26-27 July 2012

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?! 

Friday, 27 July, Day 17 AT v2.0, 13.7 miles, Stealth Campsite near Bulls Bridge CT :) 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!!! 

25 July 2012

Wednesday, 25 July, Day 15 AT v2.0, 18.1 miles, Telephone Pioneer Shelter. 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!! 

24 July 2012 Day 14

Tuesday July 24th 2012, 9.4 miles, Shenandoah Tenting Area. By Crocadilly - 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

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! 

23 July 2012

Monday 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! :)

21-22 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!!!!! :) 

21-22 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!!!!! :) 

20 July

20 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 :)