Date: 2014-08-01
From: William B. Douglas Shelter

To: Mad Tom Notch
Miles today: 11.3

I slept well, and since I had a fairly short day, I didn't get up until 6. Astro Guy had left a bit before I emerged from my tent. The stove fuel had run out while I was heating last night's dinner water, so I mixed my oatmeal concoction in a baggie and packed as much as I could inside the tent. Ground was still pretty wet from yesterday's storm. Hiked the soggy half mile out to the trail, got here at 8, and walked .9 to Prospect Rock. It has a nice view toward Manchester -- and a good cell signal. Called Leigh to find out about Dad, who is still in the hospital and on medication for a blood infection as well as a UTI. I may go visit him on Tuesday, taking the long way from Maine back to VT. Last time I was at Prospect Rock, Lee and I had stopped for lunch on our LT hike in 2010, and we watched a storm brewing to the west. We wound up hiking in the rain to Spruce Peak Shelter, where we quit for the day. Not Worthy and T-Bird arrived as I was leaving. They are spending the night at the Green Mountain Hostel in Manchester.I stopped in at the Spruce Peak Shelter, one of the few that is fully enclosed. Sat on the porch for a snack. I had forgotten that it was downhill! Shortly after leaving the shelter, I came across a backpack lying at the edge of the trail, along with a pair of poles, a stuff sack and a sweater. I called out several times, thinking maybe someone was sick and might need help, but no one responded. Did someone forget something and go back? Since I had been off the trail at the shelter, I would have missed him or her. I wound up leaving it and hiking on. After I passed the turn-off to Spruce Peak, I met Lee and Carol from Florida, who were out for a day-hike with their two dogs. I asked if they had seen anyone who was injured and without a pack and told them about the abandoned pack. They said they had seen four men, all with packs. When they asked if I were a thru-hiker, and I said yes, Lee said, "You are my hero," and Carol offered me a peanut butter sandwich. I said only if they had enough, that we can be shameless about accepting trail magic. They are driving up along the AT, doing some hiking and meeting lots of thru-hikers. We talked about my discovery that I am losing muscle. Carol said they do a lot of sculling at home, and she eats a lot to avoid that very thing.I made it safely across the VT 11 & 30 intersection and sat on a rock near the parking lot to eat a sandwich of pita, Nutella, and honey. It was 12:30, I had done 5.8 miles and had just 5.5 to go to Mad Tom Notch, where Lee was going to pick me up around 5. On the way up Bromley, I spoke with a woman from Israel, who I think is living in Manchester, and chatted for a bit with SOBOs Moses, Papa Wolf, and Sinatra. Papa Wolf is Sinatra's dad, and Sinatra and Moses are long-time best friends. They call themselves the Wolf Pack, since Wolf is Papa Wolf and Sinatra's last name.On top, Onesimus and Trouble were on the deck of the warming hut. Onesimus is out in his camper doing trail magic, and he gave me an orange, which I devoured on the spot. He headed back to the camper, and I went north toward Mad Tom Notch. About a half mile from the bottom, I met First Gear. She had done the AT last year and is doing the LT SOBO. She asked if I had met Flinch, who is her aunt. I said I had read Flinch's trail journal and that Sherlock and his mother were followers. She is hiking southbound in the hope of meeting up with Flinch. We talked about her hike last year, and when she said she had summited on October 9, I asked if she had met HOBO. Turns out they were part of a group of 30 who summited that day, because they waited out a string of bad days. Since they were both Maine residents, she had wanted to meet him, and they did have a chance to talk with one another on the way down. Small world, and even smaller when I found out that she knows my former Plymouth neighbors and friends, Jill and Denny Scott, who are friends of her parents.We both went on, and Lee met me on the trail a few minutes later. She had brought fruit, PB&J sandwich fixings, cheese and crackers and a Long Trail Ale to tide me over until we got home. We had a great dinner: the last two filets from a Christmas gift from Lee's sister, Janice, artichokes, beans from the garden, and a bottle of wine from the Bierzo region of Spain, one of our favorites and also a gift from Janice.