Mountains Under Foot

Hi MUFaddicts,

We’re finally back at it after taking a little holiday, my only one this summer. Myrtle Beach was lovely, but now it’s back to updating the blog. I’ve posted Hazard’s journal entries from Days 82-88 (through August 5th). He only just sent them to me as he was having issues with his iPod as well as trying to type out his notes with his bum hand. I spoke to him last Wednesday and he mention that he was really far behind on his journal entries because of his hand issue as well as them not having WiFi access. Things may start to get very sporadic from here on out, but I will endeavor to keep this blog and you all updated as much as I can… I will begin to post more photos in the next couple of days, hopefully catching them up to the current journal entries. We had a bit of a photo glitch when Hazard left his camera battery and charger in NYC, but thankfully Sara sent them to him so we should be good to go now photo-wise.

So, I basically wanted to let everyone know that we haven’t bailed on you, we’re just catching our breath and we’ll be back at it in full force buy the end of the weekend… Well on my end at least, but I cannot speak for our illustrious AT heroes, Hazard and Spoon… (and their new comrade, Croc) This blog is really driven by them, I am just the messenger…

More soon!

K

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 88: August 5, 2009
Travel:
From: Mt. Wilcox North Lean-to, MA
To: Lee, MA
Beginning: 9:00am
Ending: 4:00pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 15.6
b) other – .3 back to trail, wanderings around town.
c) AT Mile Marker – 1539.8 cumulative
Weather:
AM: Overcast. Clouds rolled in last night trapping heat. Thus, mosquitoes all night.
PM: Sunny and nice.
People: Photographer that gave us a hitch to town, Post Office lady that told me to take my stitches out myself.
Animals: Mosquitoes!
Money: $20 resupply, $30 hotel room at the Pilgrim Inn, $15 dinner at Athena’s. $1642 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: So that night sucked. There are few things worse on the trail than not sleeping. Thankfully we were headed into town and there was only one big uphill. We all sort of zombie walked down the trail today. After only a few miles we stopped at a grassy overlook that surprisingly didn’t have mosquitoes. I think we sat up there for the better part of an hour. The motivation to leave and start hiking again was severely lacking. The rest of the day was kind of a blur.

PM: We stopped to eat at Goose Pond Road and we sat down just off the road in the grass. Then some lady comes out of her house and yells at us to move off her property to keep the dog from barking. So we moved literally 10 feet over to make her happy. If you live that close to the AT and hate hikers you should move and let someone who loves us live there. After leaving the road the trail came up on Goose Pond and skirted around one side of it then to a side trail to the cabin. From there we could hear the highway that would take us to town and I was excited to get off the trail. We were lucky to get a ride right away from a guy taking pictures near the highway. He dropped us off at the Price Chopper and we walked over to the post office to grab our packages. My camera battery and charger was waiting for me along with three rice crispy treats from Starbucks courtesy of Sara. Thanks Sara! Another package from Tyben was there as well packed to the brim with snacks and jokes that made us say “wow!”. We hit up the grocery store and then went to find a hotel room. Showers were had by all and then it was time for dinner. We ate at a place called Athena’s down the road and then came back for ice cream and lying in front of the TV. One well deserved night of rest followed.

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 87: August 4, 2009
Travel:
From: The Hemlocks Lean-to, MA
To: Mt. Wilcox North Lean-to, MA
Beginning: 8:00am
Ending: 5:30pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 21.5
b) other – .3 to Wilcox shelter
c) AT Mile Marker – 1524.2 cumulative
Weather:
AM & PM: Sunny and blue skies
People: Ladies at the Dolls and Dwellings, West.
Animals: Mosquitoes!
Money: $3 on snacks at D&D, $1582 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: Slow to get out of camp this morning as we were the last ones to leave besides Goose and his girl who came in late and tented. We had a really steep downhill from Jug End to the road. From there it was an easy, flat walk across the valley between the two mountain ranges. The mosquitoes were awful down in the lower elevation and it was a hard fought battle to try and keep them off. We made a stop at US 7 because we heard of a place that had snacks and water for hikers in a shop called Dolls & Dwellings. We sat in the gazebo and enjoyed homemade brownies and cold drinks for awhile before moving on down the trail.

PM: Rest of the day was spent climbing mountains that seemed to not have peaks. I also spent much of my time fighting with my boot to keep it together, but that was another losing battle. We decided to stop at Mt Wilcox North instead of pushing on since we needed to stop in Lee tomorrow. We met West at the shelter and had a relaxed evening. Goose and his girl came in late again and pitched their tent away from the shelter. Then the mosquitoes got horrible. There was no escape and another awful night without sleep was underway.

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 86: August 3, 2009
Travel:
From: Salisbury, CT
To: The Hemlocks Lean-to, MA
Beginning: 11:00am
Ending: 6:30pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 14.1
b) other – .4 to trail
c) AT Mile Marker – 1502.7 cumulative
Weather:
AM & PM: Complete 180 from the previous day before. Sunny and warm, clear skies.
People: Rocky, Some SOBOs that graduated from UNC hiking with an old guy and Gozer.
Animals: Chipmunk throw down on Bear Mountain. Mouse.
Money: $25 for the Inn, $15 for breakfast. $1579 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: What an awesome night sleep. I really didn’t want to leave that bed. I called Lowa and told them about my boot falling apart and I arranged new boots to be shipped to Cheshire, MA. We packed our stuff up and checked out of the room. We walked with Rocky down to where all the restaurants were and she stopped in the coffee shop while we went back to The Bistro. I had some killer Eggs Florentine while reading the NY Times. The iPod was passed around to check emails and Spoon called up Tarptent to order a tent to replace the hammock system that wasn’t working. On our way out of town we noticed Rocky was just ahead of us and as we passed her I noticed she engaged each of us in conversation, but it wasn’t long before we had passed her. I hung back and chatted for awhile but eventually I had to speed up or else be left far behind. It seemed such a shame to leave such a nice and friendly person in the dust.

PM: All throughout the hike I felt really good about being on the trail. It had probably been weeks since I last felt this energized to be out here. I remember thinking to myself that days like this one were the reason why I wanted to hike the AT. The weather was perfect and we had a couple challenging climbs that ended with fantastic views. Bear Mountain was the first we climbed up which had a stone monument that we sat on top of while enjoy some lunch. The CT/MA state line was .7 north so it was exciting to change states finally as CT was not kind to us. We had Race Mountain and Mt. Everett to conquer before descending to the shelter for that night. Gozer was there without Fancypant because he took a zero at the campsite where I had last seen him. A couple SOBOs that graduated from UNC came and we had a good time ’smack’ talking each other. You win a couple of national championships and you think you are the greatest thing since sliced bread…pfft. I crawled up into the loft early while some of the others made a fire for the first time in about a month. My iPod wouldn’t turn on again so I got to read some of ‘The Time Machine’ that Cat had sent in my care package. Thanks Cat!

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 85: August 2, 2009
Travel:
From: Belter’s Campsite, CT
To: Salisbury, CT
Beginning: 8:00am
Ending: 1:00pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 10.5
b) other – .4 to town
c) AT Mile Marker – 1488.6 cumulative
Weather:
AM: Rain! After no sleep, this was intolerable.
PM: Overcast but the rain had let up.
People: Rocky
Animals: None once we got into town.
Money: $10 for lunch, $15 for dinner. $1539 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: I came out of whatever subconscious state I might have been slipping in and out of all night and felt pretty awful. Without any recovery I was weak and sore and certainly not motivated to hike. We ate and packed up then headed down to the nearby road for a long, long, road walk. It was actually a detour from the normal trail for some reason and we ended up on the other side of the hydroelectric plant which had a spigot for water. I just said forget it to refilling my water and we moved on down the trail which lead us to the Great Falls and shortly after some Trail Magic. Sodas and a gallon of water were laid out for us hikers so we had a short break before continuing. Then it started to rain.

PM: After walking in the rain and fighting off legions of mosquitoes on top of no sleep it was time to think of an exit strategy. When I caught up to the guys waiting at the road I told them, “I can think of a million reasons to go into town, but only one to keep hiking.” With that it was settled and we walked into town, but not without first getting dumped on as the sky made sure we were soaked before getting in to town. We had lunch at The Bistro which really ended up being breakfast foods. Afterwards, I called around for places to stay and the cheapest was White Hart Inn so we walked over and got a room. We all showered and then lounged around watching bad movies on TNT (MIB2) while I tried working on my journal which I am so hopelessly far behind on. The guys awoke from their naps ready for food so we headed out again and got just past the lawn of the Inn before we met Rocky. She was sitting on the ground trying to figure out what to do. She had walked over 20 miles today in the rain and was looking for a place to stay so we offered a spot in our room granted she split it with us 4 ways. She agreed, I tossed her a key and we made our way back to the center of town. Being a Sunday and after 6pm absolutely nothing was open, so we headed back to the Inn where there was a restaurant serving overpriced bar food. Our waiter was less than cordial to us and acted dumbfounded when we asked about items on the menu. Spoon asked about how large the burger was and our server replied, “Well, it’s larger than a McDonald’s burger.” I quickly retorted, “Well we wouldn’t really know how big a McDonald’s burger is.” He was either talking down to us because we were hikers or he was a massive idiot. Regardless, I got the French Dip and it was tasty. After dinner, I spent time uploading pictures via a computer behind the reception desk and then went back to the room to pass out.

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 84: August 1, 2009
Travel:
From: Kent, CT
To: Belter’s Campsite, CT
Beginning: 9:30am
Ending: 8:30pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 22.2
b) other
c) AT Mile Marker – 1478.1 cumulative
Weather:
AM & PM: Beautiful sunny day
People: Joy, her partner Tim(?), Rio, Fancypants and Gozer again.
Animals: Mosquitoes! Argh!
Money: $0, $1514 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: Got up early, Joy had some toast ready for us and we had to get packed up fast so we could get a ride back to the trail. Tim let us make a quick stop for Ramen and smokes then dropped us off. We climbed over the fence into a cow pasture where we were greeted by a lone cow that seemed to charge right for us. As the trail turned upward into the mountains the cow was still chasing after me. It wasn’t until the trail got steep and rocky before the cow gave up his/her chase. (Hazard, you should know the difference between a ‘girl’ cow and a ‘boy’ cow…)

PM: Just after lunch we came up to Guinea Brook which was a raging stream at this point. There was a detour labeled in the book, but we decided to take off our boots put on our Crocs and forded the brook. The walk across the water was ice cold and the water came up to our thighs in one part. After getting everything back on our feet and filtering some water to drink, we got back to hiking. Something about that cold water rushing over my feet really refreshed them. Later on down the trail I ran into Gozer who said Fancypants was just ahead, but had injured his foot on the rocks crossing Guinea Brook. When I caught up to him he told me it was pretty bad and they would probably stop at the campsite just ahead. I was going on to the next campsite 3-4 miles ahead. When I got there Spoon and Croc were already set up and said they had been there for at least 45 minutes. My bum hand is really slowing me down. The mosquitoes were just awful here and I was hoping they would die down after dark. I rolled my sleeping bag out under Crocs tarp and Spoon retired to his hammock. No sleep, however, was to be had that night. Thanks mosquitoes…