From Hazard’s notes:
Day 92: August 9, 2009
Travel:
From: Bennington, VT
To: Story Spring Shelter, VT
Beginning: 12:45pm
Ending: 7:45pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 19
b) other – 2 miles to Price Chopper
c) AT Mile Marker – 1619.5 cumulative
Weather:
AM: Overcast all morning with dark clouds rolling in.
PM: As soon as we got on the trail it started to rain. Walked in a cloudy mist for awhile too. Rain let up for a few hours in the late afternoon, then cranked back as soon as I start cooking dinner
People: Chris, Arla, Josh, Bookworm, Frankenfoot, One-step, man in suit hitching out of town, our hitches around and out of town. Crocstar.
Animals: Not even animals can stand the rain so they were in hiding.
Money: $5 breakfast, $25 resupply. $1702 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: Woke up in Chris’s garage feeling really good from the night’s rest. We had to find a way to get across town to the grocery store for resupply and find a place for breakfast. Chris told us that a bus service runs from a stop near his house, so we grabbed the flyer with the bus schedule and headed out. We got to the bus stop with plenty of time and scraped together 50 cents each for our fare. The time for the bus to arrive came and went and we were perplexed as to what the problem was. Well today is Sunday and the bus doesn’t run on weekends. Perfect. The three of us then walked down the street to the gas station so Crocstar could get his coffee and to see if we could bum a ride. That fizzled out pretty fast so we had to just start walking. The map in the guidebook made it seem like it wasn’t too far but it ended up taking forever and we had to stop for directions at least once. By the time we got over to the highway that the grocery was on we were pretty hungry and the only option was a McDonald’s. I felt bad for eating there even as a thru-hiker. Afterwards, we made our way to the Price Chopper to resupply to get us to Rutland. While standing in line I guess the lady we bummed a savings card from figured we were hikers and while Spoon and I sat on the curb waiting for Croc to come out she walked up and handed us a package of cookies and said, “Just imagine that these are from your mothers.” We thanked her profusely and unfortunately she was going the other direction or she would have given us a ride. After Croc came out we stood on the street corner with the sign we made from a piece of cardboard we found in the store. We must have stood there for 30 minutes with people ignoring us. One car asked us how much money we had (to pay them for a ride) and one guy even offered us some ding-dongs (cream filled chocolate pastry) which we happily accepted. We were out there for so long that I went into the Wendy’s behind us and asked for some cups of water. After changing locations, it wasn’t long before we finally got a ride. Once we got back to the house we repackaged our food and listened to how upset Bookworm was that he saw Boofer get a ride from an attractive female. She was loading his backpack into her trunk and he flashed a thumbs up to Bookworm. Whatever that thumbs up meant, Bookworm was jealous. Side note: We never saw Boofer again. After we were all packed up we thanked Chris and Arla for their generosity and kindness and made our way down the street to Four Corners where the outfitter was and best chance for a hitch out of town. Croc picked up more Deet while Spoon and I perused the store shelves. Then it was time to look pretty and find a ride.
PM: It is important to note that the town of Bennington is full of life sized moose painted in all sorts of artistic fashion. There’s the pirate moose, the corporate moose, the hiker moose, the Van Gogh moose, but we choose to stand next to the hippie moose to boost our chances of success. It really didn’t help because we waited around for at least 45 minutes before a couple of guys in a big SUV picked us up. They had moved up to Vermont from North Carolina and commented on how similar they were except for the snow. As we drove out of town toward the trailhead it began to drizzle, but even as Led Zeppelin came over the radio, I couldn’t help to be bummed out about the miles ahead. Much like our descent straight down to the road, the climb back out was steep. Once we got to the top the clouds had rolled in and a fine mist blew all around us. A long miserable hike in the rain followed where I passed some cool looking ponds and climbed a few mountains but on days like these you just fall into a zombie hiking mode that blocks out most of what’s happening around you. When I finally got to the shelter I came upon a swarm of hikers, most of which I had never met. Spoon and Croc informed me that the shelter was full so we got to work on setting up the tarp tent for the first time. There were probably 3-4 other tents up around the area but we found a decent spot and within minutes we had shelter. Spoon went to help Croc set up Spoon’s hammock and rainfly since Croc had sent his tarp home to try out the hammock instead. I went back over to the shelter to use the picnic table for cooking, but no sooner did I have everything set up did the sky open up and start raining. I scrambled to collect everything and get it over to our tent for protection. Spoon was also frantically trying to get his pack and gear under the vestibule. Once we got settled, I finished cooking from the comfort of the tent and besides slinging the dirty pot water into the woods after cleaning we didn’t move. How come every time you get a new tent, the first time you set it up, it is in the rain?
