Mountains Under Foot

PM: While we stuffed ourselves with cinnamon-raisin bagels with Nutella a hiker named Boofer stopped and took a break with us. We talked to him and learned he was from North Carolina as well and he was thinking about summiting Mt. Katahdin on 9/9/09. This got us excited and we thought that would be a really cool date to summit as well. From the Vermont state line until shortly after Rutland, VT, the Long Trail and the AT are one and the same. After Rutland the Long Trail turns off and goes north toward Canada while the AT continues East to New Hampshire. The rest of the day was a fairly easy hike where we didn’t gain or lose much elevation so I took advantage and gave Catherine a call and talked while I walked. Just before Congdon Shelter the trail follows Roaring Branch (a stream) which was quite nice. Once I caught up to Spoon and Croc at that shelter they had found a white board with a pen that Croc was going to carry down to the road to use as a sign for our hitch. It was brilliant I thought because when thinking about proper Hobo etiquette, you have to have a sign with your intentions written on it. We made our way from there to the road and with the help of the sign (which read ‘Bennington’) we had a hitch in minutes from a nice kid heading in to town. We had some incomplete directions to a house in town that apparently took in hikers. Our hitch dropped us off in a Friendly’s (fast food) parking lot which their house was supposed to be next to and we thanked him and set out on foot to find the place. It didn’t take long because a short walk down the sidewalk yielded a house with a mannequin dressed up in hiker gear sporting an AT logo, so this had to be it. We were greeted by Josh who found Chris (the owner) for us and we got the tour of the house and garage/mancave where we would be sleeping. Chris was a talented musician with tons of instruments, he and Arla also created pottery and other ceramic art in addition to a slew of other creative outlets. The garage/mancave had a couch, radio, pool table, and roll out mattress for us to sleep on. Chris gave us some dinner suggestions and we headed out immediately because we were starving. We landed on the Rattlesnake Cafe, a Mexican restaurant, were I got some tasty fajitas and gorged myself on chips and salsa. The three of us waddled back to the house, full to the brim where we took showers and headed to bed. Spoon stayed inside for a while talking to the other hikers that were staying here: Bookworm, Boofer, Holdout & Hatchet. I tried catching up on journals and Croc pulled out his book, but not before putting a Van Morrison CD in the ‘boombox’ and then Pink Floyd’s Darkside of the Moon. I was simply in heaven listening to music while falling asleep…

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 90: August 7, 2009
Travel: (SOBO)
From: Mass. 2 (North Adams/Williamstown)
To: Dalton, MA
Beginning: 8:30am
Ending: 6:00pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 23.3
b) other
c) AT Mile Marker – 1582.1 cumulative
Weather:
AM: Cold and windy up to Greylock. Sun was out and skies were cloudy.
PM: Warm and sunny.
People: Tom and most of last night’s crew + a few new faces, Nick(UCOC), Stewball.
Animals: nothing special
Money: $5 breakfast. $1647 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: That was a good night sleep. It may have been on the floor of Tom’s living room, but it was much better than in a shelter. Tom was already moving around and asked if we were coming down to breakfast. We got ourselves together and walked down to eat at the diner down the street. I was quite a fan of this place because the big breakfast of two pancakes, two eggs, two sausages, and toast was only five bucks, like it should be. I felt stuffed and we got the good news from Tom that he was taking us in the first car load to North Adams where we would start the trail over Mt. Greylock. Back at the house we quickly dumped everything out of our packs but food and water and crammed into Tom’s car. There were 8 of us, including the driver. Once we got out and started hiking my falling apart boot started to not stay together with the rig I had in place and I fell far behind trying to fix it. After awhile I just stopped messing with it and walked with the sole of my boot flapping with every step. I passed everyone from the car ride up except for Croc and Spoon on the close to 3000′ climb.

PM: At the summit of Greylock we had a great view from the tower of everything around us including the upcoming Green mountains of Vermont. I had a snack while Croc headed out. Spoon and I took a video, pictures, and filled water before moving down the trail. It was an easy ridge walk down to the town of Cheshire. Spoon’s ankle was hurting him so he took it slow. I made it into Cheshire and caught a glimpse of Croc leaving town, I yelled to him but he didn’t notice and disappeared into the woods. The Post Office of Cheshire was directly on the trail and waiting inside were our (second) new pair of boots! I put the new ones on and it felt like a million bucks to have new boots (again) that were not falling apart. Spoon also basked in the glow of new boots before we went down the trail a ways to a shop where Spoon bought a sandwich for lunch while I stuck with the food I packed. After lunch it was a quick and steep uphill out of town and then fairly flat back to Dalton. Once I got into town it was a long one mile road walk back to Tom’s and then I turned at a double white blaze where you weren’t supposed to turn. So I eventually got back to Tom’s where I cleaned up again and had him throw my clothes in the wash and got another good dinner. Tonight was pasta and Italian sausage with lots of bread and salad. After dinner we watched Blazing Saddles and then got to sleep. Tomorrow we enter Vermont and I couldn’t be more excited to be on the last three states.

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 89: August 6, 2009
Travel:
From: Lee, MA
To: Dalton, MA
Beginning: 12:30pm
Ending: 7:30pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 19
b) other -
c) AT Mile Marker – 1558.8 cumulative
Weather:
AM & PM: Sunny and hot.
People: Tom Levardi, Fancypants & Gozer, Frankenfoot, Goose + girl, One-step, Game boy & Icarus, Bark & Berry, Otter, West, many more…
Animals: No
Money: $0, $1642 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: I didn’t want to leave the comfort of my bed this morning. We wandered down to the office where the Continental breakfast was set up. I had a bagel, maybe two, and many pastries to satisfy my appetite. We all wandered back to the room to pack up and head to the Post Office. Croc had a shirt that he had worn holes in, so he called the manufacturer and they told him to send it to them and it would be replaced. At the post office I asked for some scissors so I could cut (remove) the stitches in my hand; today would be the first day I could use my pole in over a week. With my hand back to looking more normal I was feeling pretty good today. The next step was to try and get a hitch out of town which proved to be way more difficult than anticipated. We staked a spot just before the highway junction and stuck our thumbs out and waited forever. We thought that some guy waved at us to meet him just down the road on a side street, but when we got there he was nowhere to be found. Since the gas station was right there we tried to ask for a hitch from the people around there. Spoon stayed near the gas station, I asked people coming out of the McDonalds next door and Croc made a sign and stood beside the road. Croc scored a ride and we finally made our way to the trailhead.

PM: A pretty uneventful day of hiking. Fancypants caught up with me early on and we walked and talked for quite awhile about life after the trail. At October Mtn lean-to, we caught up with Spoon and Croc. Since we were really close to “The Cookie Lady” we left quickly to make it to her place for lunch. When we got there we were disappointed to find no lady and no cookies, she was out for the day and that meant we were out of luck. We had our usual lunch and then moved on. Spoon, Fancypants, and I ended up walking together into the town of Dalton. Just before leaving the woods there were cold Mountain Dews waiting for us from some trail angel. It felt good to walk down the town street with a cold drink in hand. Just down the street, right on the trail, was Tom Levardi’s house and where Croc had stopped. Tom lets hikers camp in his yard and a few sleep inside the house. We had also arrived at dinnertime so a huge spread of sausage & hot dogs, buns, potatoes, and such were laid before us and we dived in. There had to have been 15-16 people gathered around the table outside and more trickled in while we ate. After we cleaned up Spoon, Croc, and I went down to the pub to plan out our next couple of days. We decided to take advantage of the slackpack Tom offered over Greylock and I went back to the house to make sure we had seats secured for the ride up. I talked to Tom and he told me he could fit us in and then I just relaxed and worked on journals and had some time on the computer. I managed to sneak a shower in as well. Croc came back sooner than I expected and turned on the TV. He found the old Batman movie with Jack Nickelson as the Joker and we watched that until it was over and then went to sleep. Spoon came back late and caught the very end of the movie. Sleeping indoors felt great.

Hello everyone!

Spoon and I have made it back to Raleigh and after a couple of days highlighted by lots of food and sleep, I am feeling great. I still wake up with foot and leg pain, but I guess I have to come to expect such a thing after hammering out 2200 miles. Other than that it is awesome to be back home with my family and friends reacquainting myself with what normal people do in a given day. On Thursday I came home to my mom’s famous BBQ ribs and a long awaited reunion with Catherine and I know Spoon has been bouncing around between his sisters for various meals and tailgating parties. Slowly but surely we will start to pick up on life where we last left off, but first I have to finish the blog! Have no worries folks as I will be dedicating much of my time (and my mom’s time) to post the final and easily the greatest month we had on the Appalachian Trail. The format will be the same and as always look out for tons of pictures. Don’t miss out on all the stories we have from the Green Mountains of Vermont, the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the Mahoosucs in Maine, and the big guy himself Mt. Katahdin. Plus, there will be more videos posted that never made it to the website because with the new camera the file size was too big to upload directly to YouTube. In fact, if you haven’t already, take a look at Video Blog 10 which documents the half-way point on the trail and was posted in Monson only about a week ago.

More people, more trail magic, and more adventure is coming soon so you can continue to get your healthy dose of MUF!

From the comfort of his pajamas and slippers,
Hazard

PS: Be warned that the pictures of our summit of Mt. Katahdin are WELL worth the wait. But I can’t give you the end before you see how we got there!