Date: 2009-07-14
From: Kent, CT

To: Pine Swamp Brook Lean-to
Miles today: 17.0

*Note- A hiker who I had previously had only the most fleeting interactions with since first seeing him in northern Virginia, now becomes a more prominent part of my story. His behavior seriously affected my hike for the rest of the time I was on the trail. I have debated about whether or not I should write about anything having to do with him, but have concluded that it would not be fair to me if I did not. I tried to talk with him about his behavior on the trail numerous times, but each time, I was completely dismissed, leaving me no way to deal with it. Because I consider him a dangerous person and because he continues to harass me by posting nasty, absurd, anonymous messages in my guestbook (a 35 year old¢s way of throwing a temper tantrum because he can not deal with himself, as well as trying to create a scare tactic), I have chosen to refer to him as ¢Mr. Pink¢. His pink blazing motives for doing the trail were well known to others, but not to me at the time. His actions went far beyond pink-blazing, however, leading me to conclude that the most dangerous animals on the trail are human beings. My own gut instincts failed me because he was so versed in his manipulations. I will not go into all that occurred as it is of a disturbing nature, but I feel strongly about telling my story, and not allowing the perpetrators to coerce their victims into silence, where they must suffer alone.*A compromisebetween honesty and liesTo lead me pasttheir sly disguiseMy moves are slowbut soon they'll knowOur moves are slowbut soon they'll knowBehind the scenesthey grow their schemesHiding intentionsrevealing only fractionsTheir moves are slowbut soon you'll knowTheir moves are slowbut soon you'll knowThey'll keep on whispering their mantrasWe'll keep on whispering our mantrasThey'll keep on whispering their mantrasWe'll keep on whispering our mantras                        -Jose Gonzalez                                    GAMES         I was happy when the sun came up, for once. Cowboy camping is not comfortable. My sleeping bag was now wet from the dew and I draped it over the chain-linked fence in hopes that it would dry as I enjoyed my breakfast at the coffee shop. I chatted with two of the Georgia girls- Nutmeg and Billie Hoot as I ate. Mr. Pink then came in and sat at my table. He asked me when I was leaving. ¢I don¢t know...¢ I went back out to pack up my things and happened to head out on the half-mile walk back to the trail just after him. He slowed and waited for me. I didn¢t mind the company. We headed through a bit of grassland and over a small wooden bridge, where I saw a snake on the other side. Mr. Pink used his pole to get it out of our way. I almost missed seeing a herd of cows, which he pointed out to me. I went over to take pictures of them and he went ahead. I didn¢t know if I would catch up to him again, but he appeared to be waiting a little ways up. Right away, he wanted to play games with me. He had been told by the twins that today¢s hike would take us along a river for several miles. He wanted me to force him to go swimming when we reached it. However, the river was not appearing. Instead, he wanted me to come up with a rule for him, and then a punishment. For example, if we saw a snake in the next 30 minutes, he would have to go swimming at the next body of water we came to. He kept making me come up with rules and punishments, which I was not accustomed to. I could not understand why anyone would want to be punished in the first place. I came up with a couple of ¢rules¢, but made him come up with the punishments. Then, he wanted to play ¢2 truths and a lie¢, where one person had to make two true and one false statements about themselves, and the other person had to guess which was a lie. He was very skilled at this game! I was not. The lie was the most difficult part to come up with.       Soon, we came to the river, and he asked if we should take a sidepath down to it so he could swim. I agreed. The bank was extremely steep and slippery, but I made it down okay. ¢Turn around,¢ he said, as he took off his clothes. When he got in, he wanted me to videotape him and made me tell him what to do in the water. Every time he did something, he would look at me eagerly for the next instruction. I tried not to think about the meaning of this, and just chalked it up to my AT experience.          We continued along the river, and as it was ending and a climb was coming up, I decided I wanted to put my feet in the water, as I had hardly done this at all on my hike. Mr. Pink picked up a large stone and set it by the water¢s edge. ¢What are you doing?¢ I asked. He said he was making a seat for me so I could put my feet in. I was a little taken aback by this, as I was just going to stand in the water. Later, I started thinking it was a sweet gesture. As I was drying off my feet, the first southbounder of the year came along and started chatting with us. His name was ¢Wanderer¢ and he carried a wooden paddle that he named ¢Drift¢. I thought it was neat that we got to see the first southbounder. We continued up the next climb, where Mr. Pink got the idea to race. He wanted me to make up a time that he had to get to the top by (and a punishment in case he did not succeed) and set off, before realizing that this was just going to result in him getting far ahead of me. So, he decided to give me a 2 minute head start and then tried to beat me. I finished just before him! Racing was fun and different, although it made both of us tired and our stomachs started hurting after that.       We were greeted by a southbound section hiker, who informed us that we had a ¢treat¢ coming up. I started anticipating trail magic, but he was just referring to a nice brook. I collected water and steripenned it in the middle of the brook as Mr. Pink took some landscape pictures on the other bank. Then, he took a picture of me (later, I found out he was only pretending to take a picture of me...). He smiled at me as I came across the rocks to the bank. We continued along, and as the hike progressed, we both became quiet. I was so tired that I was trying to conserve my energy. We came to a boulder similar to the lemon squeeze, where again, he pretended to take my picture. (I had never encountered that behavior before...) I wanted to get to Sharon Mountain campsite that night, but we decided to stop in at the Pine Swamp Brook Lean-to, at least for dinner. There was a very confident and together 18 year old guy in the shelter, who was out on a solo trip from the VT/MA border to the NY/NJ border. Mr. Pink smiled at him and asked him how old he was. Then Mr. Pink asked me for my water bottle as he was going to collect water. I couldn¢t believe he was going to fetch water for me! I told him he was the first guy on this trip to do so for me. It turned out to be a bad, swampy source, however. I chatted with the young man as I ate dinner. He is going to go far in life with all of the experience, confidence, and grounding that he already has. A father and daughter came in and Mr. Pink teased them about seeing a bear in the area earlier. The girl believed him for a good while and got scared, which Mr. Pink loved. He gets off on goading people. He told me that he had a nice day and expected me to respond in agreement, as we set off to find spots for our hammocks. He told me to throw a stone at him in the morning about 15 minutes before I was ready to leave. We got ready for bed in our separate areas and went to sleep, as Veggie Steve clamored into the shelter, waking the boy up, and keeping him up with all kinds of mumbled talk.