Date: 2013-07-21
From: Fire Wardens Cabin

To: Three Mile Road
Miles today: 15.0

DAY 42MILES ON AT FOR DAY- 15.0MILES TOTAL FOR DAY- 15.0"A man can only be cut down in two ways, he quits or he dies."- CrushWe woke up early and made breakfast. The couple who came in the night before also got up. Their names were Perogi and Molly. Perogi was a 19 year old from Australia. I never caught where Molly was from. We headed out pretty quick because we were meeting my dad and his fianc© to do some slack packing. On our way down Smarts Mt. to the road we passed TONS of blueberry bushes. I had never picked blueberries so of course I was freaking out. Nightwalker had to deal with me stopping every 15 feet to gather some so finally he accepted and joined in. We got a nice big ziplock full to greet my dad with.When we got down to Lyme-Dorcester Road we met a NoBo named Backstreet. A few minutes later my dad and Rita showed up. We got greeted with ice cold cokes and got to hike with just some water and lunch. Gotta love slack packing! Only a few miles into our hike we came across Bill Ackerlys A.K.A "The Ice Cream Man". He lives just off the trail and offers hikers free ice cream, soda, and a game of croquet if you're up for it. He's also over 80 years old which I find impressive for how rambunctious he is. We hung out on the porch for about an hour eating ice cream and soda and talking with Bill and a NoBo named Crush.Just as we realized how long we had been there and that we should get hiking, Bill suggested a game of croquet. As he mentioned, it is the only croquet course on the AT. So we accepted. Just as we began Turducken and Sprout showed up so they joined in the game. Rita ended up winning and got her winning prize... A shot of Jim Beam! Bill asked her what our punishment should be for losing and so we all had to take shots too. First hard booze on the trail. It hit my stomach instantly. So off to hike with a buzz!As we hiked uphill right off the bat, we sweat off whatever buzz we had. At the top we reached Holts Ledges, a really nice overlook, and settled there for lunch. We enjoyed the fresh blueberries we had picked earlier and the sandwiches my Dad packed out. After lunch we hiked out and somehow took the wrong trail by accident coming off Moose Mt. It was the Nat Thompson trail and was apparently a brand new trail that they had decided to mark with baby blue blazes that with the right lighting looked white. Overall it ended up not mattering because it ran right next to the AT and we came out to the road we were ending our slack pack at. Once we got down we retrieved the cars, enjoyed some beers my Dad had brought to cap the day, and got some pizza at C&A in Hanover. It was dark so once my Dad dropped us off, Nightwalker and I decided to just hike in from the road and stealth camp wherever we found the first flat spot. We packed out a beer each since we were going to be in Hanover the next day anyways. Once we found a spot we set up quick, hopped in, and enjoyed our brew. Not even 10 minutes later we heard some NoBo's walk by. Guess we hadn't stealthed too well. Wouldn't be the first time! We also heard tons of coyotes. Kind of freaky and kept me up for a while but eventually I dozed off.