I'm in Hannover, on the Dartmouth campus, and I might never leave. I miss college? The miles have been going quickly the past bit, but we're about to hit the Whites, and they will slow us down. The terrain has been getting rougher for the past few days and doing 20 miles a day is much harder than it was a little while ago. The spirits are doing well though.
And I think I'm too tired to say much else right now.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Saturday, July 18, 2009
The Birdcage
So, I'm in Dalton, Massachussetts right now; the states have been flying by. Walked thirty-four (34) miles yesterday and am taking a break at the Birdcage. A man from Dalton, Ron, started taking in hikers five or six years ago, and he has basically turned his home into a hiker retreat. Free stay, he'll offer to slack pack people, and he often buys the beer. Really great guy, and he gets as much from it as we do (so says he), so it all works out great. Only skeezy thing about it is that he doesn't advertise, so hikers spread news about it by word of mouth. When we were approaching Dalton, we were told to "Go to the Shell station and ask for Ron." I proposed that a couple of us rub some powdered milk in our mustaches and act all whacked out, "Hey, I need to speak to Rob, man." Anyways.
So I've been hiking with three other guys for the past week or so, and we've been making good miles and having a good time. This section of the hike is sometimes referred to as the "deli-to-deli section" as you hit town at least once every day. So, there has been much gorging and much beer and still lots of hiking. The AT is not a wilderness experience. But it is an adventure.
Several nights ago, we slept on the porch of a garden center. Then, in Kent, we met a guy about our age in a supermarket who offered to let us stay at his dad's place. He showed us around his place, showed us his woodworking projects, made us a big pot of pasta, and let us burn a bunch of scrap wood for a campfire. By the way, this is not a good trail for recovering alcoholics. Next day we woke up late and decided to hike up the road instead of hitching back to the trail where we left it. Found out the railroad tracks paralleled the road, so we walked those until a guy drove up and threatened legal action unless we bushwhacked our way back to the road immediately. Then hiked along the road to a deli, split a half gallon of ice cream and then walked up mountains for a while. That night, we were along a road and a couple offered to go get pizza for us, so we sat, listened to the Postal Service and Arcade Fire, ate pizza, and hung out for a while. There was more, but memory fades. I need to get better at journaling more often.
The terrain further north is getting much better...in the sense of more interesting, challenging, fun to hike. Big mountains are coming up, and everyone is getting excited for it. There are only (?) 600 miles left, so things are winding down. At times, I wish there were fewer, as I'm somewhat ready to go home, see old friends, fall into the old routine, to really rest for a while, but I have a feeling I might have gotten a bug that will be hard to cure. Watching TV is a really weird experience for us thru-hikers; I feel even more estranged from the target audience that is our society than before. Time will tell, as they say.
Also, the guys I am hiking with have taken to calling me "Possum" as, apparently, I am disgusting and somewhate rodent-like?
Anyways, as Bertie Wooster might say, Tinkerty-tonk!
So I've been hiking with three other guys for the past week or so, and we've been making good miles and having a good time. This section of the hike is sometimes referred to as the "deli-to-deli section" as you hit town at least once every day. So, there has been much gorging and much beer and still lots of hiking. The AT is not a wilderness experience. But it is an adventure.
Several nights ago, we slept on the porch of a garden center. Then, in Kent, we met a guy about our age in a supermarket who offered to let us stay at his dad's place. He showed us around his place, showed us his woodworking projects, made us a big pot of pasta, and let us burn a bunch of scrap wood for a campfire. By the way, this is not a good trail for recovering alcoholics. Next day we woke up late and decided to hike up the road instead of hitching back to the trail where we left it. Found out the railroad tracks paralleled the road, so we walked those until a guy drove up and threatened legal action unless we bushwhacked our way back to the road immediately. Then hiked along the road to a deli, split a half gallon of ice cream and then walked up mountains for a while. That night, we were along a road and a couple offered to go get pizza for us, so we sat, listened to the Postal Service and Arcade Fire, ate pizza, and hung out for a while. There was more, but memory fades. I need to get better at journaling more often.
The terrain further north is getting much better...in the sense of more interesting, challenging, fun to hike. Big mountains are coming up, and everyone is getting excited for it. There are only (?) 600 miles left, so things are winding down. At times, I wish there were fewer, as I'm somewhat ready to go home, see old friends, fall into the old routine, to really rest for a while, but I have a feeling I might have gotten a bug that will be hard to cure. Watching TV is a really weird experience for us thru-hikers; I feel even more estranged from the target audience that is our society than before. Time will tell, as they say.
Also, the guys I am hiking with have taken to calling me "Possum" as, apparently, I am disgusting and somewhate rodent-like?
Anyways, as Bertie Wooster might say, Tinkerty-tonk!
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Hoowwwdeee from Palmerston, PA
Well, I've crossed the Mason-Dixon line a little over a week ago, and I haven't had sweet tea in that same time. Nor a shower. Nor have I updated the blog in a while. Well, we all do without.
I'm sitting here in the library in Palmerston, PA...the PERFECT hiker town. Absolutely wonderful. It's a nice quiet town without much traffic and just one main strip with all the shops, so everything is walkable. The town center lets hikers stay and shower for free!! Well, I guess you can tell that I'm excited to be here. I've been in a funk for the past few days. I think the excitement of crossing the halfway point has worn into the realization...dear god, I've got a thousand more miles to hike. Am trying to push on. Soon enough, I'll hit the point where sheer stubborness will win through. But, as always, it's not all bad. I picked up a free book here at the library...A Pilgrim at Tinker's Creek by Annie Dillard. I happened to cross over Tinker's Creek a few hundred miles ago, so it will be interesting reading about it, plus she's a pretty good writer. Also, Sarah Marcum, if you happen to read this, she mentions a book that I thought you would like, "Space and Sight" by Marius von Senden who describes the experiences of people who gained sight after cataract surgery became a possibility. I think an obscure book, but it looks fascinating.
Right, so, I have 60 days left to hike if I am going to get done by the first of September and 940ish miles to go. That's about 16 miles a day without taking any days off. Hopefully, I'll average about 20 miles a day and earn a day off every four days. That, I think, will be key to keeping the spirits up. I'm going to try not to do the math very often, though and just run with it, take it as it comes, else It'll dominate my hike, my mood, etc.
A brief recap? Why not...
So, since I last wrote, I've gotten in to DC. I pushed rather hard to get there and get there before the 10:30 train left, and I had a mini breakdown as I was night hiking to Harper's Ferry. It was about eleven, and I thought I'd been making good time and passed Crescent Rock early on, only to discover that, about an hour later, I was just then passing Crescent Rock, and I still had 17 miles to go to town. Not only that, I had left one of the neatest hostels on the trail, stocked with a couple of friends, to get into town. Well, already sleep deprived, I was about to give up, and I lay down for a nap. But woke up two hours later and decided to give it another go and get seven miles out of the way. I ended up getting about 11 miles from H. Ferry before passing out again for another three hours, then making a death march into town from 6-9:30 that morning. About the hardest thing I've ever done. And the train was late by like an hour and a half. Bah.
But getting in to DC was great, as was seeing Andres and Veronica, who were both gracious hosts. I only wish I had come on a weekend. Besides the city, it was neat to see their relationship...it's really the first functional, adult relationship I've gotten to see among my friends (I sure hope I'm not unintentionally offending anyone with that remark). Anyway, they are both looking after each other, struggling a little with life after school, maybe, but building a life for themselves in the city. Neat.
Alright, so my manic writing mood/muse has departed, so I'm going to fill in a bit more later. After some food. Lots of food.
I'm sitting here in the library in Palmerston, PA...the PERFECT hiker town. Absolutely wonderful. It's a nice quiet town without much traffic and just one main strip with all the shops, so everything is walkable. The town center lets hikers stay and shower for free!! Well, I guess you can tell that I'm excited to be here. I've been in a funk for the past few days. I think the excitement of crossing the halfway point has worn into the realization...dear god, I've got a thousand more miles to hike. Am trying to push on. Soon enough, I'll hit the point where sheer stubborness will win through. But, as always, it's not all bad. I picked up a free book here at the library...A Pilgrim at Tinker's Creek by Annie Dillard. I happened to cross over Tinker's Creek a few hundred miles ago, so it will be interesting reading about it, plus she's a pretty good writer. Also, Sarah Marcum, if you happen to read this, she mentions a book that I thought you would like, "Space and Sight" by Marius von Senden who describes the experiences of people who gained sight after cataract surgery became a possibility. I think an obscure book, but it looks fascinating.
Right, so, I have 60 days left to hike if I am going to get done by the first of September and 940ish miles to go. That's about 16 miles a day without taking any days off. Hopefully, I'll average about 20 miles a day and earn a day off every four days. That, I think, will be key to keeping the spirits up. I'm going to try not to do the math very often, though and just run with it, take it as it comes, else It'll dominate my hike, my mood, etc.
A brief recap? Why not...
So, since I last wrote, I've gotten in to DC. I pushed rather hard to get there and get there before the 10:30 train left, and I had a mini breakdown as I was night hiking to Harper's Ferry. It was about eleven, and I thought I'd been making good time and passed Crescent Rock early on, only to discover that, about an hour later, I was just then passing Crescent Rock, and I still had 17 miles to go to town. Not only that, I had left one of the neatest hostels on the trail, stocked with a couple of friends, to get into town. Well, already sleep deprived, I was about to give up, and I lay down for a nap. But woke up two hours later and decided to give it another go and get seven miles out of the way. I ended up getting about 11 miles from H. Ferry before passing out again for another three hours, then making a death march into town from 6-9:30 that morning. About the hardest thing I've ever done. And the train was late by like an hour and a half. Bah.
But getting in to DC was great, as was seeing Andres and Veronica, who were both gracious hosts. I only wish I had come on a weekend. Besides the city, it was neat to see their relationship...it's really the first functional, adult relationship I've gotten to see among my friends (I sure hope I'm not unintentionally offending anyone with that remark). Anyway, they are both looking after each other, struggling a little with life after school, maybe, but building a life for themselves in the city. Neat.
Alright, so my manic writing mood/muse has departed, so I'm going to fill in a bit more later. After some food. Lots of food.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Roller Coasters
It's amazing how quickly fortunes and moods can change out here. My mood will vary from minute to minute depending on the terrain sometimes or hour to hour depending on whether I'm eating enough or day to day depending on weather, people, or I don't know what.
The day before yesterday was one of the hardest I've had on the trail. It had been raining off and on for several days, the trail was rough, I hadn't eaten enough, and I had kinda been ditched (not really, but I was hiking alone) by the people I had been hiking with for a while, and I had lost my headlamp. But, the weather cleared off, I got a ride into town, had a great AYCE meal, met the people I had been chasing all day, and got a good dry place for the night. The next day, I had an easy hike over good terrain, saw several people I hadn't seen in a while, picked up two hitches real easily, found the guy with my headlamp, helped return a tent to a hiking buddy I had passed on the trail, and he bought me a burger and a coke. (Wish I had time to flesh this out better and more clearly)
The weather was beautiful, and the views were great from Mckafee Knob and Tinker Cliffs. I tried to cowboy camp (camp without setting up tent or getting in a shelter) on the top of the cliffs and watch the sunrise to cap off a wonderful day, but then a storm rolled in at 3:00 in the morning last night, and I had to pack up and race down to a shelter crowded with Boy Scouts, cram into a spot, only to have a leak spring right above my head and drip on my sleeping bag. Then the scouts got up at 5:30 in the morning and made noise until they left around 8:30. But they made up for it by giving me beef jerkey, pop tarts, oreos, and some trail food, and the scout leader was very friendly. And today I had a really nice 9 mile stroll into town, had some good conversation along the way, and there was cold beer sitting at the trail head. And since then, I've been eating pizza and ice cream, drinking beer, and sitting in the sun by the pool with some guys I've been hiking with for the past few days. Sometimes, life is good.
The day before yesterday was one of the hardest I've had on the trail. It had been raining off and on for several days, the trail was rough, I hadn't eaten enough, and I had kinda been ditched (not really, but I was hiking alone) by the people I had been hiking with for a while, and I had lost my headlamp. But, the weather cleared off, I got a ride into town, had a great AYCE meal, met the people I had been chasing all day, and got a good dry place for the night. The next day, I had an easy hike over good terrain, saw several people I hadn't seen in a while, picked up two hitches real easily, found the guy with my headlamp, helped return a tent to a hiking buddy I had passed on the trail, and he bought me a burger and a coke. (Wish I had time to flesh this out better and more clearly)
The weather was beautiful, and the views were great from Mckafee Knob and Tinker Cliffs. I tried to cowboy camp (camp without setting up tent or getting in a shelter) on the top of the cliffs and watch the sunrise to cap off a wonderful day, but then a storm rolled in at 3:00 in the morning last night, and I had to pack up and race down to a shelter crowded with Boy Scouts, cram into a spot, only to have a leak spring right above my head and drip on my sleeping bag. Then the scouts got up at 5:30 in the morning and made noise until they left around 8:30. But they made up for it by giving me beef jerkey, pop tarts, oreos, and some trail food, and the scout leader was very friendly. And today I had a really nice 9 mile stroll into town, had some good conversation along the way, and there was cold beer sitting at the trail head. And since then, I've been eating pizza and ice cream, drinking beer, and sitting in the sun by the pool with some guys I've been hiking with for the past few days. Sometimes, life is good.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Pearisburg, Va.
Virginia has been great so far, but the rain came this morning, and a group of us have stopped and are having a zero. Up till today, I've had a week and several days without rain, and the weather has been pretty cool for the most part. The few views that we've had have been fantastic; everything is green now, green and wonderful. Have seen several deer and a badger but no bears yet ;/ Staying tonight at the Rendezvous Motel. Will push on tomorrow, rain or no, and head for Catawba, where I've been told is some real good country cooking.
I'm sitting here in a library at the moment, and it of all things is making me think about home more than I have in a long while. I'm seeing lots of books and authors that were all around the bookstore (noticed that the new Ludlum/Lusteberger book is now out in paperback), and, it being a rainy day, I am somewhat pining to sit inside on a sofa and read a book.
Out here, life has no narration. While we are all on our way to Katahdin, how we get there, how long it takes, and so many of the things in between are unscripted, and I find myself pining for stories, something with characters, heroes, plot. I suppose these are things I naturally long for and usually find fulfilled through books, news, community but have just not found to the same degree out here. No books, no news, no steady community (but great people), just wilderness, a trail, and a destination. Wonder if I will find myself pining for this situation when I have it reversed.
Well, I'm over a quarter of the way there. 625 miles. I'm hoping to finish by the middle of August (maybe summit Katahdin on my bday), and then there is a canoe route just north of Katahdin I think I would like to check out, and we'll see after that (I'll come home eventually, Mom).
Veronica just sent me a wonderful video for Queen lovers: http://vimeo.com/1531870 which I've been listening to over and over. I miss music, too.
I'm sitting here in a library at the moment, and it of all things is making me think about home more than I have in a long while. I'm seeing lots of books and authors that were all around the bookstore (noticed that the new Ludlum/Lusteberger book is now out in paperback), and, it being a rainy day, I am somewhat pining to sit inside on a sofa and read a book.
Out here, life has no narration. While we are all on our way to Katahdin, how we get there, how long it takes, and so many of the things in between are unscripted, and I find myself pining for stories, something with characters, heroes, plot. I suppose these are things I naturally long for and usually find fulfilled through books, news, community but have just not found to the same degree out here. No books, no news, no steady community (but great people), just wilderness, a trail, and a destination. Wonder if I will find myself pining for this situation when I have it reversed.
Well, I'm over a quarter of the way there. 625 miles. I'm hoping to finish by the middle of August (maybe summit Katahdin on my bday), and then there is a canoe route just north of Katahdin I think I would like to check out, and we'll see after that (I'll come home eventually, Mom).
Veronica just sent me a wonderful video for Queen lovers: http://vimeo.com/1531870 which I've been listening to over and over. I miss music, too.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Atkins, Va.
Well, the internet has been scarce out here (and sometimes expensive when you find it. I'm paying 5.00 for 30 minutes, but the people at the gas station here are awesome and doing their best to cater to hikers, so I think it's justifiable.), but so have showers, laundry, and various other important things (I'm washing my clothes for the first time in about two weeks.).
For the past few weeks, the hiking has been pretty good. There was a week long stretch of rain, but that is over, and I've been enjoying sunshine and good views through the Grayson Highland area and thereabouts. And I've run into a bunch of great people, but it's proven difficult to keep everyone together with injuries, family emergencies, and different paces. Oh well, it at least helps to know they are out there and to run into them from time to time. My crew for the past bit has been Big Tuna, Red Lion, Hardcore, Moe!, Rocket (i.e. (Snot Rocket)), and Lucky Joe. Interesting names, pretty good assortment of people.
I promised to try not to do stream-of-consciousness-blogging, but given the conditions and the amount of stuff I could say, it's really hard not to. I hope to get pictures up sometime and to show off the beard, but it will take some doing to get that done. But I do have one question for you...I know I made a vow to not shave the beard until I crested Katahdin, but am I allowed to trim it? Right now, the whiskers of the mustache are beginning to creep down in front of the lip, and I've gotten ketchup and other savory bits mixed up in it already. Am I allowed to trim this area, or do I have to buy wax and work out some handlebars? I will take your comments in mind.
No bears yet. Some raw spots on feet but no blisters. More tan than ever...really bad farmer's tan. Still smelly after shower.
Alright, enough for now.
For the past few weeks, the hiking has been pretty good. There was a week long stretch of rain, but that is over, and I've been enjoying sunshine and good views through the Grayson Highland area and thereabouts. And I've run into a bunch of great people, but it's proven difficult to keep everyone together with injuries, family emergencies, and different paces. Oh well, it at least helps to know they are out there and to run into them from time to time. My crew for the past bit has been Big Tuna, Red Lion, Hardcore, Moe!, Rocket (i.e. (Snot Rocket)), and Lucky Joe. Interesting names, pretty good assortment of people.
I promised to try not to do stream-of-consciousness-blogging, but given the conditions and the amount of stuff I could say, it's really hard not to. I hope to get pictures up sometime and to show off the beard, but it will take some doing to get that done. But I do have one question for you...I know I made a vow to not shave the beard until I crested Katahdin, but am I allowed to trim it? Right now, the whiskers of the mustache are beginning to creep down in front of the lip, and I've gotten ketchup and other savory bits mixed up in it already. Am I allowed to trim this area, or do I have to buy wax and work out some handlebars? I will take your comments in mind.
No bears yet. Some raw spots on feet but no blisters. More tan than ever...really bad farmer's tan. Still smelly after shower.
Alright, enough for now.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)