USFS Rd 10...literally. :) by Crocadilly - I am writing todays blog from a very picturesque spot on the above service road! We are camped out with mango and rampage, Apollo, Wheezy and a few others plus a multitude of dogs! We were going to go into the woods to find spots but after large amounts of food no one could be bothered to move so we just pitched where we parked! It was either that or get ripped off at a campsite up the road offering pitches for 19 bucks a night per tent! Erm no! Today has been overcast which has been nice making the weather cooler. The only problem now is when you stop and sit you get cold! There was a few drizzly patches and a couple of claps of thunder but none of the bad weather forecast came to pass. With the smell of pine and a fine mist in the air as we made our way through the forest and up today's mountains I could have been forgiven for thinking we were hiking in Scotland in the autumn! I had a great morning - we climbed Bromley mountain part of sun mountain ski area - yep actually hiked up a ski run today (skiing down is more fun by the way). The inclusion of sun in the title was a little ironic since visibility was limited, there was no view atall to the valley below and no sign of the sun whatsoever ! There were several other peaks we hiked including Peru.... I really feel like I am getting a good rhythm now and am consistently hiking more than two or three miles an hour including uphill-papa wolf welcomed me to hiking as it really feels like I have crested a peak and have joined the rest of thehikers now I can go this fast!! The day flew by! It was nice - we got up early and had hiked five miles by about ten o clock! By lunchtime we had hiked ten leaving only seven for the afternoon! Despite the afternoon drizzle they went by fast. Today was good fun and had good banter with many other hikers north and south bound along the way! We had a lovely leisurely afternoon hanging out, chatting with Mango et al and deciding where we were going to camp tonight! Apart from a slight problem with the car battery which was fixed easily we have had a smooth day! Long may this continue! Despite feeling incredible guilt over the lost miles yesterday am so glad we did this. Today has made it totally worth while! Everyone has had fun and I really think we are in a good rhythm set now... Fingers crossed! Plus I got to meet Miss Janet who is something of a trail and trail angel legend! A former thru hiker herself she now spends her summer up and down the trail helping out hikers and providing a shuttle service! She is a wonderful lady and does a lot of good! A trail mommy for all of us hikers! There are good people on the trail and I am so lucky to have met some wonderful people in the month I have been out here! Yep a month tomorrow - the milestones are racking up now I can't believe it. It's flown by but I feel like I have been out here forever! "normal life", whatever that may be, seems light years away to me out here now! I miss everyone back home terribly but know I am having the journey of a life time...and pushing myself further each day! :)
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