Date: 2007-07-30
From: Dalton, MA

To: Dalton,MA
Miles today: 168.0
Weather: light rain

Ahoy All!I know it's been ages since my last update and I place all the blame solely on the state of Vermont; they have a serious lack of accessible internet. I'm pretty sure that my last entry was in Hanover or Lebanon. Either way it was a long time ago and loads has happened. I crossed 25% mark the other day and am now just over 600 hundred miles, so that feels pretty good. I successfully made it through Vermont with no real mishaps to speak of thankfully. That state was rather kind to me. It's kind of weird not having written for such a long time. I've covered so much ground and had so much happen that it all kind of begins to blur together, if that makes sense. So bare with me as I ramble through some of the events of the past few weeks. Almost immediately after I crossed into Vermont I began to run into a ton of trail magic. I got some great hitches, but for the most part my trail magic appeared in the form of ice cold sodas at the bottom of a hill near a road crossing. You have no idea how good it feels, especially having been so hot the past few weeks, to come down off a mountain and find an ice cold coke with your name all over it. Sometimes people hike out coolers and leave a trash bag for the empties or even just plop the pop down in the bed of a creek to stay cool. Either way it's awesome. One day in particular I got hit with two coolers no more than four miles apart. This also happened to be the day I crossed over Mt. Killington in Vermont and slammed a big gulp of Mountain Dew as well. But I was so pumped to find trail magic cokes waiting for me I couldn't help myself; they had to be swallowed. The day was a scorcher and about 30 minutes after that last coke that I knew I should not have drank, I started to feel a bit queasy. In the end I think may have mildly dehydrated myself and looking back it was probably not the smartest move in the world. But I'd probably do it again; cokes are sooooo delicious! The State of Vermont was a cake walk after doing Maine and New Hamp. As soon as I crossed the border the trail all of sudden became flatter and wider. It was amazing. Granted there were still some good climbs in Vermont but nothing compared to some of the stuff being thrown at me in The Whites. I crossed into Massachussets the other day to find only more flat and less challenging terrain. It's sort of a strange phenomenon out here as of late though. Sometimes it feels like in choosing to head south, I've now covered some of the more breathtaking and difficult parts of the trail. So at this point and with so much mileage left to cover it becomes even more of a mental test. Some of my fellow thru-hikers and I have discussed this at great length actually. It's such a mental game out here. I've been running into huge bunches of Northbounders (NOBOS) coming from Springer. It's bizarre to hear them say that the group that I am currently hiking with are some of the early SOBOS they have seen. Bizarre mostly because we tend to get sucked into towns. Sometimes when you hop off the trail and get comfortable in town it's really tough to rally the motivation to get out there. I definetely feel like I haven't been moving very fast though, even though I've been able to pack in some big days. I did my biggest mileage day recently of 23 miles. I was and am still pretty pumped about it and can't wait until the terrain begins to flatten out a bit more and I can push the envelope a bit. I met a section hiker the other day named Slackpack who is carrying ten pounds of weight and averaging (that's right, averaging) 35 miles a day. Insane! Right now I am in Dalton, MASS staying at this amazing man's house. His name is Tom Levardi and I have been hearing about him since day one. For a number of years Tom has opened his door to Thru-hikers, putting them up in his home for free, feeding them, carting them around town and overall just being the nicest guy in the world. He cooked us a massive and delicious spaghetti dinner last night, drove us to this amazing swimming hole with a rope swing, fed us ice cream sundaes this afternoon and let me use his bike to tool around town. His house happens to be on the AT and supposedly there have been nights where there were anywhere from 30-45 hikers staying at his house at one time. Imagine opening up your door to some of the smelliest, grungiest and hungriest group of people around and letting them shower up and crash in your beds. This guy is seriously like the Mother Theresa of the AT and Dalton is his Calcutta. Often times people want nothing to do with our smelly kind when we roll into town, yet Tom continues to house thru-hikers. Amazing! My Aunt Marty asked about my feet so if you don't want to get a little grossed out, I suggest you stop reading now. Only kidding, they are not that bad. Mostly my feet have calloused (sp?) over and are tough as nails. I have lost feeling in nearly all my toes which is a strange sensation. You could honestly poke my big toe with a needle and I wouldn't feel a thing. That took some getting used to I will admit, but now it's just how things are. I've been lucky (knock on wood) with regard to blisters and whatnot. They feel fine during the day and at night. The worst part of the day is in the morning stumbling out of my sleeping bag. I have to sort of waddle for the first 15 minutes around camp, but after that I'm typically fine. I have to be quick here because the library is closing up shop. Thanks again to all of you for keeping up with my entries and taking the time to write a comment or two. If you have any questions about life out here post them and I will do my best to answer them. Also, I spoke with a couple of people about perhaps meeting up on the trail. I would absolutely love this! I know Brendan (Click-click) is going to try and make it out and I believe some others. Just let me know if you're interested, it'd be a blast I promise! I've been rolling with the same guys for a while now. Sweet Tea from GA, Juice from Mass, and Prancer from PA. We are just now starting to crank up the miles so I hope that these next few states will be both enjoyable and quick. Gotta jet, love you all lots and wishing you all the best from the trail!All who wander are not lost....Love,Sean