Date: 2017-08-04
From: Salisbury

To: Pine Swamp lean to
Miles today: 15.5
Weather: few clouds

Everything you need to know about the merits of Poppa's and my own respective hiking styles can be found in this fact: he started several miles behind me and now he's camping even further in front of me. He's about to get off trail for a week while he travels down to Virgina to go for a hike on the AT in the Grayson Highlands with his wife and friends so he's worked out a schedule that would get him to a place where it's easy to reach a town where he can hire a car.So, being Poppa, he's worked out three 20-mile days to reach Pawling in New York, then this morning he started around 6am and walked through until late afternoon to get his mileage.Contrast that with my own indolent schedule, where I didn't manage to leave the warm and comfortable bed in Vanessa's home until 8am, then got on the road (which in this context is code for "wander across the road to the cafe for a leisurely breakfast") half an hour later.However even I was surprised to find Poppa sitting at the exact same cafe, where he was just finishing his own breakfast.In truth, I'd hoped to make an earlier start, mostly because there was a forecast for a thunderstorm this afternoon. But rule one of thru-hiking is to listen to your body rather than the arbitrary hiking schedule you've created, and in this case the eight days since my last full day off from hiking merited an easier start to the day.And possibly, just possibly, the three single malts I'd drunk as part of the previous evening's peat-off with the New York businessman and the two earlier pints of beer might have also played a part...Given Poppa's example of industriousness and early rising, I should have made my own breakfast a quick and efficient affair then hiked on. But the loveliness of the garden setting and the pleasant temperatures on this early August day had me lingering on for an hour before finally escaping the vortex of the cafe.As I went to leave, the waitress explained that Poppa had paid my bill. This was presumably because I'd paid the Uber fare the day before, telling him, Spiff and Littlefoot to pay it forward to some other cash-strapped hiker in future rather than paying me their share of the $9.50 fare.Midway across the seven mile leg along the ridge towards Falls Village, the next town, the skies opened and rain poured down. It had the feel of a short sharp shower, so I sheltered under a tree until the worst was past before continuing on.Encountering nobos who were soaked to the bone soon after vindicated this call, although the first bunch remained resolutely happy despite the drenching.It was sunny again by the time I walked into Falls Village and did a short detour to the Toymakers Cafe, which was famous on the trail for the quality of the food.Poppa was already there, having just ordered his lunch and beating my attempt to pay back his breakfast largesse.Soon after his lunch was served, he was back on the road by 2pm. I farewelled him, saying I'd see him down the road but would be waiting for my own burger to settle before hiking on. By the time I was about to escape from this latest vortex, the skies had darkened and the rumble of thunder presaged round two of the storm. It wasn't hard to stay put as a downpour followed that was as fierce as the one we'd watched from the Mexican restaurant in Great Barrington but lasted much longer. The streets were literally awash with water.I didn't leave until 3.15pm. The plan had been for another 11 miles to a campsite Poppa said he was heading to but a series of steep climbs and descents slowed progress and by the time I reached Pine Swamp lean to, I'd have faced doing another 3.4 miles in an hour and a half, likely landing me there right on dusk.The latest forecast was for it to rain all day tomorrow, so I was contemplating doing an on-trail nero to give my body a rest and to catch up on this journal. Doing that in my tent rather than a shelter wasn't an appealing prospect so I called the day early and headed to the lean to. It's no wonder every known version of the tortoise-vs-hare parable ends with a tortoise victory! But I'm ok with this. My goal is to have fun out here rather than relentlessly pounding the miles, and flatter terrain ahead on the mid-Atlantic states should allow me to make up for today's hydrophobic indolence...Bashful, who I hadn't seen since my post-Whites slowdown in the middle of Vermont, was the only person at the lean to, although other nobos wandered in over the next hour and a half. She said she'd been walking alone for a long time, seemingly between the various sobo bubbles.Life is good.AT fact of the day: The early bird doesn't just get the worm -- or, in this case, more miles -- but also sees more wildlife. Poppa saw six moose in Maine and New Hampshire, while lots of people didn't see any. This morning he encountered a momma bear and two cubs as he was leaving Riga lean to.