Date: 2023-06-27
From: MM 1625

To: MM 1638
Miles today: 13.0

Day 108 13 mi MM 1638Dry at last!I¢m staying in a hostel tonight ¢Wicked Waystation¢ that just opened June first. It¢s an old farmhouse and has a huge amount of comfortable common space and a full kitchen. There¢s a small country store 0.3 miles down the road to get food so it¢s very convenient as well. I washed and dried all my clothes and so they, like me, are clean and dry for the first time since Saturday at 7:00 am. You have no idea how good that feels. Unless you tried yesterday¢s experiment. Show of hands - how many put on cold, wet clothes this morning?  Yeah, that¢s what I thought. I did say all my clothes, didn¢t I?  Anybody wonder what I was wearing during that process?  Or are you afraid to even think about it?  Well, most hostels offer ¢loaner clothes¢ for just that purpose. Something to wear after your shower and while your clothes are being laundered. I generally try for the gaudiest combo possible. Your choices are limited by what will fit though. This time I have cardinal red shorts and a deep maroon tee shirt topped off with a canary yellow fleece because I was cold just sitting around. Not my best effort- it really doesn¢t look all that bad. Course I make everything look good.  Ahem¢¦.Today¢s trail summary¢¦I know you will never guess it, but it rained today. Had an overcast but dry morning and was forecast for rain to start about 4:00.  So I pushed it a bit and got to a shelter at 1:00 that was the last place with cell service to call the hostel and arrange for a pickup. I managed to get through and set a pickup time for 3:15. Thought I could make it by 3:00; I hate to be late so I add some time so the driver has some cushion. It was a 3.6 mile almost all downhill trek. Time to scarf down some lunch. As this was the last day before a resupply, it was a bunch of leftovers. One stick of cheese, 3 peanut butter tortillas (the really small ones), some granola, and a Snickers bar. Actually wasn¢t all that bad. At 1:20 I set off to make my rendezvous.  It was looking like I might stay dry today. At 1:25 it started to rain a nice steady one. It got stronger as I went further. Finally, about 2:30 I decided I needed to put my rain jacket on. Not to stay dry - that ship already sailed - but to stay warm if I had to stand and wait for my ride. I got to the parking lot at 2:50 and my ride showed up at 3:00. She said she knew we all gave a cushion but since it was wet she was trying to beat me there. ¢A¢ for effort. It was a great thought. I fell three times today, numbers 11,12 and 13.  I¢m okay. 11 and 13 were minor slips caused by the wet ground giving way under my weight. All they managed to accomplish was to drop me into pools of water. Ha! Fooled them!  I was already completely soaked. One of my trail truisms: You can only get so wet. Number 12 was a different story. First time since PA that I thought I might have done some damage. Was going for a longish rock hop and it wasn¢t completely secured and rolled when I landed on it. Down I went on my complete right side; this time into the rocks. Hit pretty hard from the ankle up to the shoulder but the hip took most of the blow. It landed on a nice round rock about the size of a basketball. Pretty sharp pain at the moment of impact so I gotta say, I was worried for a minute. But nothing seemed damaged so I went off again. I am expecting a very large bruise tomorrow. I passed 4 separate beaver ponds today. Northern MA and VT sure seem to have a lot of beavers. I really like them - natural engineers!  The trail maintenance was not quite as bad as the past two days. The mud was just as bad maybe even worse. Vermont is shaping up to be my least favorite state although it is really beautiful¢¦ When you are upright and can afford to take your eyes off the trail!I have WiFi tonight so I was able to send some photos and a video. Check out the last few days for the added photos. The video is attached to yesterday¢s post.