Date: 2002-09-07
From: Maine

To: GA
Miles today: 13.0

Saturday September 7th, 20026:30 Cooking oatmeal for breakfast. Getting a late start today. Nice day, wind has died down. I am going downhill from Liberty Springs campsite and going down into Franconia Notch. Seems every time there is a notch there is a highway. It is about 2 miles down and it¢s tough anytime you come down from the mountain. Harder than going up it.   Hard time controlling where you are going and you have to watch every step. I imagine the majority of people that have to get off the trail were going downhill. Easy to trip and fall.   I am always very careful and it will take me along time to make it down but I would rather take my time than be off the trail altogether. Just met up with Manitou, northbound section hiker. He is really enthused. Nice guy and his wife is a hiker too but she is at home waiting for their daughter to have a baby. Net Walrus and Peek A Boo, north bounders, from Minnesota and he was born in Waverly and Peek A Boo was from New York State. Yesterday when I ran into that couple that had that dog with them. I don¢t know if I mentioned this but they said where they were from and they said I believe the dog was from North Carolina. I said how did that happen? And they said they found him in North Carolina he has been along with them ever since. I should have Jordan sent out here and have Jordan hike along with me.   Man he would get a kick out of all this. Just met Papa Squaw his second time he said, he is from South Carolina. Did it in 99.   Just met !renegade on the trail he was from Georgia and he said look for that trail magic down there. I just met a couple that were day hiking and they had 2 dogs with them.   I ask them and there is a parking lot down there and I ask them if I could leave my trash by their car because there is no way to put it and they said sure, it¢s blue Volvo just leave it there and we will take it out for you. Very nice. The trail is Carry In and Carry Out you do not leave trash anywhere on the trail. When you get to town or trash can but there are no trash cans at the huts or campsites. So it¢s nice to get rid of it. I believe this is day 32 on the trail for me.Stopped into the Lonesome Lake Hut and had 2 bowls of oatmeal, one bowl with pineapple on it and 4 pieces of bread, one calzone and bowl of scrambled eggs, all for 2.00. 3 cups of hot cocoa too. As I walk along, I am by myself of course so I have a lot of time to think.   Thinking about what I have learned from my kids. What they have taught me. I think about Shelly and how she has taught me to talk and appreciate and be tolerant of handicapped people. The patience she has with them, she taught me how to deal with them and be comfortable with them. Pam has taught me how to go with the flow. Take whatever life gives you everyday.   And be happy with where you are at in life and your station in life, and you can change some things and some things you understand that you don¢t change like people, places or things. You change within. Val has taught me how to deal with people. Like in arguments she is so good at just calmly and assertively stating what she believes. Not getting all uptight about it. I believe I have learned from that and I have tried to incorporate that into my persona. It¢s hard to do but she has done it. She taught me about love for kids and how to tolerate and handle kids and she is very good at it. Theresa has taught me how to broaden my horizons. Stretch out and do things and do things that I would have never thought of doing before. She is the one that has inspired me to do so many things and actually do this trail. And not to be afraid.   Try something new. Dan has taught me that no matter how much trouble we have with each other it¢s still possible to love in a family. He has overlooked so many things that I have done and said. I made so many mistakes with him that he has over looked. So he has taught me tolerance and love, just pure love without any conditions, unconditional love. He is such a good father, he has taught me also how to be a better father. And he stops and he thinks. We were working together in the garage once and instead of plunging right into it he will stop and think it over. He¢s taught me to do that. I used to just plunge right in and make all those mistake rather than stop and think and plan it out. He always says and he is sitting there and I say what are you doing? He says, Oh I¢m thinking. Jeff has taught me what it is to be a friend to someone.   He is a friend to everyone that knows him, everyone likes him.   He knows how to be a friend he has a lot of love and is not afraid to express it. He is just a big bear and he has taught me so much about it, living and living in the now. He also is a forgiving soul. He has a lot of patience and tolerance and he doesn¢t judge and he has also taught me not to judge people. Just met !turquoise, she comes from Massachusetts. Going to Katahdin has her dog, Nazareth and he is an Australian shepherd and chow mix, dog has some metal plates inside of her from previous surgery. Just met on top of Kinsman Mountain, one of the guys that was with his wife and another couple. A couple of days ago I saw them on one the mountains, and his wife¢s name was Nancy and she wanted me to look for one of her friends that should be coming up the trail named Blueberry. And they figured she was in Hanover and they figured I would pass by here. So one of these days maybe I will see her and say Hey Nancy says Hi. ON the summit of Kinsmen Mountain which will be the last mountain for this day. Tomorrow will be the tough one when I climb Mount Moosilauke. But anyway this day is done. I don¢t know maybe I am just getting burned out.   But this is the meanest downhill I have encountered on the trail.   It is mean, it is hand over hand down and straight down and no place to hang on, slipping and sliding. Coming off Kinsman Mountain and walking along here and thinking about old Pete Farley, the ex priest. 71 years old, he had been hiking with Fern and I don¢t know how old Fern is but I would judge about early 40s. She had lost her husband to cancer and he had fought hard for a year and he had cancer 5 years before that and it came back but he had always dreamed of doing the AT, he loved to hike and she was doing this in his memory. She said she was doing this because she has never really done anything in her life.   But she was a very nice lady and I had leap frogged with her and Farley for a few days. Now I think maybe I am a day ahead of them. But I miss them and maybe I will see them again. They are south bound also. Meeting some other hikers. Flam from Baltimore, Maryland.   Neighbor from Baltimore, Maryland. Nagodotches Turtle from Nagodotches Texas. I¢ll be dammed. Sought Rocket from Clinton, New York. Moan just came in and he is all enthused excited and his is gonna take off. He¢s not waiting for those other guys, he doesn¢t want to get drunk again. Just run into Chauvez he is sitting here at the shelter he is from Rockfish Gap, Virginia. I¢m in for the night at this Visor Brook Shelter. It¢s about 4 and could have gone on further but there is no reason to go on, I am getting kind of fried here and I have 2 more days of this stuff and it will get better. They say I will be through most of the worst of it. That is what they say. From Vermont on, it¢s all a piece of cake. That is what they say. Just met !prairiedog he was from Maryland, north bound. Met El Paso from Frederick, Maryland and Big Toe from Chicago, Illinois. Someone ask me, his name was Places Unknown what was with the recorder. Ha. I think I had the recorder turned the wrong way when I was getting those guys names. There was Smiling Mike also. I made 11 miles today. These young guys that are staying in the shelter near here, I hope they don¢t get too loud. They got a bottle of booze with them. Also a group of college kids from Dartmouth University and they are out here on the trail studying nature, but I doubt if they will get too loud. But if they do I will put in my earplugs. Just met !kevin and gosh it was good to see him and he is from Virginia and he is walking home. But he will be ahead of me because I am going pretty slowly. He started in Canada.