Date: 2007-09-10
From: Goddard Shelter

To: Congdon Shelter
Miles today: 14.4
Weather: light rain

mi.14.4sleep hammockdest.Congdon Shelter Day 60 Almost 2 months on the trail. I was just thinking about that after I saw what day it was. I am a third through the time it should take me and only a fourth through the miles. But they will come. Today it made sense to say here. Last night I set up my tarp as a wind break in the shelter. It made a huge difference. Helene, the mother, slept behind it also. I think she was happy for the extra warmth. I know I was. Best of all was it kept the mist and fog from coming in and getting everything wet. It rained off and on with some heavy times last night. Everyone in the shelter slept in a little. Luckily it lightened up around 7am. Funny thing was I said what time it was and someone said not it was only just before 7am. Somehow my watch is way off. I wonder how long it has been like that. Before we parted ways I got the email address for Helene. She said to get ahold of her and stop by if I am ever around Boston. I may have to take her up on that. I was treating my water at the shelter and they said how thir filter was getting really old and kept clogging. I offered to let them use my Steri-pen. She was a little hesitante, but ended up using it. Way better than Iodine. I got a really funny pic of her using it. We were talking about Einstien and Tessla and some of the things they thought up. I commented that my Steri-pen was like the Tessla death ray he is rumored to have been working on. So instead of calling it my flashlight, I now call my Steri-pen my death ray. If you ever seen one in the dark it is pretty fitting. We headed south around 8:30 or so, I had no concept of the passage of time today. There were tons of nice camps along the trail. If it hadn't been raining I would have liked to stay at one and press on. Today I also went back to doing a lot of my hiking alone. I can only handle so much of Catz religion and politics talk. He has the same views on some things as me, but is way different on others. Really though I was missing my time alone with my thoughts. We pulled into the next shelter together. It was only 8.5 from where we started and it was just before noon. There were people there from the night before that hadn't left or looked to be moving today. I can't fault them for wanting to wait out the weather. Really though it wasn't that bad. It was misting a little off and on, but nothing more than that. It felt good to have logged that many miles before other people had gotten started. We were both debating about going into town. Catz had one extra dinner I could have. We got to just before the road crossing and thought about it for awhile. A side note, bathrooms are a great source for TP. I haven't bought any yet. I just refill here and there. I forgot to in Rutland and Mancestor center and was starting to get low. After thinking about it, I was commeted to going in. I wanted a little leeway incase the weather turned bad and I wanted to wait it out. Also destination wise Catz wanted to stay in a shelter, I wanted to stay close incase of a huge wait it out rain. The next one was 4.6 after the road. The one after that was farther than either of us wanted to go. With it still being early, it was the best decision to go in. We were only standing at the road for a minute or so when a car pulls up. An older couple going for a day hike. They ask how long we had been waiting. After a couple minutes of talking back and forth the offer to drive us in. I was really hoping they would offer to take us back out after we said we only needed a couple things, but no go. After all they were going right back to were we just left. We managed to get right in, resupply with a nights food and a couple snacks and something to eat there, make a phone call home, and hitch out within an hour or so. This is my second of many in and out of towns. I managed to get it done and still hike over 14 miles for the day. I am liking that. Best of all since it was only for one day, good food for dinner. I packed out popi seed rolls, swiss chz, and 3 different types of great sausage. The small store there was prefect. Side note. None of my emails lately have made it out. I talked to my mom and my winter gear didn't get sent out like I wanted. Not their fault, something with my pocketmail. I gave my mom the addess and what I wanted. Hopefully it makes it to Salisberry, CT in time. Funny how in a week I will be through Mass and into CT. Soon PA. Now I will have to opologize for a registery entry I made today. There was one by the trail about a 2 miles from the road. All of Long Trail northbounders I have been talking to the last couple days have been warning me of the huge climb I am going to have out of bennington. I was told of huge stairs. The coule that gave us a ride warned of 1000 stairs. It was only a 700 or so foot gain in a mile or so, not too bad. Especially with all of the rock stairs put in place. So I had to put something in. "Northbounders Beware!!! Katadin, Maine, the Whites, and the northern 550 miles all nothing compared to the hike up from bennington all of the Northbound LT hikers have warned of. All of the rest of the trail pales ion comparison. Dude, just relax. hike, and enjoy." Or something to that effect. I couldn't not say something after all of the times I had been warned about it. If you are reading this and warned me, sorry I get on rants sometimes. When we were done signing in, Catz pointed out the clouds where before us. You could see off in the distance the clouds below and above. There was another temperture inversion. It had been misting pretty hard just before and now was clearing up. Pretty cool. Especially when you consider we were only around 2500 feet. Not realy all that high. I hiked on ahead. I had just cleaned off the fog off of my glasses. So it was now looking clear. Like the contrast had just been turned up. It was also a little lighter. It was lighter but still grey. It looked as though I was hiking in one of those movies that are shoot using a grey lighting scheme. Everything was grey, but really colorful. The trail was flatish and whinding. Plenty of trees around. A few had changed color. So there was some hints of reds and oranges. It was still foggy in the distance. It was great hiking. Hard to really discribe it. I didn't waste time trying to take a pic. No way I could capture the light just right. Just a really cool and memorable mile or so.