Date: 2012-07-26
From: Sidney Tappan Campsite

To: West Branch Pleasant River
Miles today: 7.0
Weather: moderate rain

Before heading out in the morning, met a section hiker who had hiked the southern part of the trail before jumping up to cover Maine before cold weather had set in. He seemed distinctly different from the other hikers we'd met so far, in that he seemed to have very little enthusiasm for the whole thing. Although many of the NOBOs (those traveling northbound from Georgia to Maine) were tired and looking forward to the end, all had been happy with the journey overall and were enjoying Maine. Anyway, back to our own business. My knee was sore all night and still swollen in the morning. We took a leisurely morning to give it some rest, and Super Dave insisted on taking some weight out of my pack. We headed out at 10:30 AM for a slow careful clime up and then down Gulf Hagas. We ran into Crystal again at the Carl A. Newhall Lean-to, where she was planning to take a zero-day but still arrive in Monson on Monday. Crystal also explained the mystery of the unhappy hiker we met that morning up at our Sydney Tappan campsite. She had met the same hiker in the shelter and learned he works for the Appalachian Trail Conference (ATC) and was so tired of being asked if he had hiked the AT, that he decided to do it, but hated it. Funny what motivates people to hike the AT. Personally, I can't imagine doing something this difficult if I hated every minute of it.After a brief break and chat with Crystal, Dave and I continued heading down Gulf Hagas, stopping for lunch a bit furthur down by a waterfall along Gulf Hagas Brook. After lunch, we met a NOBO woman finishing up the VT-ME stretch of the AT. It seems she had made it from GA to VT in the 80s, got sidetracked by life, and now that her kids were grown, was back on the trail. Seemed like a wonderful woman, and I wished we were going in the same direction so I could get to know here better.Shortly after that, we ran into two women who had just gotten on the trail and were heading to Katahdin. I couldn't help but wonder if one of them was "Goonky", and wanted to ask, but I couldn't remember the "Goonky" screen name at the time. (A conversation with Crystal, who spent the night with all three women having "Ladies Night" at the Carl Newhall Lean-to, seems to confirm my hunch.) There are far fewer women than men on the trail, so the odds of having one shelter exclusively occupied by women is pretty amazing!As we crossed the Cut-off Trailhead in Gulf Hagas, Dave decided to open the AT registration box. Yippee! There was trail magic inside... a large bag of oreo cookies and a large bag of peanut M&Ms. After over-indulging a bit, we donated one of our ziplock bags to seal it up and return it to the box. Met a CT-ME section hiker and a then thru hiker a little further down the trail and brought smiles to their faces when we told them to look into the registration box.Stopped for the night after a short 7 mile day at a lovely little campsite across Henderston Brook just past the West Branch of the Pleasant River. Rested and elevated my knee by lying down on my tarp and putting my leg up on my full backpack.