Date: 2003-11-09
From: seth warner shelter

To: williamstown, mass
Miles today: 6.9

ten. ten degrees. ten degrees this morning. real cold. the kind of cold where i didn¢t want to get out of my sleeping bag. why would i? it was warm in my sleeping bag. it was ten degrees outside of my sleeping bag. i postponed it as long as possible. just laid there in my warm sleeping bag, watching the condensation from my breath, feeling the coldness of the morning biting at my nose and cheeks. i eventually did crawl from my sleeping bag, get my food from where it was hanging in the shelter, and return to my sleeping bag. some hot oatmeal warmed up my insides, giving me the courage to face the cold.i said good-bye to larry from new hampshire and starting hiking in what had turned into a sunny, 17 degree day. perfect hiking weather. i started off wearing my long johns beneath my shorts, but those were soon to come off. it was too hot, so then i hiked in my shorts and a long sleeve shirt, and it was perfect. the nice thing about hiking when it is this cold out is that all of the trail that would usually be a muddy and mucky mess is completely frozen. so, i can just cruise right over top of it.i crossed the border from vermont into massachusetts today. at that point i was 591.9 miles from the summit of katahdin. and, i¢ve course, i have only hiked 236 of those miles. but, massachusetts is going to be the state. i have a feeling that it will finally be the one i hike all the way through. i¢ve got to hike across one of these states eventually. well, actually i don¢t. i guess that is the beauty of it. i¢ve just got to go wherever the journey takes me. and, if it takes me across a state, then i¢ll go across that state. but, maybe massachusetts will be the one. i¢ve got a feeling about this state. as i crossed the border, i liked it immediately. nice trail. nice woods. nice day. i couldn¢t complain. today turned out to be a perfect hiking day. if they could all be this way, i¢d never stop hiking. i wouldn¢t have any problems. everything would be great. of course, there has to be some bad mixed in with the good because then you appreciate the good that much more.i crossed paths with and talked to lots of people that were out for the day. i enjoyed the conversation. i was enjoying the day. i took my time getting down to route 2. from where the trail crossed route 2, it was 2 12 miles into the town of williamstown. i ended up walking that 2 12 miles. there wasn¢t a hitch to be had. plenty of traffic on route 2, but no one wanted to pick me up. i guess that is where the flaw with massachusetts lies. there is apparently no hitchhiking.my first stop in williamstown was the mountain goat outfitters. i refilled my stove fuel and got permission to camp in their backyard tonight. i ditched my pack at the store and walked over to the main strip- spring street. it turns out that there is a college in this town, williams college. i¢ve never heard of it, but it seems to be full of really smart people. i picked up on the fact that homecoming was this weekend. i hate that i missed that. i bet it was a good time.the temperature was starting to cool off (it got up to around 30 degrees today), so i went to subway to get something to eat. i stayed in there long after i was finished eating, just to be inside where it was warm. after i felt like i had loitered at subway long enough, i walked down the road to a gas station where i bought a large hot chocolate (to warm my insides) and stocked up on the hostess fruit pies. two for a dollar- no tax. this state is great. i bought a quart of milk and some donuts to save for later. walking back out into the cold, i tried to figure out where the next place was that i could be inside. it was getting dark and getting colder as i walked back to spring street. i ducked into a deli to have a hot bowl of chili.i was seated at a table when i man came over and started talking to me. i said that he noticed my hiking attire and that i was brave for being out this time of year. i asked him if he meant brave or stupid and he laughed at that. i invited him to join me at my table. vince and i had a sat and talked for a while. i found out that he was kind of doing the same thing as i was. trying to find a place to be out of the cold. after we left the deli, we walked to vince¢s van (which i lives in most of the time in vermont) so that he could get some things, and then we walked over to the library at williams college. vince said that he comes down to williamstown about once a week to use the computer at the library. as we were walking to the library i told vince how i had spent most of the afternoon trying to find various places to get inside where it was warm. it kind of made me realize what a homeless person must go through during the winter. i guess that with my current lifestyle i¢m really nothing more than a glorified homeless person. it isn¢t so bad when i am hiking and moving from place to place. but, being in town on a cold afternoon and an even colder night is something else. this afternoon and tonight have given me a new understanding of the life of a person that lives on the streets.i loitered in the library for as long as possible. i sat at my computer long after i¢d finished checking my email- pretending like i was doing important things just so i could stay inside where it was warm. vince said that he was leaving and asked if i needed anything. i told him that i didn¢t. it was very gracious of him to offer to help me when i new that he didn¢t have much to offer. vince is a great guy. i left the library not long after vince, retrieved my milk from where i¢d hidden it in some bushes (it was completely fine just stashed in the bushes since it was so cold outside), and walked back to the outfitters.most of the time people set up tents in the backyard beside the river. since i¢m no longer carrying a tent i decided to just lay out in the yard with my bivy sack. there wasn¢t a cloud in the sky. and, the moon was almost full, which posed a bit of a problem. it was as bright as day in the backyard. i found a spot in the grass where i could lay in the shadow of a large tree. as soon as i laid down a spotlight came on in the backyard next door. it was shining right on me. it stayed on for five minutes and then went off. then, it came on a few seconds later. it was on a motion detector. i wasn¢t close enough to set it off, but something was. it kept coming on and going off and did this for quite a while. i eventually picked up my stuff and moved over right beside the wall of the store. i got as close as i could to the building and situated some garbage cans to provide some sort of shade from the spotlight and the moon. because the moon is moving i won¢t be hidden from it for long. but, hopefully the steady roar of the river that is rushing by about twenty yards from me will lull me to sleep soon enough.ps- today marks one month since this adventure began. what a month it has been. like i said before- definitely not that adventure i anticipated. but, i wouldn¢t trade or change any of it so far. i have learned and grown and God is good.