tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90469446336796299402024-02-07T01:13:55.798-05:00Willits Appalachian Trail Adventure 2012Scott, a recently retired US Air Force Lt Col and Vicki, a British MSc Wildlife Management and Conservation graduate from Uni of Reading, UK along with their two golden retrievers, Mojo and Skye, will be thru-hiking the epic Appalachian Trail, Americas oldest and most famous hiking trail. We will take 6-7months to hike the 2180 scenic miles crossing 14 States along the east coast, raising money along the way for two very important charities US Wounded Warrior Project and UK Help for HeroesScott Willitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07626574276712579996noreply@blogger.comBlogger65125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9046944633679629940.post-35912894969629440592012-09-09T10:30:00.001-04:002012-09-09T10:30:39.954-04:003-4 Sept. Our Final two days
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Monday, 3 September, Day 55 AT v2.0, 0 miles, Wonderful
Trail Magic Day and Camp. By PapaWolf - After a great day off, we were breaking
down camp, cleaning things up and deciding where to head today. As I was
cleaning some dishes I had a very nice conversation with the owner of the campsite…Maureen.
Turns out her Grandfather flew in WWII in the Navy and her Dad flew in Vietnam.
When she found out we were hiking for the Wounded Warrior project and Help for Hero's,
she did not charge us for the campsite. I said that was not necessary, but she
insisted…what a wonderful, wonderful lady. I "compromised" by letting
her know that the money we would have paid for the site was going to be donated
to the charities in her name…what a nice way to start off the morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then…Mango returned from dropping off Rampage
and Gumby at the trail (early risers those two</span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">),
with news of a Cabin that may be available to us…unbelievable. So, along with
our campsite Angel Maureen, here is a perfect trail magic story that pretty
much encompasses how wonderfully things work on the trail. Two thru Hiker
friends, Manula and Tree Trunk, a wonderful couple in their late 50's who actually
only live 20 miles from us, were in a coffee shop in Vermont last month when
Manula saw a gentleman in his 60's wearing a t-shirt from an obscure hotel on
the trail…you probably would not go to this place unless you were on the AT. So
Manula said hello and made a comment on the shirt. Well, this gentleman had
thru-hiked in 2003 so they got to chatting. He told them he had a cabin in Maine
just off the trail, and to call him when they were near. Fast forward a month,
and they called. Well, they ended up spending a wonderful night with this Gentleman
and his wife. They lived near the coast of Maine, but wanted a place near they
trail so had bought this beautiful cabin three years ago and loved talking to,
and helping hikers. They were heading back home today but invited Manula and
Tree Trunk to spend another night and bring any other Thru-Hikers back with
them to enjoy the hospitality of a warm bed and a roof.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mango sees Manula and Tree Trunk at the trail
head and they invite us to join them…so here we sit in this beautiful log cabin.
The owners are not even here but how wonderful they open their house to us…all
because of a comment made about a t-shirt at a coffee shop two states away…I
LOVE the AT!!! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The all-knowing "They", which all of us who have made
it this far are now a part of, say that "The trail will provide". Fun
words to say and something to hope for, but I have experienced this first hand
on more than one occasions. When I was on top of Dragon Tooth on 31 May and received
the phone call about the house break-in, I was trying to figure out How, being
3 miles up a mountain with two dogs and no shower for a week, was I going to hitch
hike the 30+ miles to Roanoke, Virginia, rent a car, and get back to NY the
next day. Just a few minutes later, as I was weighing my options, my friends
"The Incredible's" come around the corner. I tell them I need to
leave the trail, and Elasta Girl immediately calls her Uncle, who lives an hour
away, and without a moment's hesitation, hops in his truck and comes and picks
me up and drives me to the airport where I get my rental car and am on my way…this
is on a Thursday afternoon...what are the chances he's available. Today is
another one of those days. We arrived at the Cabin and Crocadilly started
working on a job application, Turns out it was due today, not in a few days so
that was lucky. More importantly, she was able to Skype her Mum and check in on
her Grandfather who has not been doing very well as of late. Well, the ability
to actually talk with Mum convinced us that we needed to get back to the UK
sooner rather than later. We did not want to head into the wilds of Maine, have
no cell phone coverage for numerous days, and miss any important calls. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This cabin allowed us to make that Skype call,
and was a perfect place to make the decision to come off the trail. This
morning we were heading for a stealth campsite somewhere on a gravel road, but
the Trail knew we had more important things to attend to so provided us this
cabin…"The Trail will provide". <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Tuesday, 4 September, Day's 131 and 56 - Our Families Hunt
Lake Camp, NY. The final day of our Appalachian Trail Adventure… By Crocadilly
- So our journey has had to come to an end. After walking over 500 miles I am
so sad to be coming off the trail but unfortunately my grandpa is very sick and
we feel we need to go back to the UK and to be with family. The past couple of
months have been an amazing journey and I feel so proud in all that I have
accomplished both mentally and physically. I have seen the best of humanity on
my travels, have met so many amazing people and have found wonderful new
friends and have many many happy and amazing memories that I will take with me.
I believe there is a reason for everything that has happened this year whatever
it may be. Maybe we will never fully know what that reason is or maybe in the
following months it will all become clear. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As Papa Wolf said the trail provides. I wish
all of our friends on the trail love and luck as they finish the AT and I am
with them all in spirit. Here's to the completion of journeys and the start of
new journeys whatever they may be. XxX<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">By Papa Wolf - After the decision was made last night, we
decided we needed to have a little feast to celebrate the end of a wonder adventure.
As we were in this cabin, there was an excellent grill, so I headed to the
local store and picked up some beer, salad stuff and lots of rib eyes for
everyone. </span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had a terrific dinner and evening with Tree
trunk, Manula, their support vehicle driver Debbie, Mango, Rampage, and Gumby. It's
appropriate that Gumby was there as I set up my tent on 19 March, Day 1, right
next to hers, so we have been on this journey "together" all summer. Although
my Appalachian Trail Thru Hike tuned into a VERY long section Hike, I have had
the most unbelievable summer and will cherish this experience for ever. I was
on the trail for just over 4 months and managed to hike approx. 1250 miles.
Mojo and Skye hiked approx. 1200 miles. Crocadilly was on the trail for nearly
two months and hiked over 500 miles. Tailbone was on the trail for well over a
month and, despite being in charge of the support vehicle, managed to hike approx.
130 miles. We have met the most wonderful friends, and a couple of "crazies",
who have MADE this trip for me…The Wolf Pack, Rampage, Mango, Pops, Apollo, Ole
Smoke, Socks, Yukon, Squach, Boomer, Otto, and many others who helped make this
just the best summer. I will always be a little disappointed that I will not be
able to call myself a "Thru-Hiker", but that is a small, small
insignificant fraction of how great this journey has been. Who knows, someday we
may go back and finish the miles we missed and "complete" the trail.
Backpacking and Hiking are now in our blood although I must say I still prefer
outdoor sports where machines take you uphill and gravity helps you downhill so
ski trips will always have priority. </span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
I leave with a happy heart and am content, and proud (if you allow me this
small vice), of what we have accomplished this summer. Besides the personal
accomplishment, to date we have raised just over $3500 for the Wounded Warrior
Project and 450 pounds for Help for Heroes..those are the important numbers. We
cannot thank everyone enough who have supported us through this trip and have
donated to these charities. The trail has given me more than I could have
imagined or hoped and I will always cherish this experience…We truly have had
just the best Appalachian Trail Adventure! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Papa Wolf, Crocadilly, TailBone, Mango, Rampage and 30 Pack</span></span>Scott and Vicki...on the AThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09639786904438996161noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9046944633679629940.post-65619091483180724402012-09-09T09:03:00.000-04:002012-09-09T09:56:08.297-04:0031 Aug - 2 Sept<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Friday, 31 August, Day 52 AT v2.0, 9.6 miles, Dream Lake at
2600 feet in NH. By Crocadilly -currently camped out in a thunder storm on the
banks of Dream Lake. After a leisurely morning of coffee and puttering about
the campsite we finally had to leave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This was our last morning at Dolly Copp and for some reason I am going
to really miss it! We won't see Tailbone or Mango or the boys for three days
now as the nearest road to meet up is 31 miles away. 31 miles to my next shower
and I haven't had one since 8 days ago! Yuk!!! I feel tired smelly and horrible
but know we have to keep going! I am enjoying the trail no end but it is
sometimes easy to forget how taxing it is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We are almost in Maine after all and now have less than three hundred
miles to go!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were going to hike with
Riff Ralf but he had to resupply and we felt we should get going being the
slower of our fellow hikers! The next three days are going to be hard and we
will be crossing the state line but we will also be hiking through the
supposedly hardest mile on the trail. So we got going for the first time before
most of our compatriots! Old smoke and Log hadn't left town by the time we left
and we guess they are behind us unless they stayed in town and we assume
everyone else is in front. Today the pace felt slow again and there were some
uphills but nothing like what we have climbed before and there were proper
paths albeit they were riddled in some parts with rocks and roots! We summited
two smaller peaks but I don't think either of us had the inclination to stop
and admire the views so much. Today walking felt a bit like a chore - a means
to an end to get to Maine. There was nothing new or exciting to report and it
was cloudy and rained pretty much for the whole afternoon. We passed some
stunning lakes at the top of the two hills we climbed - the paths are better
marked now and I am not so worried about getting lost! We bumped into Goman, a
lovely older guy who is known as "grumpy old man" but has a real
twinkle in his eye and plays on the grumpiness!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He was doing good. Together with bad penny another German it was
comforting to know we weren't out on the trail alone. We had planned to get to
a shelter 12 miles in but as long as we did ten we were okay. I got wet again
as I slipped on a tree trunk across a swathe of mud and ended up to my knee in
a muddy smelly mess! At least I will smell worse now hahaha! We have three days
to do 31 miles…Tough miles at that! We were on track to do our 12 miles when got
caught at the top of this hill where Dream Lake is as the skies suddenly
darkened and the thunder and rain rolled in. We pitched the tent in record time
and climbed in just as the heavens opened. That was two hours ago - it's been
quite the storm but we are all snuggled and warm wading through our supplies of
snacks and hoping to cook shortly! We managed to put the tent up with a great
ruddy rock in the middle but apart from that all is well! Hope it stops raining
by the morning. It was only 30% chance of rain this afternoon...but as Scott
says in hiker math that means 100%! he hasn't been wrong yet!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p>Our quickly constructed camo site</o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p>Trying to stay dry</o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span>Saturday, 1 September, Day 53 AT v2.0, 8 miles, Grafton
Notch Campground. By PapaWolf - We made it through the night relatively dry. We
could not be bothered to cook in the rain last night so we started the morning
with some delicious "breakfast rice" as we dried out the tent and our
kit. The weather was on our side so we had a great morning. We started hiking around
9:30 and found some rock faces and hills that where wet and a bit more
difficult than I was hoping for. <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span>
We did pass the 1900 mile point on the trail which someone marked which was cool. For me that meant I had covered 1300 miles of the trail and 600 miles for Crocadilly. We have yellowblazed a bit so we have walked 50 to 80 miles less than that, but still a neat mile marker to reach. We made it over Mt. Success and discover there was a short side trail that
would get us to a road where we could be picked up by Tailbone. The road option
would get us off the wet rocks (Crocadilly fell 5 times, but NO, this is not the reason we decided to take the side trail, she wanted to keep going), we could dry out our
stuff, catch up with Rampage and Gumby, and I could rest my feet which were
really giving me a bit of a problem. So not a difficult decision so off we went
down the side trail. What we did not realize was that poor Tailbone had to
drive approx 14 miles down a gravel road to pick us up…oops. <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span> <em><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-style: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Fortunately</span></em><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">,</i> Gumby kept here company and Crocadilly
and I passed the time talking to some fairly colorful locals who were very much
enjoying their Labor Day Saturday. We got picked up and headed to the Sunday
River Brewing Company where we met Rampage and Mango and had an excellent
dinner and some lovely bevies. We got to the camp site after dark, set up our
tent and headed to bed.</o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Sunrice on the mountain...drying out our stuff. :)</span></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p>The 1900 Mile marker.</o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p>Sunday, 2 September, Day 54 AT v2.0, 0 miles, Grafton Notch
Campground. By PapaWolf - We awoke this morning at 6am and were debating how
far we were going to walk today. We were out of the tent making coffee when,
with a forecast of "10% chance of rain", it started raining. So we
jumped back in the tent, with our coffee, and sat there for an hour waiting for
it to clear. When it did clear, I had decided to take the day off and Croacadilly
had decided she would as well so she could work on some job applications which
were due in a few days. Gumby and Rampage were planning on going but we could
all tell they were pretty exhausted after their 21 mile day and hard 3 days of
hiking. Well…we kept making coffee and soon we were all taking zeros. <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span> We headed into a town
and got lunch and resupplied. We went back to the campsite and had an excellent
zero day playing horseshoes and enjoying some beverages followed by a campsite
"taco night" which was excellent!</o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p>Waiting for the rain to stop.</o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p>Horseshoes and Beer...pretty good zero day</o:p></span><br />
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Scott and Vicki...on the AThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09639786904438996161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9046944633679629940.post-85417031934180600702012-09-06T12:47:00.004-04:002012-09-06T12:47:42.608-04:0028-30 Aug - The Wildcats
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Tuesday, 28 August, Day 49 AT v2.0, -a well deserved 0
miles, Dolly Copp Camp Grounds, Gorham NH. By Crocadilly - The bobcat story....
After a leisurely morning and recalling of the adventures we had all had the
two days previously and a lengthy discussion if what to do next we decided to
do a zero day. We were all spent from the fifteen mile hike before and the
weather wasn't looking brilliant for today. Furthermore we were about to climb
some very treacherous mountains and nobody relished the thought of doing them
in the wet! So a down day it was! You may be wondering how we all got split up
yesterday as there was so many of us staying at the lake of the clouds hut. We
all hike at different rates and Scott and I got a later start having to stay
back and do work for stay. We also hike a fair bit slower than everybody else
too. Today was a fairly quiet day - the campsite is lovely and reminds me of
the ones I used to holiday in when I was a child with my parents. Brought back
lots of warm and happy memories camping as a family! We did some laundry (no
shower though!!) and I had an amble round a thrift and antique shop which was
next door! We had the obligatory burger king where we bumped into old smoke, Sox
another german and a bunch of other hikers. We are camping with gumby,
tailbone, rampage and mango and riff ralf. Our camp spot is right on the bank
of a river and a lovely grassy area with a fire pit and BBQ and toilets not too
far away and water so a perfect spot to hide ourselves away and enjoy the peace
and quiet! We have been told by some other guests who have been coming here 16
years that this is the best spot in the campsite!! In the evening we had some
beers and cooked at the campsite. So a very chilled day and yes it did rain so
glad we had the day off! Seeing as this is a shorter post I can relay a story
from last night. There is a chap on the trail who is putting together a
documentary and so travelling up and down the trail. He came to visit us July
4th weekend so no doubt we will be in there somewhere! His name is Squatch and
he was sat at an adjacent table in MR Pizza last night. He told us of this tale
- he interviewed the guy whose story this is and if you can imagine on the
documentary there will be this guy chatting to Squatch and the footage that he
shot playing in the background on his tv...so this guy is a hiker and runs a
hostel. He is also very much into skulls and will pick up road kill as well as
hunt to add to his skull and hide collection. On this one occasion that this
story centres around he stumbled across a 35lb bobcat which had clearly just
been run over was very much dead but was clean and would make a great addition
to his skull collection. So he heaved the poor animal into his truck - one of
those massive American trucks! And went on his way. He was pleased with his new
addition and snuck a quick look in his rear view mirror to admire his prize.
Only his prize was very pissed off and now stalking back and forth across the
back of his truck. And apparently making an unearthly noise that would frighten
the dead. So not so much dead as previously stunned or unconscious and now very
much the opposite and very angry. I am not sure what one does in a situation
where you have an angry 35lb predatory animal pacing back and forth in the back
of your vehicle. As most people would, I imagine,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>this guy stopped quite quickly and got out
before filming the ensuing scenes of him trying to get the angry supermoggy out
of the rear door without getting mauled in the process. I don't suppose a can
of whiskers would have subdued this kitty! Well as you can imagine this tale
had us all in stitches! I didn't think I would have the energy to laugh after
our epic day but catching up with everyone again gets the blood moving! And
this story was the tonic I needed hahaha! I had to share it! The fact that
Squatch interviewed the man I believe both he and the feline went their
separate ways amicably!!</span></div>
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</span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Wednesday, 29 August, Papa Wolf's Day 125, Crocadilly's day
50!! :) 8.5 miles, Zeta Pass Stealth Camp. By Crocadilly - I cannot believe how
far we have come! I am so immensely proud of our achievements. After a
wonderful day of rest it is time to get back on the trail again. Papa wolf and
I have decided to break up the next stretch to the next road over two days
having done 15 miles in one day in this terrain (even the book says from this
point on the most you will beable to do is 10-12 miles!) 21 miles is not
feasible for either of us especially as we will be going over the Wildcats!
Rampage and Gumby being the utter nutters that they are got up at 6am this
morning and planned to do the whole 21 miles in one day, as Tall Oaf apparently
had too. They are slack packing and some of our friends before us have done it
and say it is feasible. I gracefully declined attacking this part of the trail
in so little time with a loud Crocadilly snort!! Papa wolf and I got going at a
far more reasonable time (10am) after a leisurely coffee with Riff Ralf and the
ladies. Old Smoke and many of the others are hiking this stretch over the same
time period so it will be fun to hike as a group and bump into lots of friends.
Thirty pack and Apollo still have not reappeared after being sucked into the
vortex that is Hanover! I thoroughly enjoyed todays hike - it was technically
very challenging and we were glad we did not bring the boys. Although we did
see one golden on the trail and Yorkshire terrier - not sure they did exactly
the same paths as us though! It was a windy day but fortunately no rain - it
was cooler with autumn in the air and fluffy clouds again. The Whites are
incredibly challenging - we actually climbed up some proper cliff faces that
make up the Wild Cats. Being so small Papa wolf was very worried that a gust of
wind might whip me off the cliff and carry me away. This was the first time I
have climbed terrain like this with a heavy pack and it was incredibly hard but
so much fun! I love proper climbing although do not think I will take it up as
a new hobby any time soon. Again we had breath taking views. We kept catching
up with Old Smoke, Log and an older couple called Manula and Tree Trunk who
weirdly live only 20 or so miles from us in NY! Lovely couple! We got to the top
of Wild Cat ski area and had a break just as Riff Ralf was leaving. It had been
so windy the gondola taking visitors up to the mountain had been shut all
morning and we arrived at the top just as it had been reopened and spat out a
load of people! We got talking to a couple who were interested in the trail so
had a slightly longer lunch break than intended! The terrain after the Wild
Cats got a bit easier and we were back down into trees and softer paths for a
bit. We caught up with Old Smoke and the gang having another break at the top
of another mountain and sat down for a bit. They were planning on camping a
little bit further on. So we all got going again and we ended up behind being
slower! We came across them a little while later where they were setting up
camp in the trees - an awesome spot but not enough room for us so we decided to
carry on. We summited our last mountain of the day - Carter Dome just before
the sun was setting and took some great photos. The views again were
outstanding and I felt on top of the world. We briefly contemplated camping
here but knowing the winds were going to get stronger we decided to go down
into the valley below called Zeta pass. It was quite a rocky difficult descent
and I was glad we were doing it tonight and not faced with it first thing
tomorrow morning! We passed a north bounder coming south - I now wished we had
asked him what he was doing going south as at this point he thought he was
going north! The inability of the AMC to correctly and helpfully post
information and blazes meant he had taken a blue blaze in a different direction
got down into the pass and realizing his mistake had tried to reroute himself
onto the AT - which he had…only in the wrong direction - he was not happy the
next day when we saw him again! Fortunately we narrowly avoided this mistake!
We got back down into the trees and the pass and started to look for a suitable
place to camp where we stumbled upon Sox who was sitting by a very welcoming
fire. We joined her and had a lovely evening chatting and getting warm by the
fire. We had a quick dinner and because it was so cold (I was in all my winter
gear for the evening) we snuggled down into the tent. </span></div>
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one of the ledges we had to walk...hyes it was that skinny and the trees hide the long drop. Bit crazy really.<br />
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The photo does not do the angle justice, or show what awaits you if you slide down of the edge. :)<br />
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A beautiful mountain lake <br />
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Still packing heavy...he never learns.<br />
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On top of Carter Dome...we love this photo. :)<br />
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Thursday, 30 August, Day 51 AT v2.0, 12.6 miles, Dolly Copp
Camp Grounds, Gorham NH. By Crocadilly - Sox was long gone by the time we got
up. We enjoyed the peace and quiet of being alone and chatting and having
coffee. Old Smoke, Log, Manula and Tree Trunk all passed us as we were enjoying
our morning coffee and a fire and Riff Ralf wasn’t too far behind. We packed up
camp and shortly after everyone had passed us were on our way. I much prefer
getting up and going early - I feel better doing more miles first thing. Today
marks us finishing the Whites. Again parts of it were quite tricky. I was
really enjoying it but Papa Wolf was having a somewhat less enjoyable hiking
day. I got into a great rhythm and was back to hiking fast after feeling so
weak following being ill. We caught up with everyone else having breaks along
the way. I like this style of hiking a lot! One break was taken basking in the
sun on rocks on top of a Mount Mariah - I felt like a lizard soaking up the sun
and closed my eyes. I could have spent hours up here napping but we had to get
moving! I managed to catch up and keep up with all the others although I did
fall once! It felt great! Eventually the path took us down into the trail that
would lead us to the road and town where we staying. We actually made it down
quicker than expected and a lovely couple of ladies who we had seen several
times in the previous couple of days gave us a lift to Mr Pizza with Riff Ralf…the
same awesome place we all ate after the descent from Mt Washington…you can
never have too much of a good thing. <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span>
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we got there we were excited to see
Perch and Otto and then Apollo and Thirty Pack - it was so good to see them! We
found out that Rampage and Gumby had successfully completed their monster 21
mile day the day before and were super tired but had managed to continue
onwards today! It was so great to catch up with everyone and I had a great hug
with Apollo - he is the hug meister! Finally had a fabulous dinner which
satiated my appetite - Steak and fried chicken, salad and mashed potatoes. Beer
and ice cream. Having not showered for about ten days we all smelt really bad
and this was the first time that I felt really self conscious about my
stench.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I now know what people smelt
like in the middle ages... The answer is like dead animals, farms and something
rotting and mouldy!!! Our server really did not want to get any where near us
and didn’t clear our plates and was overheard saying to others about how bad we
smelt. (How embarrassing!!) Tailbone and Mango joined us for dinner after their
own fabulous walk and we all eventually went back to the campsite and set up
our tents again. </div>
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A neat walk way laid out by the trail clubs to cover wet area...very fun<br />
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Crocadilly the gorgeous hiker chick. :)<br />
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Yet another great view. </div>
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Scott and Vicki...on the AThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09639786904438996161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9046944633679629940.post-5621165639872747852012-09-06T12:11:00.000-04:002012-09-06T12:11:39.424-04:0026 -27 August - Mt Washington!! :)
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Sunday, 26 August, Day 47 AT v2.0, 11.9 miles, Lake of the
Clouds Hut, in the shadow of Mt Washington NH. :)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By Crocadilly - Our stealth campsite worked
really well and other than some bizarre animal noises in the middle of the
night we all had a great night's sleep!! I was anxious to get back hiking
again. It has been a week. I am feeling healthy again but I know I have lost
8lbs, a lot of strength and a lot of muscle. My shorts were so tight around my
thighs and now they just hang limply from my stick like legs! I knew i would
struggle stamina wise especially as we are now entering the more physically
challenging part of the hike! Sad to have missed so much but happy to be out
here and doing this again and with so many of our friends! Today marks the
beginning of our ascent to Mt Washington which is 6288 feet and is one of the
higher peaks we will be climbing. We are both super excited by this prospect.
Today we will hike to just below the peak and finish off the climb tomorrow
morning. The first part of the day marked our usual walking through trees and
along paths scattered with roots and rocks. Before long though we were met by a
sign welcoming us to the Alpine Zone. How fantastic and exciting to be hiking
in a different type of terrain and different habitats. And it was very
different with scrubby vegetation including diapensis and bilberrys and very
low pine shrubs. It was very rocky and open and gorgeous with lichens and
mosses lining the rocks. The views were spectacular. We looked down on to the
road we had travelled on the day before and across to the mountains and hills
we were yet to climb and the terrain we had already covered. You know you are
high up when you look down to the valley below and see a light aircraft flying
what appeared to be several hundred feet below us! The weather could not have
been more perfect for our ascent to the lofty climbs of Washington with
brilliant blue skies and soft fluffy white clouds. It was also fun because we
were hiking in a big bubble and occasionally you would pop out on a vista to
find Rampage or Tall Oaf or Gumby sitting looking out! I cannot even begin to
describe how beautiful it is up here. The rocks sparkle with the minerals they
contain and you can see for miles. There were big boulders we had to walk
across and the terrain at times was quite difficult but in a pleasing way
especially after being in bed for so long! I am in such a happy place and
loving every step I take. In this part of the trail there are numerous huts
where you can stay and grab a bite to eat - The Appalachian Mountain Club who
oversee the NH area are quite strict on camping and you have to stay in one of
the huts ($95 per person) or camp in designated areas which can be quite hard
to find depending on your walking schedule!!) The huts are fabulous and remind
me of the places we would eat when skiing in Europe - cozy and warm and
smelling of good food! We reached the Mizpah hut, the first we came across for
lunch to find Rampage, Gumby and several of the others already there. You can
eat as much soup for $3 which we did - Rampage inhaled 5 bowls and Scott four.
I managed two and a brownie!! By all accounts we ate them out of the remaining
soup available!! We were soon on our way again - it is hard to get going again
after a good lunch like that! But the mountains beckoned. Before the sun
started to set, approx .5 miles from our hut, Gumby caught up with us again and we walked the last half a mile
to<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the Lake of the Clouds hut where we
had all planned to stay for the evening. It suddenly popped out at us after
wondering where it was!! It was a lovely big hut and already many of our
friends were already there waiting together with a lot of guests! There were
wonderful smells of food and a big group of people listening to one of the
workers talking! We sat down got some snacks and watched the most beautiful sun
set. We managed to get work for stay which meant we did not have to pay the $95
per person to stay in a bunk bed or the $10 to stay and sleep downstairs in the
basement which was also known as the dungeon...And apparently was horrible! Papa
wolf and I would be working the next morning with Gumby whilst Rampage and a
few of the others had secured work for the evening. After the sun set we all
went inside - it was a very festive atmosphere and the other guests who were
mainly day and weekend hikers were very convival chatting with us about our
adventures. I think we all felt a little bit embarrassed about how much we
possibly smelt!! There were loads of us thru - hikers - Rampage, Gumby, Riff
Ralf, Tall Oaf, GoMan, and a couple of others we had not met before. It was a
great fun evening and even though we had left over food it was delicious! Soup
and pasta shells and big slabs of cake and lots of peas! We all ate loads! We
all set up our sleeping bags in the dining room - Papa wolf and I made a small
camp at the back under one of the great big wooden tables surrounded by windows...what a fabulow bedroom view!! An excellent
excellent day - my favourite so far!</span></div>
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Crocadilly and PapaWolf <br />
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PapaWolf, Rampage and Tall Oaf<br />
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The ttrail above tree line...very very cool...and hard. :)<br />
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Crocadilly standing far too close to a perilous drop...anything for the photo op :)<br />
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Our "bedroom" for the night<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p>Waiting for the sunset outside of the hut. an EXCELLENT way to end the day!</o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p>Well worth the hike...</o:p></span></div>
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Monday, 27 August, Day 48 AT v2.0, -14.9 miles, Dolly Copp
Camp Grounds, Gorham NH. By Crocadilly - Wow today was a hard day! Taxing both
mentally and physically but totally worth the hard work! We had a great nights
sleep at the hut hunkered down underneath one of the great big wooden tables. I
woke up just before six to the smell of brewing coffee and watched the sunrise
out of the window. People were beginning to stir and so we got up and cleared
our stuff! You have to love work for stay - we had left over breakfast -
omelette, eggs, bacon, a gallon of coffee and cake. Whilst two of our fellow
hikers helped remake the bunks And clear the bedrooms Scott and I handled the
compost! Which I have had plenty of practice in! We swept floors too and then
we were ready to face our ascent to Mt Washington! I loved the hut it reminded
me of the mountain huts on ski trips in the Alps but I certainly would not pay
the going rate of $95 to stay there. The day was stunning - blue skies and warm
with a lovely brisk breeze. I cannot even begin to describe the vistas up here
other than they are stunning - above the tree line you have panoramic views of
the valley below and the forests lining the hillsides and all around are
majestic peaks and rolling hills in the distance. We passed two glacial lakes
just past the hut. I felt on top of the world. The air felt cool fresh and
clean and fragrant and I sucked in lungful's of it!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Papa wolf and I for a lot of the day were
alone and it was so peaceful and quiet and serene especially up here. The only
sounds were the wind, the occasional mountain bird and the clic clac of
crickets like miniature castanets and our own footsteps. The path up to Washington's
peak is quite rugged and tough - a jumble of small and large boulders that form
part of the boulder fields left during the end of the last glaciation. The
silica in the rocks (i need to read up on the geological history of them and their
mineral make up) sparkles in the sun making everything just that much more
beautiful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The fields are flanked and
interspersed with alpine vegetation - scrubby and short plants including
bilberry, blueberry, diapensis and an assortment of hardy grasses. Beautiful
lichens grow on the rocks in creams greens reds and yellows and make the most
gorgeous swirling and circular patterns. The 1.6 mile climb up to the summit
was steady and fairly hard going having to step from rock to rock to rock. But
we got there in good time and were met by tailbone, mango and the dogs who had
brought the car up here! Sir Lanchelot was sporting a rather splendid new
bumper sticker saying I climbed mt Washington! Love the fact hikers don't get
one! We only stayed briefly as we still had a long long way to go. From
Washington we headed towards Madison peak - it was still fairly rough going and
my knees were killing me but the views were so breathtaking whilst we were
walking I didn't care. We reached our next pit stop at the seven-ish mile mark
- another hut on this peak. With the weather set to deteriorate and the winds
getting up it was very tempting to call it a day since we had another 8 miles
to go and heavy terrain to cover and I was hurting. But with the weather
looking even worse for the next day we decided to hedge our bets and get off
the mountain. By now it was nearly 3pm - the going is alot slower out Here and
we were slack packing so pushed into a corner as far as stopping was concerned…either
stay at the hut or make it the 8 miles to the car. We had no tent so stopping
was not an option. We had to get to the road we were to be picked up from. We
decided after much deliberation to take the Madison gulf trail down - a mile
shorter than the AT and we hoped it would be easier going on my knees! It ended
up running into the AT and putting us at the same spot! So off we went. It was
a hard hard climb down the mountain. Impressive and scary all at the same time.
The route essentially follows a stream from source at the tip all the way down
the mountain side pretty much on top of it until it turns into a river in the
valley below. We scrambled hand over foot over large boulders listening to the
stream trickling underneath. At times the stream bed was the trail. Sometimes I
didn't want to look down and was afraid one false move and my poles or pack
would send me forward! Papa wolf at one point said "your mum would kill me
if she could see what you were doing right now"!!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At which I replied "Yep, but my Dad
would love it and be very proud of me…probably wished he was here with
us". <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was fun and hard but I wondered if it was
worth diverting from the trail! It was awesome though! However when we got over
the worst of the terrain and on the realization that it had taken us over three
hours to go two miles and I was exhausted it was getting late and the clouds
and rain were threatening I cried ...alot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And wondered what the hell I was thinking trying to go 15 miles over
this terrain especially as I had been so sick. To make matters worse our
navigation app wasn't working properly or at least I hoped it wasn't as it was
telling us we still had a million miles to go and the trails are marked
terribly! The AMC pull in thousands of dollars alone from people staying at the
shelter, they have an monopoly on the area in NH and seem to almost extort money
from visitors and thru hikers enjoying the NATIONAL PARK and yet they seem
unable to appropriately mark the trails unlike all the other states. There are
numerous tales of our friends who went the wrong side down mountains and took
other wrong trails in the last couple of days. We spent most of the time
wondering if we had got back on the AT and how far we were from the road. Dusk
was setting and the rain was coming in to add to my misery of slowness and body
aching - we both were feeling it so decided the sensible option was to take the
road leading from the mountain. It was only Two miles before the road we were
supposed to meet tailbone on but we figured no sense hiking over slippery, wet
rock in the dark and tired. We managed somehow to get hold of her to tell her
this. Just as we hit a sign saying you are now entering the gulf wilderness and
I began to panic thinking there is no bloody road this magical black Tarmac
appeared in the dimming light ! I was so happy even though it was hammering
down with rain! We had to walk the meandering twisting two mile road down to
where our ride was waiting. I have never been so pleased to see anyone in my
life! I had to duck under the closed gate to get to the car and couldn't get up
again lol! Riff ralf our german friend was in the car and by all accounts had
had a hard day too! We were greeted with the welcome news that everyone was
waiting at the local pizza place for us with beers and food hurrah! When we got
there I got a lovely warm hug from mango! Rampage and Gumby were there too and
had really struggled with the distance and terrain too. I was so pleased to
know it wasn't just me that was hurting and down - everyone had gone through
the same emotions by all accounts. It was a tough day but the enjoyment of
looking back with a sense of satisfaction over what you have all achieved and
the feeling of camaraderie is amazing and soon makes you forget the pain you
just went through! We devoured a massive pizza - 380 square inches to be
precise and jugs of beer. I was in heaven and walking like I had been riding a
horse for a week! We were all doing the hiker shuffle! Then it was back to the
Dolly Copp campsite where our tent had already been put up. I barely
remembering falling into the tent I was so tired where I proceeded to have the
best nights sleep yet on the trail!! The past two days will forever be among my
favourites on the trail. X <o:p></o:p></div>
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Lake of the Cluds Hut...very well named<br />
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One last photo of the hut as me head up to Mt Washington<br />
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The Summit!! Last time Papa Wolf was here was when his Dad and him had a great weekend climbing and skiing Mt washinton when he was about 11. It was an emotional and WONDERFUL return. :)</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYaaMyvo1LUEJm9igbMdnRH7Xq4XnE47Eo4KmGgIXf7gj_Hgjp2BCjLJNWh36syXHHzF6wSa_Mxtxxv52o-DG58DACvN7ua3d3R_4sua-qqNkZqD1c_sbfcNDdGfzkTHWyIesg5hb8bfdg/s1600/DSCN1327.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYaaMyvo1LUEJm9igbMdnRH7Xq4XnE47Eo4KmGgIXf7gj_Hgjp2BCjLJNWh36syXHHzF6wSa_Mxtxxv52o-DG58DACvN7ua3d3R_4sua-qqNkZqD1c_sbfcNDdGfzkTHWyIesg5hb8bfdg/s320/DSCN1327.JPG" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXXcCocH6XA24j2UwXKAizR4gj-XYp28RzVEraFzd8ochITAgCKDS4gL1YgjT6vASJ68vOG5kf4KSIgrcgW5MAUW9UQjTdhpe7P2OijmbtVMV9hQ_x59_Sh-_7nhW0MbwGDnzD_HWpg6La/s1600/DSCN1331.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXXcCocH6XA24j2UwXKAizR4gj-XYp28RzVEraFzd8ochITAgCKDS4gL1YgjT6vASJ68vOG5kf4KSIgrcgW5MAUW9UQjTdhpe7P2OijmbtVMV9hQ_x59_Sh-_7nhW0MbwGDnzD_HWpg6La/s320/DSCN1331.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
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Heading down<br />
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The sign for the Madison Gulf Trail...when we got down. <br />
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PapaWolf, Crocadilly, Tailbone, Riff Ralph, Rampage, Mango and Gumpy (taking photo) </div>
Scott and Vicki...on the AThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09639786904438996161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9046944633679629940.post-62966024023854268982012-09-06T10:58:00.003-04:002012-09-06T10:58:56.611-04:0025 Aug. Day Hike, Falls, Trail Magic
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Saturday, 25 Aug, Day 46 AT v2.0, 5 miles, Crawford Notch
Stealth Camp, US 302 near Bartlett, NH. By Papa Wolf - Yesterday we yellow
blazed to our next rendezvous point where we will meet Rampage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were aware that the rules are more stringent
in NH as far as stealth camping goes, so we wanted to make sure we were well
off the trail, but near the road. So Crocadilly and I went searching for our
new temporary home and found a closed blue blazed trail. We walked a few
hundred yards down that trail and found a very suitable tent site for us. The
NH law states that you must be 200 feet from the trail, but we figured that as
this trail was officially closed, we were sufficiently away from the
"open" AT….the ole "better to beg forgivness than ask
permission". </span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As it turned out, nobody really came down the
trail, let alone a ranger so it was great. As we drove yesterday, We all
decided we would hike today, southbound, and see if we ran into anybody. We had
no agenda so it was a very pleasant walk…albeit uphill most of the way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It did start to rain a bit so we turned
around at about the 2.5 mile mark and headed back. The rain stopped near the
bottom and we decided to take a side trail to a beautiful falls which was
great. Mango, Tailbone and Crocadilliy decided to hang out abit as I walked
back to get a nap. </span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
I popped out of the trail to find three lovely ladies doing trail magic. I told
them that I had become more of a section hiker as of late and did not deserve the
food, but they insisted and said they had not seen anyone else…so I had an
excellent sandwich and hung out with them. A bit later "my" three
ladies came out of the woods and enjoyed the magic, followed shortly by
Rampage, Riff Ralph (ze german), and Tarzan and Jane. We ended up spending a
few hours with them and devoured ALL of their food. Their husbands were doing a
very long day hike so we managed to save them one a few sandwhichs and soda's…but
we ate everything else…oops. The ladies were great and it was an excellent
afternoon. We then took everyone back to our stealth tent site for dinner and a
great night sleep.</span></div>
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Ripley Falls<br />
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The lovely Mango and there awesome dog Sammy<br />
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Tailbone looking cool and wonderful as ever<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p> A nap spunded like a good idea. :)</o:p></span></div>
Scott and Vicki...on the AThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09639786904438996161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9046944633679629940.post-43997178113323716512012-09-06T08:51:00.000-04:002012-09-06T08:51:08.637-04:0021-24 August "The Leper Colony"
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Tues/Wed, 21-22 August, Day 42-43 AT v2.0, 0 miles, Super 8,
White River Junction VT. By Crocadilly - the lost years (okay days but it felt
like years).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well not much to report
from the torture<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>cell that is room 48 at
the super 8 - think it should be renamed room 101!! ;) Actually It isnt a
torture cell really - it is quite a nice room and I have to commend the wonderful
people at this place and it is a good place to be - I haven't really seen or
spoken to anybody other than observing the multitudes of staff (never seen so
many cleaners at a motel) that waft past the window. From what I can see and
hear from my deathbed they all seem super friendly and very industrious. (yes I
have far to much time on my hands and I am now a certified curtain twitcher!!).
I have put the do not disturb sign on the door more for the health and safety
of others whom I don't want to contaminate rather than being disturbed myself!
- think I should maybe biohazard tape a 100m radius too around our room...
Thoughts my blog friends?!!! - I fear the smell of decaying life (mine!!!) may
make them call the police!! It's all good and of course i am jesting... I am
just bloody sick of being sick! This is the worst zero day ever - I am now into
day one hundred and sixty five it feels like and am still unable to eat or
really walk far without feeling like I summitted Everest and to make matters
worse I have now passed on the pox to Tailbone. I hope she makes a quick
recovery! I sure am not and I am not sure why this bug has felled me so badly -
everyone else is better faster - fortunately Mango was well enough to go back
to the trail after our second night so I am hanging out with papa wolf and
tailbone. So not much really to report other than I am thoroughly annoyed at my
body for not seeing this thing off (when I had a similar bug back in June I got
rid of it in 48 hrs) and am angry that I am still in the Hanover area five days
later without still really seeing any of the town or having a square meal!!!! I
can also report that day time tv is rubbish and the channels are still showing
the same reruns of the same shows two years after I first arrived! I have to
admit I did love the fact that on our first<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>day in the room mango tailbone and i spent the whole afternoon watching
diners drive ins and dives and other good fodder on the food network! Ah my
steely stomach can still handle watching copious amounts of food whilst feeling
like pants!!! We will be leaving the super 8 tomorrow regardless!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Thursday, 23 August, Day 44 AT v2.0, 8.5 miles (Papa Wolf),
Chets Hostel, North Woodstock, NH. By Crocadilly - wow so that's what sunshine
feels like on your skin!!!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I finally
left the room and made it to the FREE continental breakfast. You know you have
been sick along time when the lady at the front desk says its good to see you
up and about and obviously you are feeling better! I didn't know this but at
breakfast the past couple of mornings they have kind of nodded and winked at
Scott and asked if we will be staying another day or not (in the nicest
possible way!!) - they were all genuinely pleased to see me up and about which
was lovely - I bet they are having some kind of gambling game going on as I
speak as to who gets dibs NOT to clean out our germ infested room!! I did
switch out all our bedsheets for them! ;) if<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>i was them i would throw in some bleach and just shut the door for
several days!! So we have finally left the super 8 :) . A question my dad asked
me a while back was how many calories we have to eat a day. The answer is a
lot!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So we burn between 5000 to 6000
calories a day - that's a lot to keep on top of. I have lost 8lbs being sick
which is immense and so couldn't even contemplate hiking today. It wasn't a
technical climb up Moosilauke but a 4 mile straight up hill and 4 or so miles
down a rather treacherous sounding path. Walking across to the deli across the
road last night almost caused me to pass out in the queue so figured ingesting
a few more calories would be better. I have some to make up. I was getting
excited that my hiking trousers were getting tight around my thighs where
muscles were forming and my stomach look well toned and my calf muscles were
coming in - now my shorts just hang off me, I lost my colour so I have some
work to do again ... Bummer!!!!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So papa
wolf took the boys and hiked - I could have cried missing moosilauke but it
would be silly and embarrassing being carted back down by the emergency
services! So tailbone and I drove to a fabulous hiker hostel in Lincoln NH and
caught up with Weezy and Old Smoke and Miss Janet and hung out!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It's rampages birthday today so we met him
and the lovely mango for dinner at a lovely Greek restaurant where I packed in
several more calories and we gave Rampage a quality birthday card made out of a
paper napkin! We then went to a fabulous old bar which forms part of a gorgeous
inn and restaurant with a dream cottage garden out the front. We went there
with old smoke and tall oaf and I sank a large bowl of wine ( medicinal
purposes only figured i would kill off any remaining bugs in my stomach -
actually I feel super good now!!) and we moseyed back to the hiker hostel. Ooh
bought some post cards finally to send back home too! The hiker hostel is
awesome and is actually a former hikers home - he is an interesting character
in himself - tales for another day. I am with papa wolf and the boys in the
tent in his backyard - there are lots of other hikers here - some in the bunk
room and some camping! So glad for a great day - I hope to be hiking tomorrow
:)</span></div>
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The sign pointing to the top</div>
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Looking at the top of Mt Moosilauke and the first "above tree line" trail</div>
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The Sumit of Mt Moosilauke</div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Steep
descent, but beautiful, as it followed this waterfall to the bottom</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Friday, 24 August, Day 45 AT v2.0, I miles, Crawford Notch
Stealth Camp, US 302 near Bartlett, NH. By Papa Wolf - Mt Moosilauke was
excellent yesterday. Weird hiking by myself with just the boys, but it was
great to be back out and there was no way Crocadilly or Tailbone should have
hiked so I had a great day. I did finally have to break out the new pair of
boots. I wore my originals as long as I cod but we had some serious structural
damage so I was basically hiking In flip flops with laces. :) they treated me
well and made it 1200 miles, so no complaints...they have been retired with
full honors. My new boots were really great. I did not get a good chance to
break them in so yesterday was it. They felt great but my feet were a bit
tender this morning. The plan was to hit the trail but I was nursing my,
enjoying the morning and the day got away from us. So we went with Mango to the
next meeting point to await Rampage and the gang. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Scott and Vicki...on the AThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09639786904438996161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9046944633679629940.post-2624908259031619642012-08-21T13:48:00.001-04:002012-08-21T13:48:14.956-04:00Monday, 20 August
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Monday, 20th August, Day 41, 10.2 miles, Super
8 Motel, White River Junction VT. The feverish ramblings of Crocadilly - At
about 0330 am this morning having been woken up for about the fifth time with a
horrendous temperature, bizarre dreams and excruciating stomach cramps I
decided that I would not be going anywhere fast. So I am still at the Super 8
and super frustrated. Papa Wolf surprised me by coming back to visit for the
evening which is just what the doctor ordered. I do feel like we should paint a
cross on the door like they did during the plague and shout "bring out
your dead!". I am hoping to be better enough to hike tomorrow but it is
quite a climb up Mt Moosilauke which I have been looking forward to…seeing as I
had to sit down in the shower because showering was such an effort I am
thinking I may be missing out yet again - disappointing but I might as well get
100% better as the trail is just going to get tougher. Mt Moosilauke is the
first of the big mountains you hit coming into the whites - I was considering
it a gateway to the next stage of our hike. Oh well….<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">By Papa Wolf - Up at 5:45 to catch the
sunrise on top of the firetower. Had breakfast and a cup of coffee and was
still on the trail at 0730…that has to be a record for me. Today's hike was
awesome. A gentle four mile down on a great trail is about the perfect way to
start the day. After that warm up we had two sporty and rocky ups and downs. On
top of the mountains we were able to look back and see the fire tower were we
stayed last night. It’s a nice sense of achievement to see what you have walked
the last few hours. We discovered, while on top of the mountains and had phone service,
that Mango and Crocadilly were not getting out of bed anytime soon. Rampage
asked if maybe Mango and Tailbone could come pick up their beautiful dog,
Sammy, as the rocks and climbs will be getting much more difficult and treacherous
for the dogs. So…although I am loving these last few days, I took the
opportunity to come back to take care of my poor wifey. I know she wants to
hike these mountains so I did not want to do too many miles without her so this
was a good opportunity to stop and wait for her. This is a good example of how
having this support vehicle is excellent and well worth it. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span><br />
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Looking back at the FireTower on top of the mountain.</div>
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Zoomed in...FireTower on left</div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
Scott and Vicki...on the AThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11227937303601306597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9046944633679629940.post-41381446357943630672012-08-21T13:14:00.001-04:002012-08-21T13:14:55.215-04:0018-19 Aug. Back in the Woods
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Saturday, 18 August, Day 39, 8.4 miles, Cool Camp site near
Three Mile Road, by Crocadilly - <span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Today we had a
relatively easy slow low mileage hike day as poor Rampage is still not feeling
very well and it is our first day back on the trail since he got sick. In the
morning after a quick resupply at the local co-op and being given some great
fresh home grown tomatoes and other goodies from a lovely family taking a
holiday in Vermont (gotta love trail magic!) we got going. Again it was great
having so many people coming up to us asking us if we were hikers and chatting!
We caught up with Weezy and his dog Aisha (we have no idea where the others are
other than that they have been sucked into the wormhole that is the
marvelousness of Hanover and who knows when they are likely resurface again!).
We also ended up catching up with Old Smoke too which was great! The trail took
us right from the town and back into the woods again. We met up with everyone
for a lunch stop on a road after several miles. We decided to just hike another
threeish miles to the next road so as not to push it. I hiked with Rampage and
Old Smoke whilst Papa Wolf drove in the car with Tail bone in order to help the
ladies find somewhere suitable to camp for the night. The three miles zipped by
and before we knew it we had reached the road much to the relief of Rampage.
Papa Wolf and the ladies had found a great spot to cowboy camp on an island
surrounded by small brooks just off the trail. It was perfect! I knew that I
was likely to end up wet somehow here though! We had a great campfire going and
as it was a Saturday night I decided to have a couple of New Hampshire's finest
beers with my dinner which Papa Wolf had prepared! And yes I did end up in the
drink … I was on an island of sorts (no raging rivers or anything) but during
one trip across the shallow brook I slid off a rock and ended up with a very
wet right foot. Of course it was the first night I had had to wear socks with
my crocs and so I carefully put them by the fire to dry and kept a good eye on
them as I know many socks have been lost whilst being dried on the campfire!
Despite keeping a close eye on them my liner sock still ended up with a giant
burn hole in it - I guess that covered two of the four elements. </span></span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Sunday, 19 August, Day 40, 15.0 miles, Fire Tower stealth
camp and Super 8 Motel…will explain. </span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
The saga of Crocadilly - <span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">I felt okay when I got up but it soon
became clear to me that I had come down with the same bug as Rampage.
Unfortunately so too had Mango. I suddenly felt really sick and it was all I
could do to get my stuff packed up and stagger back to the car. After much
deliberation we decided that whilst Papa Wolf and Rampage would continue to
hike, myself, Mango and Tailbone would head back to the Super 8 and get a room.
It felt like the longest drive and it was all I could do to muster the strength
to get out of the car and get a room sorted and climb into bed. And so here I
am … back at the Super 8 … again!! I was so frustrated to be missing a day of
hiking. But there was nothing I could do about it - this bug has been doing the
rounds so it wasn’t really surprising that we are all coming down with it. I
was just hoping I would escape it! </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"></span></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Papa Wolf's day - Having had this stomach
bug a few months ago, I had much sympathy for Crocadilly and Mango. I did
remind them that I did a 20 mile day when I awoke with these symptoms and did a
total of 75 miles before I got better…oddly, they did not care and told me to
pound sand. </span></span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> All joking
aside, a comfy bed close to a loo was exactly what they needed so the Super 8
was the best idea. After the ladies left, Rampage, Ole Smoke, Wheezy and I
headed on our way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It sounds strange,
but hiking with a full pack with no vehicle support was such a wonderful
experience. It felt great to be back to the basics…heavy, but great. The trail
itself today was a good combination of ups and downs. It also gave us a nice taste
of what we can expect from the whites. The last four miles of the day was a relatively
steep, rocky assent to the fire tower were we planned to camp. With a full pack
it was a difficult, but very rewarding climb with an awesome campsite and
sunset as our reward for our efforts. It is nice to be back in the deep woods.
With luck, Mango, Crocadilly and Tailbone will join us tomorrow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Scott and Vicki...on the AThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11227937303601306597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9046944633679629940.post-28970664551932246772012-08-21T12:28:00.000-04:002012-08-21T12:28:34.663-04:0016 - 17 Aug, Hello New Hampshire!!
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Thursday, 16 August, Day 37, 9.8<span style="color: #a6a6a6; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #A6A6A6; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 166;"> </span>miles, The
Johnson Family, Hanover NH, by Crocadilly - Walking into NH..officially. </span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today was a relatively easy day and an epic
day too marking my own half way point on this adventure and also the crossing
of another state. I walked with Rampage, Mango and Tailbone the ten miles into
Hanover, New Hampshire. Papa Wolf had dropped us off and walked in the opposite
direction towards us with the boys so that Mango and Rampage could walk
together for the first time in awhile. It was a lovely leisurely hike and I
stuck with Rampage and Mango. It was a beautiful cool day and the terrain was
amazing - relatively flat and soft paths through woodland. I really enjoy
pushing myself to see how fast I can do miles but other days I just love to
take it slower and soak up my surroundings and when you can it is worth doing.
We only had a ten mile day and the whole day to do it! The weather is
definitely on the turn and I am seeing more and more leaves on the floor that
have turned the autumnal hues of red, orange and yellow. After the bizarre
winter and spring we have had very dry summer it will be interesting to see how
fall turns out! We caught up with Papa Wolf and the furry boys and headed to
the Vermont / New Hampshire border. On the way we passed some lovely houses, a
couple of which had the hiker boxes out front and had provided snacks for
thruhikers, weather information and water and even treats for the four legged
hikers! It is wonderful to see how good humanity can be! At one house owned by
the Brains' (who are former thru hikers) they had provided lots of goodies and
a pair of old hiker boots filled with flowers adorned their lawn - fabulous and
something I must remember to do with ours! And so we went down the hill from
the woods into town. It is strange hiking with all of your kit through town -
the border lies on a fabulous bridge crossing an expansive river and it was
glorious despite the heavy traffic! There wasn’t much time to reflect on the
passing of another milestone as it was so noisy and busy. We took some photos
and headed off to the house where we were staying for the evening. On the way
we went to Dan and Whits a fabulous store which provides free sandwiches to
hikers. They gave us two free burgers and an assortment of packed Kaiser rolls.
Mine was tuna salad which randomly I had been craving for all day! Love how the
trail randomly provides! The folks were so friendly and we hung out in front of
the store chatting to all the people popping into get their groceries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The rest of the walk to where we were staying
took us through the delightful downtown of Hanover and looking at all the shops
and bars I got excited at the prospect of visiting this place at leisure over
the next 24 hours. There was quite a troop of us staying at our hosts house,
camping in the back yard. We enjoyed a lovely barbecue including burgers, dogs
and corn and a relaxing evening.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Friday, 17 August, Day 38, Our first zero day in over two
weeks, Super 8 Motel, White River Junction VT, by Crocadilly - <span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Today we had our first zero day since we left Salisbury over 2 weeks
ago and it was very much needed. I thought this was a long time to go without
having a day off. That was until I started to talking to other thru
hikers….many go longer without a down day. Sometimes even whole states!! Makes
me feel exhausted just thinking about that! Knowing I have the day off has
suddenly made my body stop running and all I want to do is sleep and enjoy the
delights of the area. My knees hurt, my body aches and my brain is whirring- I
am mentally and physically exhausted but absolutely thrilled and overcome with
how far I have made it and that I am out here and overcoming everything that I
was struggling with earlier in the year. I must admit to having a lump in my
throat at crossing the border between Vermont and New Hampshire yesterday - I
have made it across five states, have gone over 400 miles but in myself I feel
I have come so much further both mentally and physically!! Having gone
the entire time with just bug bites suddenly spider bites have appeared, I have
a burn/rub mark that goes all the way around my waist from my back pack (not an
uncommon ailment but one that has taken me by surprise since I have not
suffered from such a thing so far) and a heat rash all over my body which is
just super itchy and again has come something of a shock especially since if
anything I am now sweating less and the temperature and humidity have both
decreased substantially! However, last night I slept great for the first time
since I got on the trail! I still find myself sleeping restlessly, waking
between being too hot and then too cold, fidgety and having the weirdest
dreams! Last night I crawled in to bed and barely my head hit the pillow and I
was asleep! I woke only once to the painful whining of a couple of dogs down
the road from where we are staying! (so glad none of our dogs bark and yap like
that - would be highly irritating!) The day didn't go completely as planned, as
happens frequently on the trail, so is to be expected and easily handled. I was
along with everyone else hoping to walk into downtown Hanover, the home of
Dartmouth College and enjoy the small shops, bars, restaurants and boutiques
and quaint houses of this pretty historical town, have a good meal and just
relax and enjoy the sights. Instead, as wonderful as the Johnsons are, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>we felt we kind of overwhelmed our hosts
having stayed longer than anticipated…the additional 7 folks in their backyard
did not help the situation…eek..poor Johnsons. So we decided to go to a Super 8
motel just down the road, off the thruway where we have decamped for the rest
of the day with Mango, Rampage and Tailbone. Trying to find cheap accommodation
with dogs on the weekend unexpectedly turned out not to be an easy task. We
decided that we should move on as so many of us have been staying at the house
and we should probably leave them in peace. So here we are!! I have enjoyed the
sleep and the McDonald's for lunch but I was looking forward to the trail town
especially as it is one of the most hiker friendly towns on the trail and they
supply you with lots of free food! But these things happen! Its fun hanging out
with everyone regardless of the location and maybe resting and taking it easy
was the best thing for all of us. Especially Rampage who, having been
incredibly sick yesterday, is thankfully on the mend now - still not great but
we believe over the worst of it! We managed to go to Eastern Mountain Sports
and pick up Tailbone a much needed sleeping bag since we will imminently be
hitting the whites and much lower temperatures and more variable weather. I
also got some calagel which is a welcome relief for the itchy skin and has
definitely been the highlight of my day!! So all in all a good relaxing day and
able to catch up with parents and bills and the blog! </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Scott and Vicki...on the AThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11227937303601306597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9046944633679629940.post-64703833691159954192012-08-21T11:53:00.001-04:002012-08-21T11:53:32.942-04:00Wed, 15 Aug, Into Hanover
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Wednesday, 15 August, Day 36, 18.8<span style="color: #a6a6a6; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #A6A6A6; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 166;"> </span>miles, The
Johnson Family, Hanover NH…WOOHOO!!, by Crocadilly - I woke up at 0530 this
morning and along with several of the others made coffee and heaved myself up
the ladder to the look out to enjoy the sunrise. It was a little cloudy but
still stunning and certainly worth getting up early for. Actually I love
getting up this early and being awake before the rest of the world. It is
amazing though how cold it is starting to get already in the early mornings and
evenings - you can tell we are headed towards the autumn and before we know it
it will be here. Every time I think about the changing temperatures it brings
me out in a cold sweat thinking of all the extra weight I will be carrying with
my winter gear! This is why I am determined not to slack pack too much despite
having that option because there will be times in the future when it is not
feasible and having a full pack again will come as quite a shock!! The morning
walk was quite tough going with some steep hill climbs. These are the ones that
always take you by surprise. Hiking up peaks like Killington I guess you are
mentally prepared or the climb is so high that the switchbacks you walk along
are more graded. But with these shorter summits they often feel like you are
walking straight uphill as opposed to be taken up gradually. There were quite a
few hill climbs today and Papa Wolf was having a day like I had yesterday. I
was feeling great and although it was tough going I was enjoying the challenge
the walk was providing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We summited one
particularly tough going hill which afforded great views of the valley below
and was a great stop for a snack and some photo opportunities. The day was
quite hot and very sunny. As we were breaking for lunch, we received a phone
call from Thirty Pack saying that he was in Woodstock with Papa Wolfs Mom. So after
lunch Papa Wolf decided to head to Woodstock with Tailbone to see his mother. I
carried on and hiked with Rampage, Apollo and Weezy. Apollo took the lead and I
was third in line and determined to keep up with the guys! This is the first
time I have followed someone else's pace and not hiked on my own terms (Papa
Wolf and I hike at our own paces or I take the lead and he hikes behind me!) We
only had about nine more miles to hike and after one initial climb and few
further more gentle climbs the rest of the way was relatively easy going and in
the shade of the wood. They introduced me to a great game…"I am going on a
trip and I am going to take with me…" you go down the line and have to add
an item you are taking after repeating without slipping up what everyone else
before you has mentioned in terms of their items. It’s essentially a round
robin memory game and you keep going until someone messes up! - this is the
type of game that at the best of times I am crap at, let alone when I am hiking
and concentrating on keeping up with the pace and not tripping over roots and
stones!!! I normally struggle to hold a conversation whilst hiking…not because
I am antisocial but because I just tend to concentrate on the job in hand and
get immersed in my own thoughts. So here I was hiking with others and having to
use my brain but it was a great afternoon and I thoroughly enjoyed hiking with
the guys and managed to keep up! And managed to play the game! It was really
enjoyable and you can imagine the random stuff we came up with! So I managed to
walk and think all at the same time woohoo!! We stopped for a couple of rests,
one on top of a hill and the other to gorge on more blackberries! The final 4.7
miles went really fast and we managed to hold down one whole game for that
entire length of the hike without dropping a go! Pretty impressive! Tonight we
are staying with Tailbone's dads best friend and his family who are kindly
putting us all up - several in the garden and us in the house! So we got to the
cars and drove to their house which is in the delightful town of Hanover. This
is an awesome town and incredibly hiker friendly - a lot of the stores give
free sandwiches and drinks and other food stuffs to hikers. Families in the
town leave hiker boxes with cookies and drinks and other good stuff at the
edges of their driveways and some even provide free lodging! We got to our
destination for the evening and walked into Hanover. I was shattered! We were
pleased to see some of our friends who we haven’t seen in a while including
Yukon and Boomer! We had a great meal at a pizza place which gives hikers a
free slice each! I had two on top of that! I have never eaten three slices of
pizza that big before - we are talking those big New York slices that you only
normally eat one of…sometimes I disgust myself! Papa wolf only managed two as
he had had lunch in town earlier. I managed one beer before I felt totally
sleepy and had to toddle off to bed at the grand time of just gone ten pm! I
had wanted to stay up and see the bars aswell…maybe tomorrow.</span></div>
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Scott and Vicki...on the AThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11227937303601306597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9046944633679629940.post-36042966302706967012012-08-21T11:32:00.000-04:002012-08-21T11:32:04.615-04:00Tuesday, 14 August
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Tuesday, 14 August, Day 35, 17.5<span style="color: #a6a6a6; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #A6A6A6; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 166;"> </span>miles, Lookout
Cabin, by Crocadilly - I enjoyed a last delectable shower. Although I knew that
soon enough I would have access to another one! What a marvelous thought!
Showers are like buses - you don’t see one for ages and then several turn up
within days! I had to laugh at the state of my body. I thought I was meant to
start looking buff by now what with all the walking and fresh air! All the
other women I have passed hiking, seem to be raven haired or classic looking
blonde stunners with beautiful tanned legs up to their armpits, not a scratch
or bug bite on them. These are the sort of women who are flawless and have
impeccable finger nails and even if there was mud under them would still look
perfect! A stunning south African southbounder who it has to be said chain
smoked when I saw her in particular sticks out … every platinum blonde hair on
her head was perfectly groomed and in place, she was barely breaking a sweat
and her perfect legs stretched in to infinity. Contrastingly my hair has taken
on a life of its own and resembles that of Queen Guitarist Brian May! My legs
are road map of various insect bites, scratches and scars and the sweat drips
off me whilst I hike. The barely there tan is covered by a layer of dirt that
is so engrained that despite vain attempts to exfoliate will stubbornly not be
removed! My toenails have taken on various hues of death from a weird
purple/red to black (I think only three have a shot of being alive at the end
of the trip) and despite washing and purelling my hands continuously the dirt
is ingrained in my stubby finger nails!!! I do have the beginnings of some
small calf muscles and biceps which I am quite pleased about and I am in truth
getting a good hiker tan (yes I slather myself in all sorts of beauty products
every morning and evening including lashings of sun block so am getting quite a
healthy glow going!!) It makes me laugh - I feel in the best shape of my life
yet my diet is the worst it has ever been including whilst at university and I
certainly do not look my best!! </span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I struggled a bit with this mornings' hike. The day had
started off so well too - we were the first down to breakfast and I had another
good feast of waffles. We were joined by Thirty Pack and Apollo and enjoyed
some good banter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was looking forward
to another good day but some days just go like that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Papa Wolf had his turn a couple of days ago
and I guess this morning was my turn. We were hiking to meet up with Apollo and
Thirty Pack and Tailbone at Thundering Falls. I felt like every step was a
struggle but I was determined not to give up. I knew some days I would struggle
and part of the reason I am out here is to get over my demons and feel better
in myself. The trip at the moment feels very up and down but I guess that is
what an adventure is all about - it is about pushing yourself and it would not
be an adventure or the hard undertaking that something like this is if it were
all easy and straightforward. So I pushed on through my negative thoughts.
There were some tough up hills today that seemed to kick my butt but I just
tackled them one step at a time and felt happiness and the wonderful sense of
achievement on getting through them. We then hit Thundering Falls. A stunning
set of waterfalls in a serene wooded area. It was breathtaking and I took some
time out by myself to meditate by them - and it had the desired effect! I could
have spent the whole day there it was so pretty and relaxing. We spent a good
hour at the falls just enjoying watching the water cascading down the rocks,
chatting and taking in the setting. Eventually we left taking another path that
had been shut due to the hurricane last year. The path had formerly been a
lovely boardwalk that took you through a wetland area…the boardwalk was still
there just on its side in places which we managed to navigate. The wetland
flowers, rushes and reeds were beautiful and I took some time to take some
pictures. I love how one minute you are on top of a mountain, the next in a
woodland, and then in a field and before you know it in a gorgeous wetland area
like this! My favorite areas at the moment are the latter and also fields,
especially those in MA as they really reminded me of the rolling Chiltern Hills
and fields of home in the UK. In the afternoon, after leaving Tailbone at the
car which was parked just beyond the boardwalk we continued forward. The
afternoon hike which we did with Rampage, Weezy and Apollo took us up some more
hills towards a geocache and a private cabin with stunning views over the
mountains in the distance. On the way we gorged on wild blackberries - picking
wild berries is a great past time on the trail. The best are to be found in
open areas under electricity pylons which is where we found these. Picking and
eating wild berries does slow down your progress! Known as the lookout our
destination for the evening was a place everyone was looking forward to, having
heard of the fabulous sunsets and sunrises it affords. The cabin was an old
ramshackle building set on top of a hill that we all set up camp in…there was
quite a lot of us in total and it was fun to be all under one roof! We had Rampage,
Mango, Tailbone, Weezy, Apollo, Thirtypack, John Wayne, Hobo Joe and Ragweed.
Quite the gathering! There was a ladder to a look out on the roof and the views
were stunning. The sun was setting and bathed the distant hills and mountains
in pinks and purples and greys. The woodland surrounding us was growing a dark
green and it all felt very serene! Considering how hard I had found this
morning, I now felt like I had had a great day!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Scott and Vicki...on the AThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11227937303601306597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9046944633679629940.post-48373743705400003992012-08-21T11:09:00.002-04:002012-08-21T11:09:08.473-04:0013 August, Day 34 Killington!
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Monday, 13 August, Day 34, 13.5<span style="color: #a6a6a6; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #A6A6A6; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: background1; mso-themecolor: background1; mso-themeshade: 166;"> </span>miles, Inn
at Long Trail, by Crocadilly - Today we woke up refreshed and reinvigorated.
The Inn was proving to be the remedy that we both needed and we were both
thoroughly enjoying our time here. Papa wolf was full of enthusiasm to walk
again and I was ready and raring to go and climb Killington. This is another
big moment for us and I was glad we would be tackling it in good spirits. Scott
spent a lot of time in this area skiing as a child and so was looking forward
to hiking this portion of the trail. I am deeply in love with Vermont. It
really is green and just so beautiful and clean and fresh! The inn is quite
possibly one of my most favorite places in the world. I woke up feeling better
than I have in months! We enjoyed an incredibly hearty breakfast-bacon, eggs,
toast and home fries - the sort of breakfast that a mere few months ago I would
have had to leave half but due to my glutinous tendencies now can easily finish
in half the time!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tailbone dropped us
off at the road we finished on yesterday and were soon on our way. The weather
was cooler - temperatures are starting to lower now and there is a nice breeze
in the air making hiking much more enjoyable and less sweaty!! Unfortunately
though today, unlike yesterday, there was a thick bank of cloud - Papa Wolf's
penance for not hiking up Killington yesterday!! ;) But the hike was amazing
and I felt super light on my feet and completely happy (aided by the fact we
were slack packing!) and it was great to be hiking with Thirty Pack once again.
He is a great guy in his mid twenties and someone both Scott and I have grown
very fond of. (There are many people we have formed very special friendships
with on this journey but he has been with Scott from pretty much the outset and
almost seems like a brother to him which is great!)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The poor guy though has had a run of bad
luck. Having been bitten on the buttocks by a black widow spider (the doctor
wasn’t 100% sure what species bit him but this sounds so much more impressive!)
that got infected and having proclaimed quite innocently that he could not
imagine anything more painful happening to his butt he was just a few short
weeks later to be proven wrong! The poor guy has now been suffering from some
form of abscess on his lower back that has also become infected and which had
to be lanced in the local hospital a few days ago. He is in quite a bit of pain
and discomfort and this is on top of a stress fracture in his foot. We picked
him up following a few days of much needed rest and he is certainly not walking
as fast as normal! He only managed to hike part of the day as it was. As you
can imagine the list of ailments, diseases and accidents that befall hikers
along the way is quite long and varied. As well as the expected bumps scrapes
and falls, people have come off the trail for any number of a variety of
reasons. In just the last couple of weeks we have heard of hikers who have
suffered copperhead bites, various spider bites, trench foot, giardiasis, Lyme
disease (one chap we have been hiking with recently had 46 ticks removed from
his body!), a couple of hikers have been struck by lightning, one has been
attacked by a bear and unfortunately one has sadly been murdered. Apologies for
the rather miserable digression - back to the hike…The walk towards and up to
Killington itself really was stunning - we passed babbling brooks, streams,
walked through stunning woodlands. I believe part of the walk took us through
Gifford Wood, which contains one of the few old-growth hardwood tree stands
remaining in Vermont. There are grand-sized sugar maple, beech, yellow birch,
white ash and hemlock. The paths in these areas range between pine straw and
soft soil which is delightful underfoot to very rocky and rooty and a bit more
tricky requiring much more concentration! Today the devastation left by
Tropical Storm Irene was all too apparent. The trail is actually re-routed as
much of the old path still needs to be cleared and remediation work needs to be
done - most hikers including ourselves still choose to take the old path. It
isn’t dangerous… but it was moving to see the damage that the storm had done
and how the landscape had been changed. Giant trees were uprooted, others
snapped in half like matchsticks leaving the forest floor open to daylight. It
will be interesting to see over the years how the vegetation and habitat changes
in response if left to its natural devices of course. Bridges were gone and in
their place rickety planks and logs - I still haven't fallen in the drink which
I am very pleased about! You can see mini landslides and where the streams have
rerouted themselves or had new branches formed. I am glad we got to see this.
Just shows you the power of nature and how quickly it can change the
environment. The climb up Killington was gradual and definitely not as bad as I
had expected and there were plenty of other walkers, day and long distance
hikers around. The highlight of the day was passing a beautiful carved wooden
sign which showed that we were just 500 miles from Katahdin. I can't imagine
how it must be to be a thru hiker and see this sign - overwhelming and a great
sense of achievement because that’s how I felt and I am doing not even half of
the trail! This means for myself I am not far off my half way point! I feel so
proud at how far I have come. We climbed an elevation of just over 2000 feet,
the trailhead elevation peaked at about 2150 feet. Despite the cloudy
conditions we decided to take a blue trail to the summit of the mountain -
Killington Peak which is the second highest peak in the green mountain range
and in Vermont at 4,241 feet - although a relatively short climb it was
straight up over large boulders and involved some serious climbing and effort! Mojo
and Skye summited quickly like little mountain goats and that’s when I heard
the wail from above me! Apparently they had popped out of the gathering mist
unexpectedly and met a rather excitable Jewish lady who HATED dogs and was
paralyzed with fear …except apparently she kept sidestepping towards the
perilous edge of the mountain and had to be contained by another rather lovely
lady who helped me out! We normally have the boys on leads when we know we are
going to be entering areas where there are likely to be lots of people but the
terrain meant this just was not feasible and the young lady and her mother
couldn’t understand this unfortunately! As soon as we were on safe terrain I
got the boys leashed up! In the meantime the lady helped me by shielding the
manically praying lady from my dangerous beasts as I shepherded them past her
on a rather narrow trail made of rock without incident and I thanked her for
her help! Having climbed up the mountain whereas all these other people had
come up on a gondola as you can imagine I was a little frazzled and this was
the last thing I had expected to deal with! Especially as the boys were just
sitting, looking at us, paying no attention to the wailing lady and the only
thing the boys would likely do is lick someone to death!! So summiting
Killington wasn’t exactly what I had anticipated especially as we were now
closed in by fog which was shielding the stunning views we had been waiting
for! I had to laugh though when who I assume was the young lady's father passed
me and said "uh oh let me guess the dogs?" He kind of giggled and
rolled his eyes as if to say jeez she does this all the time and I am sorry. So
we walked DOWN to the top of the gondola and met Tailbone, Weezy, Rampage,
Mango and Thirty Pack at the top of the ski runs - they had all taken the
gondola up and much to our joy the clouds parted the sun came out briefly and
we got some great group shots of us at the top of the mountain. After a quick
lunch and enjoying the views we took the blue trail back down to the Long
Trail/Appalachian Trail below. Going down was much scarier and much more
difficult than climbing up! At least going up you can't see the valley far
below or in other words if you fall or slip where you are likely to end up! The
afternoon comprised of an easy six or seven miles towards the Inn at Long
trail. It was a lovely walk and went incredibly quickly including a brief walk
down a ski run! Before I knew what had happened the trail had spat us out from
the woods into the field opposite the Inn to the woops and howls and welcome of
my fellow hikers and some Long Trail hikers who had already finished and were
making camp and eating pizza. It was then I had an idea - we had reached the
Inn as I had anticipated in my daydreams, tired and happy - so I suggested we
have some après hike beers just like we do when skiing …still in our sweaty
clothes! So we went over to the bar and did just that - Long trail ale après
hike beers - delicious and we had so much fun chatting with everyone else at
the bar! Riff raff our German friend was there and it was so good to see him
again! (Nice to have some European back up!!!!) The People you meet in bars and
in town like this make you feel really special doing the Appalachian trail
regardless of whether you are doing the whole thing in one go, section hiking
or as we are kind of super section hiking and love to chat with you and hear
your stories - it gave me a warm lovely feeling inside when we entered through
the front door and I overheard a young boy exclaim to his dad…look daddy
thru-hikers to which he replied cool! The young boy was looking at us in
complete awe - makes you feel so good (okay I am not a thru hiker per se but am
going a long way lol!) It was all exactly how I had imagined. We had a great
dinner with Tailbone, Mango and Rampage and the others - I had been deciding
what to have all day and settled on their delicious Irish stew! After several
more beers we crawled into bed to a great nights sleep!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Scott and Vicki...on the AThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11227937303601306597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9046944633679629940.post-43123965119830462592012-08-18T20:43:00.001-04:002012-08-18T20:43:16.171-04:0011-12 Aug 2012<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17px;"><div>
<span>Saturday, 11 August, Day 32, 14.4 miles, cool camp site on river near VT 10, by Crocadilly -</span> We had a surprisingly good sleep considering we had pitched our tents by the side of the road. Yesterday Papa Wolf had been complaining of shin splints…by this morning they were infected spiral compound fractures that had possibly severed an artery hahaha!! He decided that he would have a rest day today. It is always wise to avoid making any injury worse when you have the opportunity not to. Having had shin splints the last couple of weeks I thought this was a good idea and so I was faced with the entirely new challenge of hiking by myself for the first time. I was thrilled by the prospect of a solo adventure although knowing my less than brilliant sense of direction a little concerned that I would possibly be the first person to get lost on the trail (the whole thing is marked by white blazes although at times it is confusing and you can find yourself on side trails if you aren’t paying close attention.) That I find quite easy to do as I easily slip inside my head and get carried away thinking. I was sad he would not be with me but I love being challenged and this would be good for both my mental and physical development. The morning was relatively easy as far as the terrain was concerned but the rain from the day before had made the path incredibly slippy - it was very rocky and covered in roots and various things that would do their best to trip me up. A fine film of dew had covered everything and I found myself slipping and sliding all over the place. Crossing wooden planks was particularly treacherous and at one point I did do a comedy slide. But the walk was beautiful and went quickly in the morning. I passed a beautiful pond, groves of christmas trees and two areas on tops of hills where hikers had built hundreds of cairns. These were particularly spectacular and gave the area a magical feel. You find cairns built everywhere but this was the first time I had seen so many in one place. I spent quite a bit of time here soaking in the atmosphere and taking lots of pictures. I loved walking by myself and being able to stop and take pictures. Just as an interesting side note I bumped into a group of archaeologists just before the pond. They were completing their last day of a four year dig just above the pond. It was an Native Indian site - they believed it was a site for cooking and a tool workshop. It was fascinating talking to them and I was invited up to see the site but knew if I went I would never leave so I sadly had to decline the kind offer! I met Scott for lunch half way through my walk and was pleased to discover that pretty much everyone else had struggled a bit this morning due to the slippy conditions - it had made it really difficult to get into a good rhythm! Scott meanwhile had had an enjoyable saturday morning at Walmart - his favourite past time of shopping!!! The afternoon walk was fabulous and went really fast although I had to laugh at the last mile which seemed to take forever! Quite often the last stretch of a walk will take you to a road - you can hear the road and often see the road especially if you are going down hill but the trail will appear to keep taking you further and further away and around and around - it always makes me laugh because it lulls you into a false sense of security that you are so close to finishing!! The last mile was wonderful though despite being quite a steep down a hill but it took me me down towards a gorge where there were families playing in the water and camping on the lovely shady sandy banks of the river. A suspension bridge took me over the gorge and river and to the car park where tailbone and papa wolf were waiting. We decided to camp down by the gorge for the evening and some of the other hikers agreed to do the same which made quite a good group of us. They hadn't crossed the foot suspension bridge either which I told them we must see! So we got ourselves packed up and ready and took off to camp. Mojo did not enjoy the bridge at all and crawled on his belly under my legs the whole length of it - it hadn't helped that there was an impish child at the other side hanging off it and making it bounce more! Poor furry guy but we got him across in the end and he looked very pleased with himself when he got to the other side. We set up camp in a clearing on the river bank. I was tired happy starving and soaking wet from where I had got so hot!</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">Sunday, 12 August, Day 33, 4 miles, Inn at Long Trail :) by Crocadilly - an unintended nero…just four miles hiked. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">Hiker notes 101. Never ever camp at a local beauty spot that is easily accessible by road, towards the end of summer vacation on a Saturday night. We should have known we were not in for the quietest of evenings and it was all likely to go hideously wrong when Scott (Papa wolf) whilst waiting with Tailbone for me to surface from my walk yesterday watched a load of teens pour out of three cars complete with vast quantities of alcohol and with a couple of younger kids in tow! The sticker on one car "Royal Bitch on Board" should have told us everything we needed to know! Our soon to be camping neighbours were likely to be less than salubrious!! There were two groups of rivals (who appeared to become friends at the beginning of the evening before too much alcohol had been consumed). After that it was like epic scenes from West Side story were unfolding!! It is true that one of the guys we are currently hiking with got embroiled in the evening's festivities at quite an early stage and quite possibly started everything that ensued. But what was a pleasant, peaceful evening eating and chatting with Otto, Apollo, Perch and Weezy in an idyllic spot beneath pine trees with a carpet of soft sand and pine needles quickly unraveled into chaos as more and more cheap beers and alcopops were consumed by those in the camping spot next to us! Their laughter and chatting eventually<span></span>turned into an incredibly long and what sounded like a very angry brawl with the girls shrieking more violently than the guys! The teens were observed as dusk rolled in rolling around on the floor fighting each other and this continued on into the early hours. We actually pretty much climbed over the fight when we got up <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://3" x-apple-data-detectors-result="3" x-apple-data-detectors="true">at 3am</a> to watch the forecasted meteorite shower. We had decided to get up and decamp back up the hill to the car park and enjoy the early morning show with a coffee before making a dawn start towards the towering peak of Killington. The most dangerous hiking I have done so far was by torch light in the early morning, trying not to trip over flailing legs and arms and items discarded by the band of not so merry travellers! By the time our little troop climbed back up to the car park which was a good five minute trek (one that I ended up doing twice after having to go back over the bridge and down to the campsite where I had stupidly left the camping stove on which we were to make the coffee and I had been accidentally spat on by a horrible little chav), the clouds had rolled in extinguishing the stars and the moon and any of the meteorite shower that may have been going on above us. We all decided to give up and go back to bed. Unfortunately Scott and I had already deflated our mattresses so although we were on a bed of soft sand it was not exactly comfortable and we were definitely not being lulled into a peaceful sleep by the sounds of the angry baying mob next door! That was until the state troopers arrived! The cocophony of noise was shattered by the sudden arrival of a deeper voice, the dance of a flash light and then silence! It transpired that one of the girls from one of the rival gangs had dialed 911 and was threatening to call them when she accidentally did. The operator I would imagine on hearing what was going on tried to ring her back, she accidentally again picked up, more of the fight was overheard and so the operator dispatched four police cars complete with armed troopers! On hearing them arrive I smiled to myself rolled over and drifted off into a light slumber!! Apparently the teens were carted off to the cells and / or hospital for stitches as required. The lack of sleep as you can imagine did not make for a great start to the day and by the time we got up and going it was baking hot and neither of us were exactly feeling like hiking. Every step felt like a monumental effort and Papa wolf in particular was struggling and so after four miles we decided to call it a day and had Tailbone come and pick us up and take us to the Inn at Long Trail near Killington Vermont….via Friendlys of course for lunch! We went via <span></span>the local town of Rutland and picked up Thirty Pack who had been resting at a hostel there for a few days after a spate of ill health (another tale to tell!). It was great to see him again and he cheered us up no end over lunch. We decided the miles would wait <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://4" x-apple-data-detectors-result="4" x-apple-data-detectors="true">until tomorrow</a>. In a side note a chap materialized from the Yellow deli hostel where thirty pack was staying and approached papa wolf. He was a guy by the name of Spiceman, and it transpired he knew a guy Scott worked with - he already had known this and was looking out for us. He had worked in Ramstein. It wasn’t long before Scott worked out that he had actually slept on Spiceman's couch in his office following the superbowl a number of years ago and had actually been to dinner at his and his wife's house with Spanky their mutual friend! Small world!!!</span></div>
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Sunday 12th August 2012 Part Two. The Inn at Long Trail. I have been waiting for this moment for pretty much the whole trip. We stayed at the Inn whilst on a road trip with my sister and brother in law two years ago when we first moved back to the states and I couldn’t wait to visit it again. I had imagined approaching the inn victorious after a hard days hiking and looking all worn out and ready for a hearty meal and a cold beer chatting about our adventures with other hikers as we had watched the hikers somewhat in awe the August two years before. It was not to be. Instead we entered the inn somewhat mentally and physically beaten for various reasons and me in tears and just wanting to jump in the shower and drown my sorrows in a beer. Papa wolf was not feeling the walking and it felt like our adventure was beginning to unravel a little bit. But walking into the Inn was as Toni Morrison described in her novel Beloved if you have ever read that, like walking back into a memory. I revisited myself walking down the hallways and retraced my steps and imagined myself as I had felt two years ago. Somewhere along the way over the past two years I have lost myself and I am on a journey of self -rediscovery. For the first time in a long time I finally felt like I have recaptured some semblance of my old self at this wonderful inn and felt that I was home and happy. The inn was going to be a good positive experience and help me get back on track. Both of us in fact. It felt somewhat like fate when we looked at the guest book and saw our names signed in two years ago to the very day! I must admit to getting quite choked up to think that my memories were from exactly two years ago. Rampage, Mango, Apollo, 30 Pack, Otto, Perch, Weezy and an assortment of our other comrades had decided to take advantage of the free area for camping opposite the inn. We enjoyed some beers with the vice president of the Green Mountain Club, a guy who is a former through hiker and very knowledgeable and Otto who we have thoroughly enjoyed hiking with. Soon we were relaxed and with some good food in our bellies and a few pints of Long Trail Ale and having a good time with our friends the world was looking a much brighter and happier place. I was beginning to feel like my old self. The Inn at Long Trail was proving to be a cathartic place for us both, and whilst we entered its welcoming doors in a different frame of mind to that anticipated we sank into our comfy bed with a much more positive attitude. Thankfully.</div>
</span>Scott Willitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07626574276712579996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9046944633679629940.post-61418735196325149112012-08-10T22:30:00.002-04:002012-08-10T22:30:25.537-04:006 - 10 August<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17px;"><div>
<span>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. </span><br /><span></span><br /><span>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! </span><br /><span></span><br /><span>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!! </span><br /><span></span><br /><span>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.</span><br /><span></span><br /><span>Friday, 10 August, Day 31, 17.7 miles, camping on USFS Rd 10...literally. :) by Crocadilly - I </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">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! :)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);"><br /></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); font-size: small;"></span></span>Scott Willitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07626574276712579996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9046944633679629940.post-57667821829221521432012-08-06T00:19:00.000-04:002012-08-06T00:19:01.206-04:003-5 August 2012 A New Chapter<br />
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 115%;">Friday 3 August, Day 24
AT v2.0, 10.2 miles, Benedict Pond Campsite MA. Sir Lanche-A-Lot and the
Whole-y Trail (copywrite CrocaDilly 2012...she made me give her credit). By
Papa Wolf - We used to having a saying in the Air Force…"Flexibility is
the key to Airpower"…it appears that is the same with Backpacking. We used
to follow that saying with "the key to flexibility is indecision". </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 115%;"> Anyway, we were flexible and decisive
and with a HUGE thanks and help from my Mom and wonderful Aunt Pat, we were
reconnected with Mojo and Skye and my Avalanche…Sir Lanche-A-Lot…after 7.5
years living in England, he was knighted. They arrived in Great Barrington
around 1100, and after a nice lunch with everyone, TailBone, CrocaDilly, and I
came up with a good plan now utilizing our support vehicle. Just a bit more
planning now as we want to make sure we camp within a few miles of a road…fairly
simple right now based on where we are in the North East. The key for us is to
stay true to the trail. The "All knowing 'They'" say that if you
leave the trail for more than 6 days, you will not get back on. I can see how
that may play out as having been at home 40 days for the burglary, it was
difficult coming back on…a roof, electricity and indoor plumbing are not to be
taken for granted. BUT, I proved "They" wrong and have been having a
great time since I got back. The new challenge, with the support vehicle, will
be for us to not get lazy, not jump off the trail at every rain shower, not get
a ride (yellow blaze) just because we can. Frankly, I am expecting it will be a
much bigger challenge than we think. With no car, there is no choice so you
just get on with it. When you have an option to take the easy way out…that is
the challenge. Time will tell how we do but I am confident we will stay true to
the trail. As far as slack packing goes, meaning you only carry a day pack and
water, I am of two minds. Until today, I only slackpacked approx 50 of the
950ish miles Ive hiked so far. I feel a little guilty, but the lady who set the
official Appalachian Trail speed record last year did it carrying virtually nothing
really. She had support vehicles and her team at every road with supplies etc. Taking
nothing away from her remarkable accomplishment, and maybe using it as an
excuse, I figure if the official speed record can be set slackpacking, I can do
the last 650 miles with less weight as well. Not to forget either that once we
hit the White Mountains and Maine, we won't see a car for days at a time so
back to normal full packs. So with all that to consider, we said goodbye to Mom
and Aunt Pat, gave a ride to our friend who did find her car…towed and in the
next town over…and we hit the trail at 3pm. We did have a good hike and got to
our destination before dark. The campsite was deserted except for the three of
us, the two dogs, and a hiker friend Miles. I was not sure if I was impressed
or a little disappointed in the local youths and it was a beautiful park on a
lake and a great summer evening…perfect for a Friday night party to get into
mischief and bust curfew. As it was, we had a very peaceful, but hot, night
sleep.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 115%;">Saturday 4 August, Day 25
AT v2.0, 17.1 miles, Upper Goose Pond Cabin MA. By CrocaDilly - Last night I
did not sleep well. I don't think having spoken to others today that many
people did. It was so hot and humid during the night that it made for a very
uncomfortable night's sleep. I think I managed about four or so hours - a good
portion of which was after I should have got up! It hadn't helped that one of
the puppies had decided to spend most of the night sleeping on me … I love how
affectionate they are and how much they love to snuggle but when it is so hot
having a 90lb furry being lying on you does not help! So I spent the day very
tired and very grumpy. I was also struggling significantly with my conscience
and the new set up. I just did not like it. It feels like such a different
challenge and I am not enjoying it as much as I was. It doesn’t feel like the
challenge it was and I somehow feel less free and that I am carrying the weight
of the world on my shoulders again despite the fact that 34lbs has been lifted
from them. For the first time I thought about going home. And I did not like
that feeling. I came on the trail for many reasons and to push myself to the absolute
limit and some of that has now been taken away. Furthermore I enjoyed the exhilaration
of being totally in control of my life and free. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am fully immersed in the here and now and my
surroundings and having everything I could possibly need on my back without the
distraction of everyday life. I had rid myself of the extraneous artifacts and
material goods of the modern world (except my phone) that could interfere with
the bubble of freedom I had created - it was just me, my family and my thoughts.
Now all of a sudden with the arrival of the car we have this great big reminder
with us constantly of "real life" …something that I was happy to
leave behind for a bit and not think about. I enjoyed only having my legs as a
mode of transport and the odd ride in a car. I was worried we would get sucked
into yellow-blazing, have constant access to sodas and this would become just a
merry jaunt in the car across New England. I wrestled with my thoughts and
feelings all day and each and every step felt sluggish and slow and hard. It should
have been the exact opposite considering I no longer had the pack. It actually
also takes longer to get ready in the morning too - what do you need to take
with you and what can you leave in the car? I prefer to be able to just throw
everything in my pack in its proper place as I have been and go. It just all
felt wrong. One minute I have a pack and the next minute I don’t. We set off
from the campsite without our whole packs - just a day pack and water. We then
had to put on the whole packs to hike the rest of the three miles to the
campsite we were staying at and it made me feel like I was hiking day 0 again. I
had had this issue before on our first day back after slackpacking and swore I would
never do it again!! At this point I could have just laid down in the car and
gone to sleep! I decided I prefer hiking with my full pack. We got to the Upper
Goose Pond and what an amazing set up - when they say pond they mean large
lake. A lot of hikers were already hanging out when we got there including our
bubble of northbounders. The cabin on the lake shore higher up was already full
so we set up camp with Ambassador, Rory, Last Out and Franklinstein on the
beach by the water's edge. The water was cool and inviting and swimming whisked
my cares away. I decided to see how I felt in the morning about the new set up
- I think I was just super tired and quite a few of the others had been grumpy
due to a lack of sleep too! We had another sumptuous dinner using the fresh
zucchini and cucumbers that Aunt Pat had given us. Truly delicious! The people
staying at the cabin that week - caretakers - were awesome and very friendly.
We had some banter and sat around. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 115%;">Sunday 5 August, Day 26
AT v2.0, 11.0 miles, Shamrock Inn, Dalton MA. By CrocaDilly - Last night was
the first night that we slept without the rain-fly on and wow what a difference
that made to my sleeping experience. The night was cooler anyway but not having
the fly on was like having air conditioning suddenly! It was lovely also to
look up at the trees and the sky and the moon and stars! I only woke a few
times instead of the several an hour which I have been doing consistently
(including when in a normal bed). I wake up a lot due to restlessness and
fidgety legs which I hear is common and Mojo actually sat on my head at one
point in the night, then decided he wanted to snuggle with Scott so scooted in
between the two of us before proceeding to then push me off my air
mattress!!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I felt so much better though
when I woke up at 0630 and thought I would tackle the day more positively. I am
still hiking the whole route after all, a goal I had set for myself (how many people
can say they hiked 900 miles in one go?) We have the boys back - I missed them
terribly and it was very strange hiking without them! We have promised
ourselves we are not going to yellow blaze unless it is due to danger, we are
not going to have a supply of soda or beer in the car or a cooler - we may buy
more food because we can store it including veggies but that will be it. I will
also for the most part, unless we need to do super miles, carry my pack. I like
the weight and the extra exercise. Also we have the 100 mile wilderness to
contend with which is hard terrain in terms of remoteness and the changes in
altitude we will expect. I think it would be hard to slack pack for hundreds of
miles and then hit that beast. Today though I had my first new challenge - 20
miles (slack packing … and quite a few people were joining us on this venture!)
It was also the day we had been waiting for when the trail would cross I-90. This
has been a pivotal moment for us in our journey since we have passed under this
bridge that carries hikers on their merry way numerous times on our way to
Boston and have dreamed of the day when we would ourselves cross it on our own
journey! The day started off with fresh coffee and blueberry pancakes provided
by our hosts. That is always an incentive to get out of bed early…not a pop
tart in sight!! The blueberries are picked fresh from a farm up the road and
carried by the southbounders staying at the campsite the night. The lady that
owns the farm is known as the cookie lady since she also bakes cookies for
hikers and lets them use facilities at her and her husband's farm and stay
there for work. Her farm was our first stop at 11 miles today. I could not help
feeling a bit Hansel and Gretelish hiking through the woods towards the cookie
lady's house lol! The going was good - a short climb followed by miles and
miles of soft piney paths through cool woodlands and we ate up the miles and I felt
so good, weightless and that I was finally getting into my stride again. I also
felt less guilty and that I should be more flexible and go with the flow. I am having
too much of a good time and still getting so much out of this adventure - it
has changed just a little bit that is all and I will embrace the change.
Everything happens for a reason whatever it may be. We saw quite a few people
on our travels today. The highlight was passing over the iconic (to us)
Appalachian Trail Bridge over I-90 early in the morning. A few people tooted
their horns as we crossed and we looked like we were going mad at Disney world
what with all the pictures we were taking! I loved it and walking across the
bridge felt like such a huge achievement. How could I have ever contemplated getting
off the section of trail I have planned to hike without completing it? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was all set to finish my 20 mile day but
lunchtime brought bad news of a flash flood warning and bad thunderstorms. Us
and the troops decided when we got to the cookie lady's house (cookies were
delicious!) - she also sold fresh eggs and other produce! - that we should take
heed of the weather and stop for the day and head into Dalton for the evening.
We will back track tomorrow. So here I type after a sumptuous dinner at the restaurant
associated with our motel - the Shamrock Inn having had a three course meal,
done laundry and reading waiting for the weather to clear. It got really bad
around 8ish when we would have been getting into town so glad we decided to
bail early. We will do 18 miles tomorrow to include the miles we missed to day.
Disappointed yes but no sense putting ourselves in unnecessary danger and walk
in wet boots just to say we did 20.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>Scott and Vicki...on the AThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11227937303601306597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9046944633679629940.post-4614270724174342712012-08-05T07:41:00.003-04:002012-08-05T07:41:35.047-04:00Thursday, 2 Aug 2012<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17px;"><span>Thursday 2 August, Day 23 AT v2.0, 10.4 miles, Days Inn, Great Barrington MA. By CrocaDilly - </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">Thursday Katahdin or bust! I</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);"> hadn't realized how much I wanted to get to Katahdin and how important it was to me both mentally and physically until today. I will never be a thru hiker I know and that still pains me somewhat and the fact scott will not be a thru hiker due to the break in and something beyond his control is heart breaking. My having to come in later was due to my own health issues was not something i foresaw and couldn't be helped. It happened and the fact i am on the trail now fills me with glee! Having my own small (well hiking nearly 900miles is no mean feat right?) goal for myself Is equally important and something i need to do. We were all of us set for an awesome big 16 mile day hiking starting with a steep and challenging climb up Race Mountain. I found the first part tough and was beginning to wish I hadn't had a pop tart for breakfast!!!! - far from giving me an early boost of energy i am finding these horrid processed things are having more of the opposite effect and seem to zap me of strength- probably due to my body having to try and rid itself of all the noxious preservatives they contain! I haven't had a pop tart since circa 1990!! Tailbone had left an hour earlier as she was still finding her hiker legs and we knew would be a bit slower having been off the trail which is fully to be expected. So i was in my own little merry world of cursing the pop tart and all the other preservative rich foods my body is not used to and is now being bombarded with when I came across her at the top of the hill! We were both a little perplexed as to the lack of signage showing the trail at the top - papa wolf had passed her some minutes before and despite calling for him could not get an answer. We followed what seemed like trails and which became abundantly clear quite quickly were the fruitless pains of previous hikers who had obviously met a similar fate! I had this horrible feeling that somewhere earlier we had both gone wrong - an area which also looked like the summit that had Been passed some minutes earlier. We followed one slippery moss covered path down - it didn't look like a true trail but we carried on undettered in the hope of finding the all elusive white blaze mark of the Appalachian trail! I was cursing MA at this point and wishing their markings were more abundant! This marked the point where i slipped on a Rock the first time - thank god i had my pack because it completely broke my fall. At the bottom of this trail which led to a steep jump down and bushy undergrowth i decided that us trying to head blindly down the mountain was fruitless and i would try going upwards one last time have a look round see If i could see anyone or the proper trail so I left Tailbone with my back pack and started the fruitless task of heading back to the top again! The trail we were on was the only one that looked remotely plausible so unless we wanted to retrace our steps completely backwards i figured we might as well keep descending the trail that we had found in the vague hope it linked up with the AT sooner or later so headed back to where tailbone was waiting. Yep on the way back I slipped on the same buggary rock as before but this time with a more hearty thump as my backside and lower back landed on ita Hard surface since i had taken my back pack off. There was much swearing and crying and cussing of whoever marked this trail but since i hadn't really hurt myself ( I do have a large bruise now) I carried on met tail bone and used the opportunity of company to cuss some more! Thankfully Just below where we had stopped we could clearly see the proper AT trail And although it was a couple of feet below us an area where many a lost hiker appears to have done what we did and slid on their arses down a mossy bank to rejoin it! I was mightily relieved! Especially at the thought that I wasn't the only jackass ever to have clearly lost the trail! I was disheartened to see it had taken me over an hour to go a very short distance indeed (twenty mins of which had been spent lost!) ... not the best way to start a long day but my pack felt light and I felt in fine fettle and ready to soldier on! It turned out papa wolf had met the same problem and got lost but had retraced his steps further back than we did to find the trail! We were all slightly miffed at getting lost and the time taken to summit the mountain but then we saw the wonder of trail magic - a cooler and big drums of icy icy cold fresh water! Our woes disappeared momentarily as we took in this wonder! Water is the best trail magic especially when the water is this cold! Uncle oops and a lovely girl who was section hiking with him thru Connecticut to this point rocked up and it would turn out we would again keep bumping into them throughout the day as we had the day before! Now i am not going to dwell too much on what unravelled in the following few hours as we walked but the whole gambit of emotions followed... Anger, disappointment, happiness, relief, rage and upset! It became clear quite quickly that we were going to need alot more time for Tailbone to be ready to hike the amount of miles we needed to start putting in if we were to ever reach our goal of getting to Katahdin. We had 200 miles of walking under our belts and as people do at the start you slowly increase your mileage over a number of days. We just did not have that option and a mile an hour was too too slow and we were making incredibly slower progress as the day wore on. Scotts initial idea was we just plug along and wherever we end up in October will be okay. After a couple of hours of mulling this idea over through beautiful woodland I decided I either wanted to finish at Katahdin or go home - the point of being out here would be lost and my personal challenge would be over. So we had to rethink how we were going to handle this situation - we love having TailBone with us and didn't want to have her leave us. It was such a shame because we went through some stunning scenery and different terrain - from scaling a steep mountain with picturesque vistas, the scent of pine and mountain scrub wafting through the air, rocky cliffs in shaded woodlands, soft pine paths, boardwalks through wetlands and beautiful farmland that reminded me of home. Scott came up with a super plan. We could get his mom to drop our car off and have Tailbone follow us in the car kind of like a support vehicle as Mango and Rampage are doing. It also meant we could get the boys back - not having them has been weird and very quiet - no sounds of them crashing through the undergrowth and the frequent chip chip of frightened chipmunks! The plan was put in motion , calls were made...again! And uncle oops and meatstick reappeared. Meatstick had finished her section hike and her car was a mere two miles away and so she offered us a lift into great barrington. It was like some bad joke when we got to where she had parked her car and it wasnt there. Felt so bad for her! A lovely guy thankfully gave us a lift to the police station in his pick up! We spent an hour there with a completely inept pencil pusher who couldn't even ascertain whether the car had been stolen or towed - this is a small town with only three tow companies - it seemed it only crossed his mind to call one of them! No sort of databases either to liaise with the next towns dept or other tow companies! I did have to wonder further when we watched from the police carpark a cruiser down the street put on his blues to go to a call only to stall the car and have to roll it into where we were sat and jump into another car! Things got steadily worse when meatstick got a call an hour later from the pencil pusher asking her what color her car was! At that point we gave up and went for dinner! Great Barrington proved to be an awesome little town, there was a classic car rally on that night, I saw a repatriated 1946 Willys jeep plus many other cool cars even though most had left by the time we got into town, friendly people and an awesome meal and some great wine at fiori! We also bumped into a load of out friends too -ambassador, Rory, Carver and Franklinstein. The sad news was to hear pops has left the trail for a job opportunity! We had a great night - watched a bunch of ten year olds fighting, learnt what crumping is and watched a bunch of drunk hikers stumbling about which is always good fun! Great night with great people!!!...and a good plan to ensure we finish this adventure dispite everything...so all is good. :)</span></span></span>Scott Willitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07626574276712579996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9046944633679629940.post-7744212500102486662012-08-04T21:35:00.000-04:002012-08-04T21:35:36.302-04:00Sunday 29 July - Wed 1 Aug<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17px;"><span>Sunday 29 July, Day 19 AT v2.0, 17.0 miles, Pine Swamp Brook Shelter. By Crocadilly - </span><span>We had a lovely relaxing morning at the motel drinking coffee, watching the Olympics and hanging out with everyone! I finally spoke to my parents which was lovely - haven't spoken to them since I got on the trail ... Well unless you count email and the odd text! We left around lunch time and mango dropped the four of us off with Old Smoke who was walking the same miles today! My shoes had partially dried out over night and I was wearing warm dry socks so imagine my dismay on arriving at a point in the trail barely a mile in where we had to cross what over night had become a fully running stream. I want to say raging torrent but that would be over exaggerating somewhat! Let's just say a wide enough body of water to make you contemplate carefully how to get across without falling in the drink! Which is great because so many of the streams and therefore water sources along the trail have dried up this year due to the lack of rain! Which has caused some serious issues for hikers. A sign told us everything we needed to know! "After periods of heavy rain this stream may not be passable" - yep definite check on the heavy rain and well we looked and although it was running fast it still wasn't deep and there were rocks jutting out making it a safe bet to cross... That is for most people unless you are me! I have past form, which my parents gladly bring up as anecdotal tales even at the age of 33 to embarrass me! I have fallen in ponds, pools, mud pits and probably the sea too at various points in my childhood! Actually the last time I fell in a body of water was my own pond last year much to the delight of Scotts cousin Ed's kids who we were looking after! Little Ed slipped and did the same thing minutes before ! Each water based incident throughout my past seems to have involved me having to walk home wet! I was not pleased at the potential for soaking everything I currently own and having to walk several miles! Especially as I had only just dried out from yesterday's rain storm! I stupidly told Old smoke my past form in water (the irony that I am a fire sign never ceases to make me giggle as I pass over water courses tentatively now!).he had already passed to the other side and papa wolf and the boys were making their way across with relative ease (the boys thought this was a great treat of course) whilst I was making my first few tentative steps across the slippy rocks. I looked up and old smoke was watching me with absolute glee I am sure ready for the moment when I slipped in the drink! I don't blame him I would too! It was at this point and after nearly toppling in I decided to say screw it , I would rather have wet feet and get across safely than try and keep completely dry and potentially fall in so I just waded across regardless of the depth and made it to safety on the other side!!I think the two guys were a little disappointed! It would have made for a much better story if I had fallen in I guess! We had such a great day with old smoke - it was fun to hike with someone new and he has fast become one of my favourites on the trail. We hung out with him, Miles another great chap and a couple of other hikers at the shelter that evening. It was quite bug infested and these shelters are weird in that you climb up to a kind of thin plinth and then have to jump across a gaping chasm to the sleeping platform! I wondered whether it was a strategy to weed out the unfortunate inept hiker who might need a mid night widdle and forget that there was indeed a hole between where you slept and the plank to get down from the shelter itself! The others had far more Boring and sensible ideas for it's use! Again when I say gaping chasm that is abit of an over exaggeration - you could sprain something if you were unfortunate enough to forget it was there and potentially knock yourself out which you could also theoretically do on the roof of the shelter (not a problem for me!). Because of the bugginess of the area (it really is bad ... My poor legs are covered in bites and u have to be so careful not to scratch them. People have been hospitalized this year from scratching bites with staphylococcus infected fingernails and been quite Ill as a consequence (I sanitize my hands regularly through out the day to prevent bacterial infections of this nature!)) papa wolf rigged up a rather lovely mossie net using the tent and we snuggled in for the evening with old smoke and miles next to us! I was very aware of the fact the boys were free to roam but they Spent most of the night it seems curled up next to old smoke who had also rigged up a mossie tent for himself! Think the boys were a bit put out they couldn't actually have direct people contact Tonight! Well with the exception of Miles. After being brought to by a superb crescendo of snoring from someone I suddenly heard the sound of a dog moving swiftly followed by a yelp and a few expletives from Miles as he was unceremoniously and rather suddenly woken up by Skye trampling on ...well you can guess the rest! I did apologise in the morning to him! Old smoke had also heard this during the night and thought it was mighty amusing! I don't think Miles agreed but he took it all in good humor. Actually it is one of the funniest nights I have had on the trail a we had such good banter and laughter! Plus Old smoke gave us drunken goats cheese to add to our dinner! How can you not love the man who gives us cheese and is a motorbike enthusiast who loves the isle of man TT races. </span><br /><span></span><br /><span>Monday 30 July, Day 20 AT v2.0, 16.4 miles, Salisbury CT. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">Monday Mojo and Skyes last day on the trail. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">After an epic and ridiculous fall out over a lost camping bag papa wolf and I finally managed to get ourselves enough together to leave camp with old smoke and miles. I felt sad leaving old smoke as he has already hiked through MA so the chances are as we were coming off the trail today in Salisbury to visit with friends that we might not catch up with him again. I really hope we do and you never know! We bumped into Rampage and Apollo who were already 15 miles in when they caught us around noon and half way through an epic 30 mile day! We were looking at a more leisurely few miles which having had a sort of relaxing morning lol would see us picked up around three. Oh I must lament at this point the sad passing of my left reef flip flop (RIP!) - a pair I have had since purchasing them </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">In the Lake District 18 years ago at the age of 12! An awesome service curtailed only during the heroic pursuit of UV filtering about 7 litres of water from a rather picturesque stream at the shelter. See I told you only yesterday me and water don't mix! I will give the reefs a fitting Viking funeral or something when I get home together with all the other stuff likely to die from overuse on this adventure! It may be the only way to cleanse the smell out of some garments if i am being quite Frank! We weren't going to bother stopping for lunch as we were so close to our pick up point but we came out on a road to find Mango, Sammy, Rampage and Apollo resting in the shade so we stopped for a quick bite and to say hellos and goodbyes. It's the puppies last day on the trail today as Marti is coming to drop Tailbone back to the trail and so we figured it would be easier for her to pick them up tomorrow and take them home for the rest of the hike since we will soon be reaching the more fiddly bits! I can't imagine not hiking with them but there </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">Are truly some quite tough climbs ahead that involve ladders and proper climbing up near vertical rock faces. The last three miles we hiked with them was truly pretty and enjoyable - I love CT despite the horrendous Mosquitos! It is i have since discovered from my first bad impression, clean, beautiful with gorgeous fields, rolling hills covered in trees, cool quiet woodlands with great rocky outcrops pretty quaint stone and wooden houses, churches and outbuildings with well manicured gardens and cute towns with lovely little independent stores! The very last </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">Bit of the trail took us through a gorgeous smelling pine forest which had been made wheel chair accessible. Beautiful soft piney paths wound through the woods and along the river bank and there were lovely park benches to sit and enjoy the sun! And of course only I could roll my already bad foot on the flattest part of the trail in a wheel chair friendly area! A foot support went immediately to the top of my shopping list! I was </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">dreading taking off my shoe and sock </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">to see If it would balloon! All too soon we had reached the spot where we were to meet Linda Dodge the lady we were to be staying with. Just a bit of background info - she is the mother of Donna Ryder, Mother in law of Ron Ryder, a guy Scott flew with who he hasn't seen in quite a few years (before I met him so I haven't even met him and his family!) What a lovely lady Linda turned out to be - she was full of fun and so welcoming! How can you not love someone whose first questions on entering her house is would you like a beer or wine and please take a shower at your leisure! We had such a great time chatting with her and meeting her grandsons who were also staying with her-fab family! We met her daughter Stacey the following day with her granddaughter and some neighbours. I love meeting new people and when you feel like you have known them your entire life it is even better! Linda fed us sumptuously - I feel so gluttenous but hiking gives you an appetite - we ate like kings - roast beef, potatoes, corn on the cob) (some people mentioning no names had five husks!) and salad - all fresh food I miss terribly on the trail - and my first glass of wine in three weeks or so! I don't have a sweet tooth but I inhaled a bowl of ice-cream, Oreos and a glass of milk! And then fell into the comfiest bed ever! </span></span><br /><span></span><br /><span>Tuesday, 31 July, Day 21 AT v2.0, yet another 0 miles, Salisbury CT. By CrocaDilly - We are enjoying the hospitality of Linda and her family so much that we have decided to take an unintended zero today since it was our last day with the monsters and the arrival of Marti with TailBone...WOOHOO!! Possibly the last zero until hanover, NH too! I am glad because i just spent a night in the comfiest bed ever and am not ready to give it up just yet! Justification for an unintended zero goes like this ...so how can you possibly turn down the option of italian spaghetti and homade meatballs for dinner, wine and salad etc? We also needed to resupply! And i rolled my ankle yesterday so a days rest would be best for this pseudo injury..i need to get wet wipes and an ankle brace and we were only going to go four miles anyway! My bites are super itchy so have mixed various meds to numb the pain! Plus and most importantly we get to spend more time with an awesome family which actually is the main reason and so on and so forth! We can make up the mileage tomorrow no problem!!! Pfff it's only four miles! So you get the picture ... We are having too much of a great time with too many great people = Too many great excuses to stay ,.. This is the type of experience doing the trail is all about! It feels like coming home! I have met so many people today who i otherwise would never have met, which has been fabulous! And this happens a lot on the trail but all too often meetings are fleeting and you know you may never see the person again but you certainly will never forget them. Today that is not the case. I have seen a town (Salisbury) I know for some reason I will see again and have met people I know will be friends for life! Needless to say the excuses to stay mounted up and so Here we are! And what a great unintended zero day it has been! We Got to spend the day with my wonderful mother in law. We resupplied, i bought some town trousers which means i wont have to borrow scotts shorts in the future (they were kids pants and cost 12 bucks and are super comfy - a result!) i have been to one of the best wine stores I have been to in the states, everything is dry and washed, I had McDonalds ... A big mac meal plus double cheeseburger didn't even dent my appetite which after last nights Oreo and chocolate ice-cream extravaganza frankly has me concerned for future cholesterol levels! Mattie is back and life is good! Plus it didnt rain! We Have said too many goodbyes recently but a wonderful number of hellos in the last two days and see you agains! I unfortunately have said goodbye to the monsters ... So hard but they will be better off - they have done 900 miles which is super awesome... how many doglets can say that! I also said goodbye to my reef flip-flops which died yesterday (rip) i have had them since I was twelve - they have given me 18 years of service! What did i replace them with? Yuk i hate to say it but a horrid pair of purple crocs . I swore I never ever would buy a pair but for the trail they make too much sense. RIP my circa 80s reefs and long live the queen!!! and a welcome return to Tailbone who joins us and a super thanks to my wonderful mother in law who is now pup sitting and delivered our beautiful niece back to adventure land with super new feet! Thank you so much to Linda Dodge and her wonderful family for a most fabulous 24 hours! Connecticut is beautiful and full of lovely people and quaint small towns with pretty shops and houses...lovely despite the copious amounts of biting insects! My poor legs lol! ... We have had a blast but now we must wend our way northward .... Looking forward to catching up with trail friends! Xxx </span><br /><span></span><br /><span>Wednesday 1 August 2012, Day 22 AT v2.0, 12.3 miles, Race Brook Falls Trails Campsite. By Papa Wolf - What a Fantastic few days. CrocaDilly said it but it is worth repeating...Thank you Linda so much for everything, and Donna and Ron Ryder for setting this up back in February...and thank you for the food you left us! Just another great example of More trail magic and wonderful people making this journey unbelievable. So after coffee and a ride back to the trail, we were back at it. It was very weird walking without mojo and Skye...after 900 miles I got used to the little fellas. :) We could have kept them a bit longer but we have been hitting some rough patches (e.g. The rocks requiring ladders, etc) and it only gets worse in New Hampshire so we figured better to keep them safe and healthy. Within the first five miles we were very glad we made that decision. A few descents that we're very technical and I'm sure would have required a few removed packs..at least from Mojo. So thanks again Mom for watching over them. :). we did cross into Mass so yet another state down. I also broke the 900 mile mark and Crocadilly went over 200! Tailbone did really great for her first day back. Slow and steady and did Awesome! Its amazing how much easier it is ro walk when your feet are not on fire. We walked along some amazing Cliffs over Mt Evert which were spectacular. Not the best walk if you are afraid of heights...none of us are so it was great. We walked got to the campsite a bit late to discover we were the only three there. That's a new experience for me as the first half of the hike was so crowded and I was with the wolf pack...weird being just three, but great. Utilized a pre made tent platform which worked out great so had an excellent night sleep. </span></span>Scott Willitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07626574276712579996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9046944633679629940.post-53550805630861842452012-08-01T22:25:00.005-04:002012-08-01T22:25:57.708-04:0028 July 2012<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">Saturday 28 July, Day 18 AT v2.0, 7.8 miles, Rocky Ridge Motel, New Milford CT. By CrocaDilly - </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">...and then there was rain! </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">Wow what a day! Skye was so much better and both the puppies were bouncing around this morning! We had a fairly leisurely morning getting ready and having coffee round the camp fire with everyone ! Mango very kindly offered us the opportunity to slack pack once again which we gladly took up (think it may be tough going back to hiking with backpacks after this little hiatus! The boys slack packed too much to their enjoyment! They love rolling around on the floor on their backs when the packs are off which is especially hilarious to watch just after the packs have been taken off and even more so if there is a hill involved because they will wiggle all the way to the bottom!! Anyhoo the going was made so much easier with out packs and it was really nice to be hiking in a big group - very different dynamic to the hike and I enjoy it / makes me move faster! Sammy was also hiking with rampage -so cute to have another dog hiking in the mix for Mojo and Skye to hike with too! We had just summited a hill and were all enjoying a slight break when it started to rain! What ensued shortly after was a storm of epic proportions which was probably as bad as the storm we had hunkered down for the other night! It took us all by surprise! The thunder and lightening were close and very impressive. Mojo and Skye were a little scared and chose to run between Scott and I. I was running down hill fast as we all knew mango would be waiting at the car at the bottom! I have never been so wet! I have since found out that the local weather said about 5 1/2 inches of rain fell in one and a half hours and we were headed down hill! I don't know why I bothered running as i could not have been more wet had I been lounging about in a pool for several hours. I guess it was a matter of survival and to avoid getting struck by lightening and to keep warm and get to the car! My fingers were starting to get that lovely prune effect and going numb. Half way down the hill Sammy decided he could not go any further as the storm was so scary and hid beneath a bush. rampage appeared cradling him in his arms several minutes after we had all got to the car having had to carry him down the rest of the rather precarious hill the rest of the way in the pouring rain. At the bottom we all set about formulating a plan for getting dry and getting three dogs, 9 people complete with backpacks to a motel. A few of us went on a reconnaissance mission to a town 15 mins away leaving Scott and the dogs and a few other unlucky hikers in the rain! We got to a motel where we had been promised a good rate .... Isnt it funny how that all changes once you get to a place and things suddenly escalate in price! After a complete debacle we ended up back at the drop off point with the rest of the gang everyone by now incredibly cold and in the pouring rain! We managed to get hold of a motel in the end and a good Samaritan offered a lift to some of the group leaving three dogs, approx 6 packs and about six hikers in one small Honda - a very impressive feat! I have once again in a short space of time never been so thankful to see a shower bed and coffee in one room! I was so cold and wrinkled I could not wait to get in the shower and Just jumped straight in fully clothed! By the time I was finished it looked like a muddy massacre had taken place in there! It was also at this point that I realized my error in bringing only two changes of shorts... I had a top for town buy no fresh trousers or shorts of any kind! Bearing in mind the clothes I am wearing today are soaked, i hadn't showered or done any laundry up to this point since last sunday! As for my dry second pair of shorts... I have never in my life smelled anything so bad EVER! I am surprised they didn't self combust! I couldnt contemplate wearing them into town to do the laundry and dinner run so ended up in my husbands shorts eek! Yep that is how gross they were - mental note to self to get town shorts when shopping next! Apollo rampage mango papa wolf and I headed into town whilst the others showered and hung out! Had the most amazing Chinese buffet and headed back to the motel with freshly laundered clothes finally yay! It was great to have a chance to shower and catch up with the Olympics and sleep in a bed again ! I can't believe we all got caught out so badly by such horrific weather! Another shorter than expected day but great to hang out and relax with such an awesome group of people and be warm safe dry and smell okay again! :) x</span></span></span>Scott Willitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07626574276712579996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9046944633679629940.post-71435397469581748682012-08-01T09:28:00.002-04:002012-08-01T09:28:37.158-04:0026-27 July 2012<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17px;"><div>
<span>Thursday, 26 July, Day 16 AT v2.0, 0.0 miles, Telephone Pioneer Shelter. By Crocadilly - After the high of yesterday we woke up to a massive low! We set up camp in the shelter last night due to the threat of rain and the fact it was quite late by the time we arrived! I was so tired I didn't have anything more for dinner other than a cereal bar! It was all i could do to pretend I felt awesome in front of a load of south bounders who were great fun and get myself into bed! Every muscle ached as you would expect having lugged 34lbs on your back for the first time 18.8 (including deli detour) miles up and down hills! But I was happy! Even though my much needed sleep as ever was interrupted by feeling hungry, the aching muscles, the puppies stirring and snuggling on me (which i love) and snoring and rain! But as ever it doesn't matter you wake raring to go!!! But when we woke up this morning and got moving it was soon clear Skye had a serious issue... he was limping. He was fine when he went to bed although he had taken a tumble getting into the shelter so must have damaged his paw or leg... but there was nothing visible. Which was more worrying than finding a visible cut! The south bounders we had a fun night with packed up and left, leaving us pondering what to do! Do we stay and hope a day off the paw is all he needs, do we travel 0.7 miles to the nearest road and try to hitch to the nearest vet or try and go the three miles with him to the nearest store and get a motel room / ride from there? We decided to stay put which was hard since the weather was so nice (at times like these you hope for rain so it makes staying put seem more worth while) plus we had little to no cell coverage so no chance to call anyone ,read or do the blog! I slept most of the day! Actually it was a restless day and I had too much to think about which was not good. We did have some good banter with a bunch of great German guys who came through and old smoke turned up! Later in the afternoon more hikers came through and I finally got to meet blah blah and a couple of other chaps Scott has said so much about! With them came the news that there was a tornado and storm watch.... They were headed three miles to shelter where Rampage and Mango and their dog would be. They are a great couple who Scott had told me loads about! Mango is driving with their dog sammy and following her fiancé rampage as he hikes with a group of great guys! I couldn't wait to meet them! Scott was itching to meet up with everyone again and we were hoping some would stay at the shelter with the storm not far off! What were we going to do? We tried calling a motor lodge but got no answer and worried with the impending threat of the storm approaching decided to stay safe in the shelter watching blah blah, old smoke, Apollo, etc head off down to civilization leaving us alone. Which was just aswell because in a five minute period where Scott managed to get service we found out said motor lodge which took pets only had two rooms which were both occupied for the approaching apocalypse! So we stayed.. On the top of a tree lined mountain by ourselves. We readied ourselves for the impending storm and had just packed up our dinner things and hauled the dogs into the three sided shelter when the sky went this horrible yellow colour and the wind suddenly whipped through the trees! You could feel the storm physically coming! Apparently from the valley below where everybody else was clustered the clouds that rolled in were reminiscent of those from the movie independence day! The loudest crack of thunder I have ever heard followed the winds that you could feel being sucked down the mountain face and then a rainstorm ensued! The storm was pretty impressive for about ten mins and me loving storms I was braced and ready to watch it for hours! It was soon apparent thankfully for us that we were not to receive the brunt of it...which apart from a safety point of view was a little disappointing!! At this point we were subjected to a continuous rain and the rumble of the storm in the distance and it was chilly and dark and then I realized it was only 1930!!!! So I tried to go to sleep!!! Would we wake up to find ourselves the sole survivors of some early apocalyptic doom? Would skye bounce out of the shelter in the morning? Would my leg muscles ever forgive me for hiking so far or get used to the fact that would not be the only time i would push them?! </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">Friday, 27 July, Day 17 AT v2.0, 13.7 miles, Stealth Campsite near Bulls Bridge CT </span><span>:) meeting up with old friends...Well what a crap storm that turned out to be! And I say that in the lightest of tones and with thankfulness because i know Elmira and other towns in the state of new York and surrounding states were not so lucky and suffered some quite catastrophic damage. As exciting as it seems to be to watch a storm knowing you are relatively safe on the trail things can go bad and even with a solid house roof over your head such a summer storm is something that should not be belittled. Relieved to wake up to sunshine, no storm, a fully recovered Skye, the furry babies bouncing around full of energy and I kid you not listening to a massive tree toppling and falling down a hill some distance away along the trail I think we were both somewhat relieved! It could have been so much worse and you know that being awoken to the sounds of chainsaws in the middle of the night does not bode well!! We enjoyed a coffee and a leisurely getting ready to leave the lovely shelter that had served us so well! We had a lovely easy walk the three miles to the railway station and garden center below us! We were met by blah blah and old smoke! It's funny everyone is relieved the storm wasn't as bad as anticipated but everyone is slightly disappointed! I finally got to meet rampage and mango and their dog who are all awesome! Mango offered to take Skye in the car to rest his leg one more day and slack pack us (we just carry basics like water and our packs are in the car = awesome!) mango also let Scott borrow the car to resupply and get yummy subs! :) I thoroughly enjoyed the ten or so miles we hiked bouncing along and taking pictures of the beautiful countryside! Life felt good and felt even better when it rained as I felt like I had a lovely fresh shower! Mojo loved running around without his pack but it was weird just having one dog with us! We came across some massive trees that had fallen across the trail during the storm. Obviously it had been worse than we thought. We passed the new York and connecticut border and a couple of other hikers including a fab guy called chocolate steak who Scott had told me all about! My first impressions of this new state we were hiking through - beautiful countryside but wow the amount of rubbish (trash) strewn everywhere and litter on the sides of the road was monumental. We passed through an obviously well used state park and piles of bin bags were under a sign saying carry in carry out your trash...disappointing! But what was awesome was meeting up with and stealth camping with beers around a camp fire with a great bunch of people... Rampage, mango, chocolate steak, Franklinstein, Apollo, Blah Blah and Ambassador and of course our dogs and Sammy! All old acquaintances of Scott! Skye had obviously enjoyed his down day travelling in the car and the two boys were overjoyed to see each other when they were reunited after a few hours too!! We had a great evening...great day infact and I felt like I was getting a true picture of life on the trail as Scott had experienced before he had to leave! The only down point of the day apart from the trash was getting stung by a wasp when I was getting ready for bed! It took me ten minutes to kill the pesky critter!!! </span></div>
</span>Scott Willitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07626574276712579996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9046944633679629940.post-43136762918193311872012-08-01T09:02:00.000-04:002012-08-01T09:02:04.657-04:0025 July 2012<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">Wednesday, 25 July, Day 15 AT v2.0, 18.1 miles, Telephone Pioneer Shelter. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">Absolutely psyched - after what was a bit of a debacles yesterday i felt super psyched to complete my first big mileage day today and nothing was going to stop me! I woke up feeling great ... Shin splints gone ... A slight sprain in my left foot which thankfully is remedied it seems by putting my boots on and taking copious amounts of herbal remedies our wonderful neighbours supplied us with, pain relief and vitamins and icy hot gel ( I can barely put any pressure on my foot at this Point without my boots on but I never said anything and five days later finally typing this out I haven't admitted to actually the extent I think it may have been injured and the slight swelling but I looked after it well and that has been repaid in my being able to continue on!) We woke up the sun was shining, we slept well, we packed up quickly and were on our way before 9am which was awesome! We would have been out earlier but we got chatting with the guy from the night before, teepee Tommy and the caretaker who looks after this fabulous site! As I thought yesterday hiking the AT is so much more than putting one foot in front of the other! It is great to take the time to talk with others along the way!! Soon we were on the way and for once I felt like I was eating up the miles! It is amazing how as you get lost in thought especially through the how quickly the time goes. We measure how far we have gone using roads and other AT markers and I judge our distance travelled based on a thirty minute mile! I get spurred on by reaching these markers but more by meeting other people and hearing their stories as we go along! Just a few miles in we met a gentleman in his seventies possible even a bit older (this was quite early in the morning) - he had one of those sparkly twinkly older faces of someone who has had a wonderful adventurous life and a myriad of tales to tell and who you would love to spend an afternoon chatting with over a pint of ale or several in a pub ... he had some old style camping gear and looked like he was wearing a butchers style apron with bottles of water and various camping equipment spilling out of the front pockets. He walked with two beautiful whittled sticks and when he said he was section hiking the AT i was in awe. I figured on first meeting him he was probably out for a few hours and a local. When he said he was taking it slow today but wanted to get to bear mountain bridge i realized that was what had taken us two days hence to cover...it made me realise what a novice I really was! I could certainly pull an 18 mile day today If that elderly gentleman could cover what had taken us two days to cover in less than half the time and promised myself I would never give up!not less than a mile down the road we met a NYC fireman whose dream was to hike the AT on retiring.we spent a while talking with him and I began to wonder how anyone ever finishes what with all the questions you get asked as you pass people by ... But you know what i like it... Yes it gets tedious saying the same thing over again especially when it comes to going into further explanation if required about the break-in and Scott coming off the trail, me joining yadayadyada! But you know what knowing people care is amazing and chatting with so many people is fab and being wished well and being cared for along the trail is an experience! You get alot more questions with the dogs present and it is hard at times not to be irritated when you are going up hill or have a rhythm going in your step that you don't want to stop! But that is the trail and do you want to be that jack ass that never talks and just pushes north ... No thanks! It is fun meeting people and having these exchanges! But then I Am only a couple of weeks in! For me it is like freshers week at university! Lol! We stopped for lunch at a lovely little deli - it was a dive town but very friendly and the food was awesome! Unfortunately my stomach is not coping with non trail food for some reason! i can't eat anything off trail without significant consequences which Here was not good! The deli did not have a public bathroom and the guy in the pizza shop next door reiterated quite clearly the bathroom was for customers only in a rather unfriendly tone! I would have gladly bought anything to use it but he was just such an ass I decided to say screw it and suffer the 0.5 mile trek back to the AT trail in the woods rather than give him my money! I made it... Just!!! Today i just enjoyed it seemed pushing myself! I wanted to prove i could do the big miles and I wasnt going to let anything get in my way! The last three miles were painful! We hit a place called Nuclear lake - yep a site once devoted to nuclear energy or some other radiation based industry but now declared clean! By this point my feet were on fire and my thigh muscles felt like I had been in a twelve hour spinning class! I desperately wanted to see a sign saying yes please do camp Here... A masseuse and four course meal will be with you shortly! But no there were clear signs everywhere saying no camping, fires, swimming.. It might as well have said if you do so much as pause to take breath you will be shot! We did stop... Momentarily ...I needed to take my boots off to tell my feet I wasn't slowly killing them and have a snack! A fifteen minute stop did the trick! You could tell the area was well policed so camping was a nono! I thought the next three miles would be the longest of my life! I couldn't believe it when what seemed like mere moments later when Scott invaded my inner peace ( I couldnt at this point converse and walk at the same time my energy was spent which I made quite apparent when he tried to strike up a conversation half an hour before and got grunts in reply) all I heard was sweetie look and saw the most welcome sign pointing the way to the shelter! Just a mere 0.1 miles off the trail! I did it! I did my first big day and I did it good! I was so pleased I could have told the world and his wife but all we met was a bunch of amazing hikers who appreciated my first milestone but they are now doing twenty to thirty miles!!! So my 18 paled into comparison! Still I felt ruddy chuffed!! </span></span>Scott Willitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07626574276712579996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9046944633679629940.post-22341975850083822312012-07-31T22:31:00.001-04:002012-07-31T22:31:51.747-04:0024 July 2012 Day 14<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17px;"></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 17px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">Tuesday July 24th 2012, 9.4 miles, Shenandoah Tenting Area. By Crocadilly - </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">After a wonderful restful night at the sweetest smelling campsite so far we left the multitude of dragonflies behind and got on our way. For some reason regardless of how early we get up it always seems to be after ten by the time we get on the trail. This had us both annoyed this morning despite the good sunny weather, good health and a positive Long hike planned. After some discussion we decided we perhaps needed to reset the clock and planned lunch and a shorter day with relaxation planned for the afternoon! It got me thinking about the trail and the myriad of different ways you could approach it and how that could change your total experience of the .. Well I guess experience! For me I am determined to do as many miles as I can and I really want to reach Katahdin. It is a journey to get there and I know at times it will be tough and uncomfortable but there has to be balance and time to enjoy the experience which so far I am immensely. but without trying to sound cheesy enjoying and appreciating where you are, what you are doing and the people you meet. We have met one or two people whose challenge is to get to the finish as fast as possible. They are pulling massive mile days some doing as many as thirty plus. I couldnt do that mentally or physically. I always wonder as that would never be my ambition and( i have the utmost admiration for those that tackle this challenge in that way )what they get out of it other than the sense of achievement of finishing and finishing fast. They don't get to spend so much time with amazing new people or to sit and see the amazing vistas or visit the towns and enjoy the moments. For me already so much of what we have done is a blur and one moment stretches to another easily so imagine that happening at twice the speed?! I wouldn't be able to tell you any of the names of the people I have met or the places i have travelled through! But that is just me! So anyway we ended up doing a short day. And I ended up doing alot more thinking ... Even more than usual! We found another amazing little campsite about two pm. It was a well kept mowed open area with a couple of old buildings and was quiet and peaceful! I throughly enjoyed lying in the soft grass in the sunshine for the afternoon! A guy set up camp shortly after we arrived - he was taking his son camping for a few days so it was great fun talking with them and hearing about everyones plans! He seemed worried about bears / it took us a while to convince him that with the boys around</span></span></div>
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no bear would come near! We eventually even convinced him that it would be okay to leave his food supplies in our vestibule (Scott has had up to 15 food bags in the tent at any one time) - mental note to self cannot continue to do that when the boys are no longer hiking with us! Later in the evening i met my first south bounder who came and set up camp. He was a great character and played the didgereedoo (sp?!!) as the sun was going down! Awesome - can't believe he carries that around with him! Now is the time that we will start to cross the south bounders which will make the experience all the more interesting! </div>
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</span>Scott Willitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07626574276712579996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9046944633679629940.post-81690027939496480632012-07-24T16:58:00.000-04:002012-07-24T16:58:14.851-04:0023 July 2012Monday 23 July 2012, 12.3 miles Denny town road campsite. By Crocadilly. After a night snuggled in the tent listening to the storm passing through we got up to discover that miraculously everything had remained relatively dry! Little did we know that would not last too long! We had a great hike down from the campsite and continued on our merry way! despite putting some respectable miles in today, it was super uncomfortable weather wise - incredibly hot and humid - even Mojo and Skye seemed relatively lethargic probably much to the relief of the native chipmunks and Squirrels! You could feel storms in the air but they just didn't seem quite ready to unleash themselves! With every step I was wishing for rain it was so tough - I have never in my life sweated so much! Our water supplies could barely keep pace with the amount of liquids we were losing and we made a few stops in some beautiful countryside to replenish our stocks and give the boys a chance to cool down - any form of puddle, pond or stream Mojo finds he immediately pops himself into looking very pleased..his saddle bags normally buoyed like little flotation devices by his side! We had a fantastic much needed super lunch at a little place by the side of a road - we each had a grilled chicken bacon and cheese salad hero! Needless to say that did not make our post lunch progress any better but it was worth it! The last few miles of the day were tough going but we were somewhat pushed along quicker by a weather warning for storms in the area! I think we were all relieve when we came across the signs that the campground we were staying at was not too far ahead! We replenished our water and headed up a short hill to this beautiful camp ground in a clearing - it smelled so fragrant and there were the biggest most beautiful dragonflies just buzzing about everywhere! Idyllic! We set up camp in record time waiting for the storm which passed through as a real non event! Unfortunately though it remained humid for quite some time which meant a less than relaxing sleep in our sweat tent as I named it! :)Scott and Vicki...on the AThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09639786904438996161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9046944633679629940.post-51293222349716339762012-07-22T21:27:00.001-04:002012-07-22T21:27:19.422-04:0021-22 July Wonderful Weekend!
Sunday 22 July, Day 12 AT v2.0, 8.1 miles, Hemlock Springs Campsite. The musings of the Wild Crocadillypig 101.8 miles in, over 800 for Papa Wolf..ooh yeah! After An absolutely fantastic weekend with Russ, Allison and two very cool kids, we are back on the trail again today! We cannot thank them all enough for their wonderful hospitality, amazing food - steaks, seared tuna, crawfish, mozzarella, Italian sausage, chicken and my absolute favourite lamb steaks (possibly the most decadent trail food ever!) and copious beers, sodas, fresh water, comfy bed and SHOWERS galore! Plus just amazing company!! A wonderful, and dry, weekend! The boys had a great time playing with Jake and Robyn too :) and I got to rest my cankles and shin splint ! Yep I had not realised but I no longer have ankles since my feet and what used to be ankles swelled up so much! Lol!! So back on the trail we went today which also marked my passing the 100 mile barrier and Scott (papa wolf/ zip) just cinching in the 800 mile mark!! It's strange hiking this part of the country - I have to admit that this area and staying in Monroe has restored my faith in the state of new York! But it is quite busy - there is the constant sound of traffic and trains and other people! Today we passed through and over Bear Mountain which, being Sunday and glorious weather, was packed with weekenders having wonderful smelling picnics (yep I am still infatuated with food!) frolicking on the lake and enjoying the scenery- it had quite the central park feel to it - you do wish for the quiet and solitude of the normal trail - it doesn't really quite feel like you are hiking a trail as you aren't in the wilderness.the other problem is the significant amount of litter and especially broken glass along the trail. It is upsetting and also worrying for puppy paws. the boys got lots of stares and rockstar treatment by the masses as they passed through with their packs! Hiking along the main roads and across bear mountain bridge was interesting - discovered mojo does not like the noise or treading on metal grates! It was quite hairy at times! Oh we are in orange county chopper country so lots of very cool bikes! We climbed the trail to Anthony's nose and are currently camped out at Hemlock Springs campsite! The pack once again feels a little heavier and having to get back my hiking feet! At least my clothes smelt nice even if it was just for a few hours - yep my nicely washed clothes after just half a day hiking smell just as bad as they did before! Oh well!!!!! :) Scott Willitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07626574276712579996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9046944633679629940.post-78066063314401061612012-07-22T21:26:00.001-04:002012-07-22T21:26:46.880-04:0021-22 July Wonderful Weekend!Sunday 22 July, Day 12 AT v2.0, 8.1 miles, Hemlock Springs Campsite. The musings of the Wild Crocadillypig 101.8 miles in, over 800 for Papa Wolf..ooh yeah! After An absolutely fantastic weekend with Russ, Allison and two very cool kids, we are back on the trail again today! We cannot thank them all enough for their wonderful hospitality, amazing food - steaks, seared tuna, crawfish, mozzarella, Italian sausage, chicken and my absolute favourite lamb steaks (possibly the most decadent trail food ever!) and copious beers, sodas, fresh water, comfy bed and SHOWERS galore! Plus just amazing company!! A wonderful, and dry, weekend! The boys had a great time playing with Jake and Robyn too :) and I got to rest my cankles and shin splint ! Yep I had not realised but I no longer have ankles since my feet and what used to be ankles swelled up so much! Lol!! So back on the trail we went today which also marked my passing the 100 mile barrier and Scott (papa wolf/ zip) just cinching in the 800 mile mark!! It's strange hiking this part of the country - I have to admit that this area and staying in Monroe has restored my faith in the state of new York! But it is quite busy - there is the constant sound of traffic and trains and other people! Today we passed through and over Bear Mountain which, being Sunday and glorious weather, was packed with weekenders having wonderful smelling picnics (yep I am still infatuated with food!) frolicking on the lake and enjoying the scenery- it had quite the central park feel to it - you do wish for the quiet and solitude of the normal trail - it doesn't really quite feel like you are hiking a trail as you aren't in the wilderness.the other problem is the significant amount of litter and especially broken glass along the trail. It is upsetting and also worrying for puppy paws. the boys got lots of stares and rockstar treatment by the masses as they passed through with their packs! Hiking along the main roads and across bear mountain bridge was interesting - discovered mojo does not like the noise or treading on metal grates! It was quite hairy at times! Oh we are in orange county chopper country so lots of very cool bikes! We climbed the trail to Anthony's nose and are currently camped out at Hemlock Springs campsite! The pack once again feels a little heavier and having to get back my hiking feet! At least my clothes smelt nice even if it was just for a few hours - yep my nicely washed clothes after just half a day hiking smell just as bad as they did before! Oh well!!!!! :) Scott Willitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07626574276712579996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9046944633679629940.post-16170579779128975632012-07-22T21:12:00.001-04:002012-07-22T21:12:09.804-04:0020 July20 July, Day 10 AT v2.0, 8.1 miles, Schectman Household. By Crocadilly-Climbing in the rain! The musings of crocadillypig And So I begin again where i left off yesterday! RAIN and lashings of it! It rained all night and we woke to a torrential downpour wishing that rather than now having to deal with a soaking tent we had stayed in the shelter! There was no way to pack up keeping everything dry but we were buoyed by the prospect of spending the evening in the warmth and comfort of Scotts friends the Schectman's! (Who he hasn't seen since 1990 so at least we would be meeting the family smelling really bad and soaking wet! ) The going was pretty tough and I think we were both mindful of the potential to possibly hurt ourselves on such rocky terrain in such horrendous conditions so we did the only thing we could do and plugged along slowly and carefully measuring each careful footstep! I kept going by dreaming of Greek islands, sunshine, and thinking of films I love to watch in the rain! I actually enjoyed today more than yesterday and felt more sure footed! A soggy lunch was spent on top of a cooler full of trail angel water - ironic as we watched the torrents pour off everything! I was pleased we stopped for lunch for the extra energy as just a short time later we were facing the mother of all climbs up what can only be described as a rather high rock face which was near damn vertical! The sort where you definitely do not want to look down, and you certainly do not want to lose your hand or foot holds or want your pack to start pulling you backwards and off the cliff to a probable death or if you are lucky maybe just a couple of broken limbs! This time I kept my pack on - it was just too much to ask Scott to grab it and toss it upwards like he did for me yesterday! We each carried a dog pack as rightly so this was a little scary for them too and we did have to coax them up but they did it and they did it well! The feeling of elation reaching the top in the rain without so much as a slip was unbelievable! We soon were at a road where Russ could pick us up! Stopping was torture as we were soaked right through and the cold was getting to us! I have never been so grateful to meet someone new in my whole entire life! What a lovely man - I hugged him hard hahha which must have been incredibly unpleasant for him! It was then we discovered we were meant to have met him on The road where the cooler Was three miles back where we had lunch - the road just before scaling the vertical precipice! Oh well!! Back at the house I had the best and most welcome shower i think i have ever had in my life! Followed by clean warm fragrant smelling clothes, proper coffee, beer (yep made it about three hours!) and food! Unbelievable welcome and a gorgeous family! An incredibly pleasant evening unfolded before us and it was lovely to meet such wonderful people! And sleep in a real bed :) Scott Willitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07626574276712579996noreply@blogger.com0