Date: 2022-06-15
From: Stony Brook Campsite

To: Sharon Mountain Campsite
Miles today: 12.8
Weather: clear sky

Late evening.  Day 16.The man who has one clock always knows what time it is. The man with two clocks is never quite sure. I belong to a small sliver of the population born as early as 1975 and as late as 1983. We lived all of our formative years without cell phones. I had graduated college and taught school for a year before getting a phone. I was old enough to ¢grow up¢ without. But I was also young enough to be comfortable with the technology and it¢s possibilities. A cell phone in 2003 might still be considered ¢early adoption¢. In short - I was old enough to live without while young enough that ¢diving in¢ was natural. As a result, I have a very take-it-or-leave-it attitude about digital connection. I feel this dichotomy daily, especially as I teach teens about digital tech and the benefits and unintended consequences it brings. I was looking forward to walking away from the digital tether. I supposed that being on the trail would eliminate the need for a device and it¢s connectedness. Instead, we have an astonishing amount of information about the trail at our fingertips. We have two paper resources: AWOL¢s guide and Anti Gravity Gear¢s pocket maps. Then we¢ve got digital resources: Far Out, Gaia GPS, Google Maps, atforecast, and search engines. Just the convenience of being able to make a phone call from the trail is hard to overstate whether for a shuttle or hotel reservation. Today, all four of the resources we have for trail data gave conflicting information on how long our hike was. We could see at lunchtime that there were discrepancies - between 3 and 6.6 miles of discrepancies. That makes planning difficult! Then I think of Shackleton, the Corps of Discovery, the Apollo missions, John Wesley Powell, George Mallory, my friend Josh - thru hiker in 1996. These people had astonishingly small amounts of information with which to plan. ¢Is the next shelter in 0.2 miles or 8? Dunno. I¢ll keep walking.¢ What a different experience that must have been. I am envious. I do think this wealth of information is one of the reasons we can bring our kids along. It allows us to make good decisions on weather, carry less weight since we can anticipate resupply options, and save money by comparing our shopping location possibilities. A solar EMP would cause a lot of trouble for a lot of people but I wonder if we wouldn¢t enjoy a simpler life for awhile. (Please don¢t ostracize me for this opinion if a solar EMP were to happen¢¦)We cranked out what we think is about 12.8 miles today. It was a humid day with temps in the high 70s. We¢ve been walking through an ¢outbreak¢ of gypsy moth caterpillars for the past 3 days. They destroy the canopy, poop on our heads as we walk, stain our shirts and skin if they get smashed, and occasionally sting. I count 4 on our tent now. There are millions on the ground and in the trees. We thought, early on, that we could hear them munching leaves but later realized that it¢s their little poop pellets raining from the trees. It¢s as unpleasant as it sounds. We hope to hike out of them soon but who knows? Not even Google.The picture at the beginning of the post was from the three-ish miles of riverwalk we did this morning. It was cool, flat, and invigorating. The river was waking up. A birder would have been giddy - Great Blue Heron, swallows on the hunt, kingfisher, and many more I could hear and see but can¢t yet identify. If there was a long distance trail of just river walking I¢d sign up! Foothills Trail is close!We¢re battened down for rain tonight and tomorrow morning. Maybe a posh deli for lunch in Falls Village?