Date: 2002-09-20
From: Maine

To: want to get to Georgia
Miles today: 16.0

September 20, 20027am Leaving Kidgore shelter heading south. See what the day brings with my pack. If it doesn¢t work and gives me too much misery I will just hitch into Bennington, Vermont and I see on the map I can go to HWY 7 and go to Manchester where I had it repaired to begin with. It¢s about 20 miles, so we will see how it goes, and I hate to do it but might have too. This is day 45 think. The fog rolled in early but now the sun is going to shine.   Going to be warm, it¢s already in the 60¢s.   As I said yesterday, El Toro was in the shelter last night, he only made 5 miles yesterday. But you know you have to give the kid credit, and I thought he just sprained his wrist or something but he only uses this one arm and the other one he has this brace on it. Last night he told these one people in the shelter that he was partially paralyzed. By gosh he does a good job hiking for just having one good arm. Packing all his stuff and everything so I have to give him a lot of credit. He has flip flopped back and forth but now he is on his final session and he has to go to Waynesboro, WV. He thinks he can make it there and then be home by thanksgiving. He is gonna have to hurry.   Stopped in for a break in the Gotters Shelter, and it¢s new and there is fairly a lot of space. Looks like it could be a good view but it¢s foggy and I can¢t see anything from here. There is Frank and Alfreda from Winnipeg, Canada. I just me them on the AT. They are northbound on the AT they are section hiking and they are going to the Franconian Notch. They started doing the trail in 1999 and they have been doing it in sections. I think that is a smart way to do this trail. You don¢t get so burned out. I didn¢t ask their ages but they look to be in their 60¢s. I just fell hard. Knocked me out for minute. I hit my head on a rock and I am bleeding inside my mouth. I don¢t know how bad it is but I have a heck of a headache. I gotta about 2 miles to the road and I will probably have to go in and I don¢t know (gasping for air) I don¢t know¢¦ (Gasping for air) I don¢t know what I am doing. I¢¦(gasp)¢¦I¢¦.(gasp)¢¦ going¢¦¢¦¢¦¢¦to Bennington to see a doctor maybe. I am kind of numb right now on my left side. I really hit hard.   I am going to have to stop now and rest. Just met someone northbound from spring, he was from San Francisco and warned him he was going to run into some trouble up ahead. But he is still going northbound. Thank god, someone stopped to give me a ride. His name was Frank Gostapino and he has a permit to cut firewood and has for 30 years. It was so hot and was sweating so bad he couldn¢t see but he still has a pretty good load of firewood on back there; he is from over on the other side of Bennington. Moosig, New York. He is taking me to town and then I am going to see a doctor and then go to Manchester to get my pack taken care of. If he hadn¢t come along I don¢t know what the heck I would have done. I talked to a young fellow in the last shelter, which was about a mile and a half from the road. He told me that he had just came up from the road and he had been in Manchester the day before and there is a shuttle or bus service that goes from Manchester to Bennington. I said well where is the bus station so I got the hell out of there off the trail to the road as fast as I could go. And I got down the road about 2:45 and I got a ride right away, with the guy I just mentioned. He took me right to the bus station and I got a round trip ticket to Manchester for 15 dollars.   I am on the bus right now and it¢s 3:45 and it gets into Manchester at 4:30 so I will get to the store and figure that out. I will then it comes back at 7:00. SO will l have to find a place to camp or stay in Bennington. My lip is still bleeding. There is a hole clear through it. My eyetooth must have gone through. Maybe it will quit bleeding. I hope I don¢t¢ have to get it stitched but I do have a steary strip that Theresa gave me so I will have to use that to see if I can fix it. I will do that later. Right now I can¢t do it. Need a mirror. I called Mary while I was waiting for the bus. She said, that my cousin Judy Gelhaus who is somewhat challenged has cancer, is not expected to live. I saw her at the reunion and thought she looked real good so I don¢t know. Anyway they called home her brother Mark from California and Mary from Illinois and Mary was always outspoken young lady, she was a lot smarter than everyone gave her credit for. She used to have a lot going for her, I always liked her. Then of course I got an update on Danny, and he wants to go back to Cedar Rapids. So he is going to have to go to this halfway house with some structure. He really needs help and he needs to be someplace where he can get his life back together with supervision. So hopefully he will do that. It¢s always nice to talk to Mary.   I need to write down my questions I want to ask her because I always forget what I want to ask.   I was glad to hear that Pam got all my tapes and Mary said everyone is wondering where I am at and what I am doing, and she hasn¢t transcribed anything for awhile so everyone is wondering what the heck is going on with me. You know something. It¢s times like this, I wish I was on this bus headed west toward Iowa. Isn¢t that something? There is so many times I am disillusioned about this trail and what I am doing and there are other times I feel go about it. I am very ambivalent about it, very up in the air. It¢s really not as important as I thought it would be for me and yet I am not a quitter. So I am very torn about the trail right now. We just pulled into Manchester Center. And it has been just over 24 hours and I was so proud of my new hip belt and it has just torn me apart completely and it has pained me not only in my body but also in my EGO. It was really stupid decision. Got the belt change back on and what a difference and then I bought a pair of them Kobak shorts. So I got 2 pairs of them and I can throw those cotton ones away. I am not looking at this Barbershop wondering if I ought to get a hair cut. No they close at 4:30 and I missed out on that. He didn¢t want to cut my hair, he said I looked all right. Funny guy. Oh well, I guess who cares¢¦..who is gonna see me on the trail anyway, well maybe a few chipmunks, frogs and once in awhile a moose.   Talk about Trail Magic. I stopped into the Mountain Goat where I had stopped in to buy some shorts there the other day in Manchester and I bought some other things in there too. And this young fellow in there, who was very accommodating. I was telling him about my experience and was telling him why I was back in town. I said, I have a round trip ticket and have to get back on the bus by 7:30 and he says well so what, I live in Bennington, I can take you back there and I get off at 6. I said Oh that would be fine, and he said do you have a place to say, and I said, No. I am just going to camp out and he said well I would let you stay at my place but I got an apartment. I said, well I just probably try to get back out to the trail and he said I will take you back out there. So how can you match that? So I am going to go and see if I can get refund on my ticket while I wait for him to get off work. SO I got a refund of 6.15. The young man that is going to take me back to the trailhead is named Brandon. HE works at the mountain goat here. I made 14 miles today. Mile 476 at the end of the day. Brendan McKenna is his name. He left me off at the trail and it¢s still daylight so I will pitch camp here somewhere.   Brendan McKenna, this young man is about 30, his wife is a schoolteacher and they spent some years in Alaska living on Kenai. But he is back here around family but he would like to go back to Alaska and hike the Chokula Trail. Very Very interesting young man and a great person. I really enjoyed him. He took me right out here to the trailhead and he told me to go right across the river here and camp and that is where I am at a nice campsite. I am set up and it¢s 7:30 and I am eating some crackers and some cocoa and a pop tart. But I had McDonalds when I was in town. I had a quarter pounder, fries and a flurry. I stopped and had a nice big cup of hazelnut coffee with sugar and cream. I am getting to like sugar and cream in my coffee, Mary. I had a great big scone before I left. So now everything looks good right now. It¢s surprising how things can change when you really make an effort and face the challenge. That is the thing, it¢s a challenge. Brendan and his wife have set up a thing to help out with the trails. They have fund-raisers and they give a lot of money to the trails. They are also going to help fund a new shelter at Lost Pond the one that I was at that had burned out and they are doing a lot of good for the community and the trail community, it¢s nice to see people do things like that. I just dropped this tape recorder, I hope I didn¢t break it. My lip has almost quit bleeding, going to have to put antiseptic on it. Looks kind of yellow. I just put some iodine and those squeeze things Theresa gave me on my lip. Seems to be heeling. It was bleeding for about 3 hours, now it has sort of quit. I bought a pair of cool max briefs. I want to get rid of those cotton ones they are so uncomfortable. I got them here and their white and boy that will be fun, anyway sometimes I wonder, I just don¢t think. Just when you get real discouraged and sick of the trail you meet someone like Brendan and it turned my whole day around and it restores you and gives you a new life. It¢s good thing I ran into him today as you can tell by my previous messages. I am still a little bit ambivalent. He said he was not sure if he would like to do the trail alone. He would like to have his wife go with him. I am sort of getting that way. I thought I would like solitude but I think it would be better if there was someone along. It¢s a long day when you¢re out there all alone. I met a few people on the trail but basically I was out there all-alone for the last couple of weeks. I know when I was leap froggin¢ with Kevin and of course El Toro. Like with Sylvane, Fern and some other guys it was more fun. SO maybe I need to slow down and stay with some people. To heck with deadlines.   You know that is easy to say that but doing it is another thing. Well it is past 9 and I better get some sleep.   I better shut my radio off; I am not getting very good reception here anyway. There is a road near here and I can hear trucks going by but this is right by the stream so that is nice to hear. It roars and gurgles and bubbles. Now that I am lying down I can feel my lip and it keeps dripping down and keeps bleeding. Maybe I need to do something. I am feeling kind of dizzy in my head. I don¢t have coordination and my arm is starting to go numb and my fingertips and I think I pinched that nerve in my neck again. These people that are camped not far from me here are smoking some wacky weed here I think¢¦Oh good night. 16 miles today