Date: 2008-10-04
To: Dandby, VT
Miles today: 0.0

Right now Nate and I are in our cabin in NY hanging out with our parents and grandparents for a weekend or rest, relaxation, grandma¢s cooking, and some beautiful foliage on Whitaker Lake. We have been looking forward to this weekend for about 3 weeks now and it is feels great to finally be here.The past week has been some great hiking through Vermont. What a beautiful state. I have decided that when I am older, I want to live in either NH or VT because of their close proximity to amazing mountains and the unbelievable scenery throughout each state. These are two states in New England that I have not visited much but I am definitely sold on them after being able to hike through them the last few weeks. Every couple of miles in VT, you come to this open field that is surrounded by mountains and rolling hills on either side, usually with a small farm house that you can see at the bottom of the hill. Apple trees are in abundance everywhere along the trail, as well as grazing sheep and cows in the open fields. On top of all this, the foliage is at its peak right now, which is beautiful in VT. It has truly been a blessing being on the trail right now. The nights are beginning to get colder for Nate and I. We are finding ourselves less likely to chill around the campsite outside of our sleeping bags. Our past weeks schedule has basically been to get into camp, and get into our sleeping bags and start reading whatever book we have at the moment. Reading has really become a joy for us right now, especially since we have plenty of time to do it. We want to get into some of the classics by some of the big name authors that we all heard about it high school: Charles Dickens, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, etc. We joke that we never actually read these books in high school when we were supposed to, so now that we finally are reading them, we are going to write papers on them and hand them into our old English teachers to show that we really do have the capability to write. We have both finished two books thus far. We started with a book called The Essex which is about a19th century Nantucket whaling tragedy. It is a non-fiction adventure story along the lines of The Endurance. After we finished The Essex we went into an old book shop in Lincoln, NH and I picked up The Count of Monte Cristo, and Nate picked up To Kill A Mockingbird. I will admit that after getting about 14 of the way through Monte Cristo I realized it was the abridged version. 450 pages as opposed to 1400 pages. Oh well, I enjoyed it either way and it probably saved me about 3 lbs. of pack weight. I have gotten a little bit overwhelmed lately with the fact that we still have about 4 months ahead of us in this journey. We have been going for about 5 weeks and have just hit 500 miles which are both significant milestones on the journey but thinking about 16 more weeks and 1600 more miles can be a bit overwhelming at times. That is why I truly have to think: one step at a time, one day at a time. My thoughts over the past week or two have been to enjoy the journey, not just the destination. Don¢t think only about getting to the shelter, or the next road, or the next mile. Instead take a minute to stop and look around at where I am and what I am actually doing. I¢ve got to enjoy the journey and not take it for granted. -Phil