Date: 2008-07-11
From: Campsite near Woodstock Stage Road VT

To: Happy Hill Shelter VT 
Miles today: 14.6
Weather: overcast clouds

Day 145 Friday July 11 ¢ Happy Hill Shelter VT - Miles Today: 14.6 Total Miles: 1728.5We had a great night's sleep! The only event last night was the animal traffic on the trail. We were pitched just off the trail, so when Brakeman woke up about 3:00 this morning, he got to listen to all the animals that use the trail as their foot path ¢ possibly raccoon, skunk, coyote and fox. He said there was quite a bit of traffic on the trail! We¢ll have to keep an eye out for poop!Grasshopper woke up around 5:00 to find Brakeman snoring away. Since we had just under 15 miles to hike today, she let him continue to sleep. We were on the trail by 6:30.We're finding these 15-mile days quite enjoyable. We take breaks quite often in the afternoon in addition to our mid morning break and a lunch break. That is, we take breaks as long as it's not pouring down rain. We still needed to get cell phone reception to see if we had a message from the doctor. It¢s Friday and the office closes early, so we don¢t have too much time left before finalizing our game plan for Hanover ¢ i.e., do we need to pick up new meds?   We were getting anxious. Finally around 10:00 at our break, we got one bar on the cell phone and were able to talk to the nurse, who had checked with the doctor regarding all of our questions. The meds that we've been carrying with us from Georgia are still good, so Grasshopper will continue to take them.   No need to pick up new meds in Hanover. We met a new thru-hiker today ¢ Shiloh. He¢s 55 years old, very tall, perhaps 6¢, and skinny as a rail. He's lost 15 pounds and has that ultra-marathon build to his body. He's pumping some higher days and was headed into Hanover today, where he will get off the trail to attend his daughter's wedding in Wilmington North Carolina. He¢ll be off the trail for about 4 days. Mentally, he's very psyched as in his mind knows that once he crosses the Connecticut River into New Hampshire, that he's got it made - Katahdin is his. We actually bumped into Shiloh several times today despite the fact that he hikes much faster than us. That goes without saying. Everybody hikes faster than us. Now wait, there was a group of like 8 year olds the other day that we hiked faster than. So let the record be noted, we did pass some hikers.   But anyway, the reason we kept passing Shiloh today is because he kept taking detours for food! He stopped at a farm, .2-mile off the trail that sold beef jerky, sodas, ice cream and baked goods. We got ahead of him while he filled his gut with goodies. Then he passed us. Then about 6 more miles up the trail, was a country general store right on the road that we were walking on and he stopped there for a full meal. We met up with him again there. It was quite funny because it was about 1:30 and he still had 9 miles to Hanover, but at the rate he hikes, he¢d probably be there by 5:30. So not a problem for him. Perhaps we¢ll see him north of Hanover, once he gets back from his daughter¢s wedding.We had just eaten lunch when we came to the country store so we just got a cool refreshing Pepsi. Perhaps the caffeine will propel us up the upcoming 3-mile incline! As we sat on the picnic table enjoying our cold Pepsi, we talked to 2 young guys from Germany, who were just starting a 3-week hike from Hanover to the Massachusetts border ¢ 150 miles. The one guy's pack weighed 58 pounds. When our eyes got big upon hearing that news, the other guy said, "Yes, we're stupid." They bought a lot of their gear in the US, since the exchange rate is so favorable. However, it does not appear that they bought hiking shirts ¢ the one guy had on a cotton T-shirt; the other guy had on a collared cotton buttoned down shirt! We wished them the best of luck. As they left, they gave us a bag of potato chips! Sweet! We've been eating pretty good on this segment. Every day since getting back on the trail, we have scored a little extra food via Trail Angels ¢ 6 Trail Magics in 6 days! We have never had this track record before. While relaxing at the General Store, we weighed our packs. We found out that Brakeman's pack and Grasshopper's pack are essentially the same weight! Grasshopper's pack came in at 22 pounds with just 2 pounds of water and Brakeman's pack came in at 24 pounds with 4 pounds of water. So both of our packs are about 20 pounds when we take out the water weight. How'd that happen? Oh yeah, he's only carrying 1 day of food. That's how it happened. ¢Still not fair¢, says Grasshopper. We ran into Joker again today. He talked a bit about his life outside of hiking. He said that Kodak bought the company he used to work for, so he is now a Kodak employee. The joining of the two companies made a symbiotic relationship, as his part of the company makes the big machines that laser an image onto special plates made by Kodak. Both companies were doing business around the world, with some overlap. By buying the company Joker worked for, Kodak was able to get an in with more countries. I think he said they have 30,000 customers and that some of these customers go through 80,000 plates a year. Wow, that is quite a business. Joker is a very high energy, positive thinking man. He's 45 years old. He snow skies, is a member of a ski patrol, and rides around with the EMTs on the weekends. He explained that riding with the EMTs is much better than when he goes with the ambulance, as the EMT uses about 80% of his training and the ambulance only uses about 20% of his training. He¢s really quite an interesting guy. Too bad we didn't get to hike with him more, but we wouldn't be able to because you know why? You're right. He hikes faster than us. Grasshopper tried to tell him it wasn't fair because he's so tall and takes much fewer steps than she does. Grasshopper is convinced that this so called thru-hike of 5-million steps is really 6-million steps for her.   She explained this to Joker, but he wasn't buying it. His comeback was that shorter people have a lower center of gravity, which makes them better snow skiers. ¢That has nothing to do with hiking¢¦nothing at all¢, responded Grasshopper. To which Joker immediately countered that he has to carry more weight, not only his pack but also his 200+ pound frame, which is double what Grasshopper has to carry. That rendered her speechless. Joker ¢1; Grasshopper ¢ 0. Game over.We walked through lots of pastures today. Some of the pastures' flowers or grass stalks were nearly 5' tall. It was quite amazing. The first couple pastures unfortunately were wet with the morning dew, so our shorts, socks and shoes went through another rinse cycle today. Boy do our socks stink. It's really not a pleasant experience to bring them into the tent at night, but on the other hand we don¢t want to leave them outside and have an animal chew on them. We try to figure out which way the wind is blowing and put the smelly beasts in that side of the mesh pocket so that the fumes do not kill us overnight. We definitely need to get to Hanover and do a wash. Life from an aroma standpoint is not so good at the moment - socks, shoe, handkerchief and shirt ¢ all stinky and we're only on Day 6! It's that rain that did it. We arrived at camp about 4:00. As Brakeman headed towards the shelter to seek water, he startled a younger (a bit younger than us) couple apparently having some private time in the loft. He said it sounded like they were scrambling to get their clothes back on. He spoke to them about the water source, but they weren¢t sure as to the location. He ended up walking about 50 yards in a gully until he found some trapped between some rock slabs. Later in the afternoon, the couple departed. We are near several side trails to parking lots, so this shelter is easy access to many. Later, 3 guys with a bunch of coolers arrived. Being that it is a Friday night, it sounds like it¢s going to be a partying night. We're camped about 50 yards from the shelter so we're hoping we can still get our peaceful night's sleep as Brakeman has announced that we're getting up at 4:30 tomorrow to start our jaunt or should I say run to town. He wants to get there, get town chores done, get checked into the hotel and start watching his HGTV! And eat!It was cloudy all day. We had perhaps 3-4 drops of sprinkles, but the rain never arrived! Laying here in the tent, it looks like it's cleared up as we can see a few shadows. Perhaps we have escaped the rain, this time. That would be nice. Mentally, Grasshopper is counting on only 10 days of rain for the remainder of our trip and we've already had 1, so there can only be 9 more allotted per her book. We had a neat experience while lying in the tent this afternoon. A hawk, or a raptor of some sort, dive bombed right over the tent and scored a small critter. You could hear the raptor¢s wings flapping, the leaves rustling and it fly away. It was a very unique experience. It feels nice and cool tonight. It¢s 7:00 and 74 degrees inside our tent. If we really are getting up at 4:30, it¢s time to reset the alarm and go to sleep. Goodnight from just shy of Hanover, where we¢ll take a couple neros.