Date: 2002-09-19
From: Maine

To: want to get to Georgia
Miles today: 15.0

September 19, 2002 Thursday7am slept good last night.   A guy came in late and I don¢t know about these guys that hike at night. He came in stumbling late and he wasn¢t very talkative. He was headed north to Canada on the Long trail. I could hear the loons down on the lake just down the trail here a ways. Nice cool morning and the sun is going to shine. This must be day 44. Looks like I get to climb Stratton Mountain this morning. It¢s kind of a ski resort area. They have a gondola on top and warming hut. It was a long climb the elevation was 3936.   It¢s the highest mountain in southern Vermont. There is a tower here and I can going to climb up to the top and see if I can take a picture from there.   There is an enclosed shelter here and it has a stove and everything in it. But of course I won¢t stay here. If I had gotten a little earlier start I would have. I can look over the top and see everything and the wind is really whipping around the tower. Can you hear the whistling? The CCC boys built this tower and everything around here in the 30¢s in 1934. They should do something like that again. It was really the Conversation Corp. these young people, let them go to work. Just Retired Rambler, he is headed to Maine. Started in North Adams, he is from Boston. Retired Rambler is doing it in sections. He is going run into some cold weather up there in the Whites. Just met a north bounder doing the long trail to Canada. His name was Nate. Just met Northbounder heading to Canada. He is from Valdez, AK. Just graduated from the University of Pacific in Anchorage, I believe it was. He has hiked resurrection pass and there was 4-foot snow through it. His name is Soul. Because he lost his soles to his shoe and he had to call his uncle in Woodstock to come and get him and they got new soles put on his shoes. Met some people from Ohio in the parking lot and they are just going to go for a little hike. They gave me a bag of pretzels and a granola bar and some water. How about that. There is small crew that is building a small bridge across the stream here of course they have to pack all this stuff in and use all hand tools and they are all volunteers. They are doing a good job. 2 girls, and older guy and 3 young men. Oh I do the stupidest damn things. Sometimes I wonder about myself. You remember I stopped at the Eastern Mountain Store in Manchester because my hip belt was too big I thought, but it is killing me now and hitting me wrong now, on my hip bone.   I didn¢t think about the fact that when it gets cold I am going to have more clothes on. So this small belt is not going to work. SO now you know what I am going to have to do. Wait till I find another Eastern Mountain Sports store but in the mean time it is rubbing me raw and I am suffering.    Taking a break now at the Story Springs Shelter and there was Jimmy One Note was in there. He has hiked parts of the AT trail before and other trails and now he is going to hike the long trail. His wife brought him out here from Indianapolis, Indiana. He has only been on the trail for a little while. He has knee injury and now he is going to have to hobble back 4 miles back to the road and he gave El Toro AKA [!eltoro] all his food.   He is going to stay here tonight and he is going to have to take the bus home because he doesn¢t want his wife to drive back out to get him. Will just head home. Just met a young couple hiking the long trail north to Canada and they were from Australia. I am really struggling today on the trail, mentally and physically. I just think the trail is nasty, bumps, roots and my legs are just not there, but I think a lot of it is just mental because of this damn pack. Boy I will tell you I went through this in the wilderness in the beginning and here I am going through it again and my pack was working just fine and I had to go and fix something that wasn¢t broken. That is what I do. SO I am not feeling the best about myself or anything else right now. It sure doesn¢t help knowing I am going to have to live with this for 4 or 5 days until I can get it replaced. Then I will have to go 6 miles into town somewhere or hitch a ride to get it done. That couple I saw that gave me the water, pretzels, and granola bar, he walked with me up the road a ways and said, doesn¢t it get to be the same old thing everyday? Doesn¢t it get to be like a job? Like hard work? I said Yeah, it really does.   He says, I kind of thought so because the woods after awhile they are all the same. So I am just walking along here right now and going up and down, up and down.   Looking down constantly and have to look down constantly so I don¢t¢ slip on the rocks. And you know out there Milo Butlers back home and there is this timber out there and it really looks the same and I bet you I can go out there and walk up and down, up and down everyday for five months and go home every night and sleep in my bed. NOW      WHAT   YOU KNOW Sometimes I wonder what I am doing out here. What the hell am I doing here? Look this is a little bit ridiculous. If you really stop and think about it, it doesn¢t make any sense. To walk and walk and walk in the woods with nothing to see and you do get to a summit once in a while or look out and you look and it¢s the same view.   You can take a picture of it and you can take a picture of every mountain you climb on this trip and you put them altogether and you will say that is the same view. Ha. So what it is for most people that do this trail is that they start from the south. They go north and they have all the people with them and it¢s a social thing. That is exactly what it is. To the young kids it¢s purty AKA pretty. Every couple of days they go into town and they have a party. But for some of us, you look at it and it¢s there and it¢s a challenge. You say well not many people can do it, I am going to see if I can do it. I don¢t know if that is stupid or not. I will have to think about that for awhile.    Kidgore Shelter tonight it has a beautiful view. El Toro was here and I thought for sure last night was the last night I would see him and here he is here. Got here around 4:30 and that was long enough. But with that darn pack, I am happy to have my knapsack off my BACK. Went 15 miles today and that makes 562 miles so far. Just met Leslie and her son Evan. They are camped right down here by the shelter, they are from Vermont.