Shorter

July 27

Miles: 15 (1764/2189)

Location: Trapper John Shelter

Weather: light rain in the morning, turning warm, very humid 

Complaint of the Day: Humidity is not fun

I woke up this morning to some light rain. I got moving quickly to take down my tent and get packed up before things got too wet, but the weather improved. The rain stopped shortly after getting on trail and never started up again, despite threatening to open up at many points through the day. 
I only went 15 miles today which is shorter than I would like, but the terrain was challenging and the next shelter was over 6 miles further and on top of a good sized mountain. I could have stealth camped between here and there, but after my experience with the slanted campsite a couple of nights ago I didn’t feel like risking it. 

Tomorrow I will need to go 19 miles over two good sized mountains to a campsite so I will be making it up a little bit. But then I will be in the White Mountains, which are considered the most beautiful and most difficult section of the whole trail. That will slow me down for sure.

Facing the Day/Weaker

July 25 & 26

Miles: 17 & 12

Location: Velvet Rocks Shelter, near Hanover, NH (New state!)

Complaint of the Day: Yesterday– cold, wet clothes. Today– trying to hike after barely sleeping last night

Yesterday morning was rough. Getting out of a warm dry sleeping bag and changing into cold wet underwear and cold wet shorts and cold wet socks and a cold wet shirt– it isn’t much fun. It was made even worse by the fact that the rain still hadn’t stopped. But as much as I wanted to just hide in my sleeping bag all day, I forced myself to get moving. It took me until after 8:30 to start hiking, but I at least I did get moving. 

Because I got a late start, I decided to keep hiking later than I normally would. I passed a shelter at 4:00 and decided to keep hiking until at least 5:30. I had plenty of energy, at least for a while. But when 6:00 hit and I still hadn’t found a decent place to set up a tent. Lots or flat places, but none near a water source. At 6:15 I finally got to a small creek with some decent looking camp spots I quickly set up camp. But then after a late dinner I got into my tent and realized that the spot I had chosen was not as flat as I thought it was. It had a pretty good slope down towards my feet. I ended up spending most of the night trying to avoid sliding down to one end of my tent. I barely slept at all. It was a miserable night. And, as these things always work out, when I got hiking this morning I passed a much better campsite, perfectly flat, lless than half a mile from where I camped last night.

After my lack of sleep last night I woke with very little energy this morning. It was ten miles into town, but it just seemed to take a long time to get there. The Norwich/ Hanover area is pretty cool though. Beautiful area with lots of old but very expensive looking houses. The trail goes right through both towns, and there were several homes that had coolers or tables set up in there front yards with snacks or sodas for thru hikers. Super cool. After spending more time in town than I had planned (common experience) I did not feel like going to much farther. I had originally hoped to go at least 6 or 7 miles out of town, but I stopped at a shelter that is less than 2 miles out of town. I was just done. 

Tomorrow, the forcast once again calls for rain most of the day. Can’t wait. 

Tired, then Wet

July 23 & 24

Miles: 13 & 17

Location: Winturri Shelter, north of Killington, VT

Weather: Pretty nice yesterday. Today has been cold (high around 60 degrees) and rainy. Light rain was non-stop after about 6:30 AM

Complaint of the Day: Yesterday– Killington was pricey. The mini-mart in town charged me over $40 for two days of groceries and the state park where I camped charged $20 for a site. If I had any more energy I would have hiked out another mile or so and camped for free next to some stream for free. Today– complaining about the rain that never ended would be too easy, and there is a more important thing to complain about: gluten-free corn flour tortillas. Tortillas are a major part of my diet on the trail. The store in Killington had the gluten-free tortillas on the same shelf right next to the regular tortillas and I grabbed the wrong pack when I was shopping last night. Not only do the gluten free tortillas taste terrible, they also fall apart easily. It has only been a single day and already they are little more than crumbs. But now I have to either eat them or carry them out. Neither option sounds appealing.

Yesterday was tougher than it should have been. I only had to go 13 miles to get to Killington, but I hadn’t slept well the night before. I woke up tired and never really woke up. It ended up taking me most of the day to cover those 13 miles even though the trail wasn’t  that tough. By the time I got to the park and set up camp and walked to the store to buy groceries and then back to camp, I was exhausted. I was in bed by 8:00 and fell asleep shortly after. 
I slept in to almost 7:00 this morning. I woke up feeling much better, though I dreaded having to take down my tent in the rain, which had somehow started early this morning. That rain never quit. It kept raining all day. Never all that hard, thankfully, but very persistent rain. But I was feeling good regardless. I passed a shelter around 11:30 and there were two other hikers sleeping inside who clearly hadn’t bothered to get out of bed at all this morning. Part of me was tempted to quit for the day and join them out of the rain, but I still had plenty of energy, despite the rain and chill in the air. 
I made it to this shelter around 4:30 and quickly changed into my dry clothes and crawled into my sleeping bag. I won’t be moving much until morning. Hopefully the rain stops by then.

Weight

July 21 & 22

Miles: 20 & 20 (1690/2189– less than 500 miles left!)

Location: Governor Clemment Shelter, VT

Weather: Perfect yesterday, today warmer and more humid with light rain hitting after I got to camp

Complaint of the Day: Nothing yesterday. Best day of hiking in quite a while. Today was too warm and had a bunch of mosquitoes, but not bad over all.

First, I stayed in a very nice hostel in Manchester Center two nights ago. Probably the nicest hostel I’ve seen on the trail so far. It was clean and we’ll organized and didn’t pack us in super tight. Plus we got free breakfast and a shuttle back to the trail in the morning. It was more of a nice bed and breakfast at a hiker hostel price. Great place to take an afternoon off. 

Yesterday there was a fair amount of talk about pack weight. As we were leaving the hostel, those of us in the shuttle were talking about how much stuff we carry. It turns out that I was carrying quite a bit more than those guys. I carry about 38 pounds of gear and food and water when I my bag is filled. Most of my shuttle mates were carrying 30 pounds or less. One guy was only carrying 18. Later after I had gotten to the shelter, a different hiker set his pack down with a loud thud. It turns out he was carrying over 50 pounds. He didn’t mind. He was used to having that much weight on his back. It meant he was able to carry a ton of food as well as a guitar. It was worth the extra weight to him.

How much stuff should the average hiker carry? That is a very difficult question that can have many different answers depending on each person’s style and attitude. I know that I carry more warm clothing than most people and my sleeping bag is heavier than most others, but I don’t care. I hate being cold. For me, the extra weight is worth it. Other people prefer going fast and light, even if it means being cold at night. One guy I know is going without a sleeping bag at all for the warm summer months just to cut down on the weight in his pack. But then, there is a fine line between being an ultra- light backpacker and being an idiot. All it takes is one unexpected cold snap and he could be in trouble. 

My pack has gotten a little heavier as the summer has gone on. Mostly, that is just food. I am carrying way more food now than I used to. And I am still losing weight. Last time I checked I had lost just over 30 pounds so far this summer. It is pretty much impossible for me to eat enough in a normal day to not lose weight. I just can’t carry that many calories. My body will be in for a shock when I get back to my real life where I sit in front of a computer for much of the day. 

Muddy

July 17

Miles: 17 on trail, 1 in town, 1 on wrong trail (1606/2189)

Location: Congdon Shelter, VT (New state!) 

Weather: Very nice, but a tad too warm. Then thunder showers in evening

Complaint of the Day: Mud. Vermont is known for it’s mud the same way Pennsylvania is known for it’s rocks. And I am only a few miles into this state and already the reason is obvious. Everything is mud. Thankfully the mud was partially dried today so there were only a few spots where the footing was really soggy. With the rain we are currently getting outside right now, tomorrow may be less fun.

I feel like I got a lot done today. I started off hiking in about three miles into the town of North Adams, MA and getting a full resupply of groceries. Next town won’t be for four days. I got into town too early for lunch–which is a shame because the pizza place next to the grocery store gives a 50% discount to thru hikers– but there weren’t any restaurants nearby that were open for breakfast. That’s probably for the best. I don’t need to spoil myself with big town breakfasts twice in three days. Besides, I was able to grab a couple of donuts from the bakery section of the grocery store which made me plenty happy. 
From there it was time to get back on the trail uphill out of town and out of Massachusetts. I crossed over into Vermont around noon. Other than the trail being really wet and muddy, the hiking has been pretty easy. Lots of slow gradual climbs as we get back into the real mountains. My only other complaint is my own blindness/stupidity. At one point in the afternoon I missed a turn and headed down the wrong trail for quite a while. This new trail was more of an old two track Jeep trail. It started off wet and muddy, but then kept getting wetter. After about half a mile it felt like I was walking in an actual stream. I began to wonder why I wasn’t seeing more footprints in the mud. And then I realized that I hadn’t seen a white trail blaze in quite a while. I turned around to try to find the real trail. I was all ready to curse the trail builders for their crappy job of marking the trail, but when I got back to where I had made the wrong turn I found that not only were the trees properly marked, but the was a sizable pile of sticks and logs on the ground designed to block people from making the mistake I made. I not only missed the sign, I somehow walked over the pile of sticks without realizing it. I suppose I earned the right to go a half mile in the wrong direction at that point.

Laziness

July 16

Miles: 16 (1589/2189)

Location: Wilbur Clearing Shelter

Weather: Perfect

Complaint of the Day: Logistics is hard. Stopping early yesterday essentially forced me to stop early today. 

Somehow the worst part about today was that it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I had been told that climbing up and over Mt. Greylock would be really challenging. I had planned for this. I carried less food than I otherwise would have. I planned it out so I would only have to do 16 miles in case climbing the mountain took longer than expected. I was ready.

But then… I went out and climbed the mountain. Big freaking deal. In no way was this mountain any tougher than anything else I have done over the last couple of months. Sure, it was a long climb. But it was an easy and straight forward climb. No big rocks to scramble over or anything. The view from the top was nice, I guess, but again, it was nothing special compared to all the other viewpoints I’ve seen this summer. 

So even after taking an extended lunch up on the peak, I still managed to get to this shelter by 4:30. I had plenty of energy and the weather was great. I would have loved to have pushed on a few more miles to the next shelter. But in between here and there is the road down to town where I will need to get groceries. I had time to groceries and I had time to hike to the next shelter, but I really didn’t have time to do both. So that means I had to stay here and be lazy again this afternoon. There are worse fates I suppose. But tomorrow I will need to do some serious miles, after stopping for groceries, to make up for all this laziness. And the weather looks less than perfect tomorrow. 

Gorging

July 15

Miles: 7 (plus about 3 in town)

Location: Crystal Mountain Campsite, MA

Weather: Pretty nice

Complaint of the Day: New one– my cellphone and external battery take way too long to charge. I figured both would be done in the time it took to do laundry, but I ended up sitting around for an extra 20 minutes just waiting for the charger. And even then my external battery wasn’t totally filled. First world problems, I know. 

Today was a day for resupply and rest, more than I intended. I got up and got into the town of Dalton, MA fairly early this morning. Town was less than 3 miles from last night’s shelter. I didn’t have a ton to do in town, but it turns out that everything I needed was on opposite sides of town so it took some time to get everything done. 
First stop was breakfast at the local diner. I got a three egg omlette with Texas toast, home fries, and a side of corn beef hash. Awesome. Then I had to walk a solid mile to the other side of town to do laundry. It feels like I just did laundry, but that was almost 10 days ago, so I was probably due. Plus my socks were all damp from the recent rain. I spent a good two hours there. Then I just had to pick up a few resupply groceries.  The trail angel yesterday pointed out that soon after leaving Dalton the trail goes up and over Mt. Greylock, which is a challenging climb. But then just on the other side of the mountain is a town with a grocery store. So the best idea is to only buy a few things in Dalton so you don’t have to carry extra food weight up the mountain. Great idea. This plan has the added benefit of allowing me to buy extra snacks and eating as much as I want because I know I will be buying more in two days. So many delicious snacks….

With all that stuff done, I left town around 2:30. My original plan was to hike another 7 miles and make it to the next little town where there is a church that lets hikers sleep in their basement for free. But I decided to be lazy and stop at the campsite that was only 4 miles north of Dalton. It meant finishing the day before 4:00. I should have felt guilty for not pushing a little further when the weather was so nice, but I didn’t care. I wanted a nap. It felt really good to just lay down for a solid hour before dinner. It was the first time in quite a while that I allowed myself the luxury. 

Tomorrow: Up and over Mt. Greylock. 

Even Muddier

July 18 & 19

Miles: 18 & 17

Location: Campsite along the Winhall River, just south of Manchester, VT

Weather: Other than an intense thunderstorms two nights ago, it’s been pretty good. Really humid though.

Complaint of the Day: Covering two days so I get two complaints. First: mud. Lots of mud. Even more mud than when I complained about it last time. I mean, look at this trail: 

Granted, this was the morning after a big rain, but still… I have managed to keep my shoes mostly dry, but that has required some serious rock hopping. There are plenty of places where the mud would be up over my boots if I wasn’t careful. 

Second complaint: Bugs. Flies. And while the mosquitoes are annoying, I can deal with them. They are only a nuisance when I stop. It is the horseflies that are really annoying. They keep circling my head just buzzing and buzzing and buzzing and never actually landing. Whether I walk fast or am completely stopped, the flies are there, just buzzing for no apparent reason. It is maddening.

 I had so much to complain about today, but not so much other stuff. Hopping around the mud has been a nearly constant difficulty. The humidity, especially in the mornings has been soul crushing. But otherwise, Vermont has been nice. Very wet though. After having to carry water for over ten miles several times in Pennsylvania, now there is some sort of stream or river or spring every mile or so. Not to mention the large puddles of water I am constantly walking around. Such a change. 

Tomorrow I will walk the eight miles to the highway and hitch a ride into Manchester Center, VT. There I will get a nice lunch and get groceries and then check into the local hostel. I haven’t slept in a real bed or had a shower in over two weeks. Plus I would love a chance to do laundry again. I just did laundry less than a week ago, but I have been sweating a lot lately so my clothes could stand a good cleaning. 

Temptation

July 14

Miles: 18

Location: Kay Wood Shelter, MA– just south of Dalton, MA

Weather: Cooler (highs in upper 60’s), cloudy, dreary, drizzly, foggy, muddy

Complaint of the Day: Last night as I was sleeping on the floor of the cabin, a hiker burst in at 10:30 PM and woke up a bunch of us and demanded to know where he could find a place to sleep. There wasn’t really any space inside, but he curled up next to the table anyway. Very rude and inconsiderate.

This morning started off with a pancake breakfast at the cabin. They fed us and gave us tea. Very nice. It was so warm and inviting and comfortable inside and so cold and cloudy and rainy outside… A big part of me wanted to just curl up and stay there all day. It would have been nice. But I couldn’t. I have miles to make. I can’t afford to take a day off just because it’s a little wet outside. 

The day actually turned out okay. The weather wasn’t pretty, but at least it wasn’t as painfully hot and humid as it has been. And the rain got me damp, but it wasn’t as soaked as the downpours have gotten me the last two days. Other than once again having to hike with wet feet, I won’t complain too hard about the weather. 

There was more trail magic today. A trail angel called “The Friendly Ghost” was parked next to a road crossing and had an excellent selection of fresh fruit, soda, and sugary junk food. Always appreciated. One thing that he told us is that it takes the average hiker about 45 day to get from here to the finish line on Mount Kahtadin. I don’t know how accurate that really is, but it is worth noting that forty five days from now is August 28, which happens to be exactly when I hope to summit. That makes me feel better. 

Tomorrow I get back into town and should have a chance to take a shower, do laundry, and pick up some groceries, as well as pig out at some restaurant. Good times.

Redux

July 13

Miles: 21

Location: Upper Goose Pond Cabin

Weather: HUMID! Also hot. Then lots of rain. 

Complaint of the Day: Wet feet and wet socks. After hiking through heavy rain two days in a row, both of my pairs of hiking socks are now wet. And it is so humid that nothing is drying. I will have to hike with the wet feet for the next day and a half until I can do laundry in the town of Dalton. 

The day started out super humid and warmed up quickly. The trail went up and over a couple of large hills and through a couple of grassy fields. Then in the afternoon a thunderstorm hit and I got quite wet before making it to the shelter. This sequence of events descibes yesterday perfectly. It also describes today just as well. The only real difference is that today the rain hit at about 2:00 instead of 4:00 so I was wet longer today. 
The other difference is that tonight I am not staying at a normal shelter. Instead I am staying a cabin that is owned and operated by a local hiker club. It is a pretty sweet place with bunks with real mattresses and a fire place and large porch. It has space for about 16 people, but it turns out I was about the 20th person to show up when I got here at 5:30. Thankfully I was able to claim a spot on the living room floor by the fireplace so that I didn’t have to set my tent up in the yard in the rain. This place is surprisingly busy. I have not stayed at a shelter along the trail with more than 4 or 5 people in several weeks. There are currently over 20 people at this cabin. Back in Georgia it was fairly routine to be around this many hikers at night. But here this feels really crowded. People are everywhere. I’m not used to this anymore.