Date: 2005-07-21
From:  Wilbur Clearing Lean-to 

To:  Vermont 9
Miles today: 21.3

I am in North Adams right now; walking back out toward the Trail after making a stop in the morning to go to the Friendly¢s for breakfast with OC1. He was up early this morning, walking by six o¢clock. I was a half hour behind him. It was a pretty stunning way to start the morning with an immediate, stiff uphill and then this nasty, nasty downhill. That was a forever thing. My legs are rubbery.But anyway, it¢s always amazing to me that the people in these Trail towns don¢t know what the Appalachian Trail is. I stopped at the gas station on the way back out just now to pick up some more cigars. The guy asked me if I was camping. When I told him that I was on the A.T., he hadn¢t realized that it went all the way to Georgia. Anyway, going back uphill again. Later.***10:20 A.M.***I just passed a sign in the woods here, up on this ridge, that is welcoming me to Vermont, so I just crossed the border. An older gentleman was sitting here next to the register, Steady Step. I sat and talked to him for a couple of minutes. He started February 28. I also passed two south bounders about thirty minutes ago who started on the northern end of Katahdin on June 3rd. So counting backwards it took them 38 days to get here. If I use that as a ruler for what I should be doing, that means I could be finishing as early as August 27th or August 28th. That would kick ass. I haven¢t really considered that I could finish before the 7th of September, but a little earlier would be good. The uphill from North Adams was a piece of cake. It looks mean on the profile map, but going up was actually pretty good. Gradual uphill. Easy terrain, for the most part. There was one section where we went up pretty vertical rocks. That kind of slowed me down for about fifteen minutes, but other than that it¢s been a good trail this morning. Blowing away the miles.OC1, who I thought would be kicking my ass today, I haven¢t even seen him for awhile. I left him in the dust. I don¢t think we¢re going to have any problem whatsoever running 22 miles today and getting in early to have Au Pa pick us up***Last entry***It turned out to be a very, very special day today. We got to the Congdon Shelter early, by two o¢clock, and Au Ma and Au Pa were not going to be picking us up at the road at 4.2 miles from the shelter til 7:15. So we hung out there for a couple hours at the shelter. We didn¢t want to sit down there at the road. At around 4:00 we started moving again. We went down to to the road. Got there around 6:00 and there were several tourists there who were asking us questions. At the trailhead, there was a cooler just chock full of sodas that the parents of Maniac had left behind. So we grabbed a couple of them while we sat there and waited and talked to the tourists that were there.Right about 6:30, Au Pa drove up in his Dakota. The first thing that he did was to drop the tailgate, pull out a cooler and hand us Coronas. We sat there and talked for a while. Sweety was there with him, the irish setter. Then we drove back to his place which is an inn. He and Au Ma actually both work at an inn. He works as the tour bus director. She works as the cook and hostess. It¢s owned by his parents. They gave us the best dinner, bar none, that we have had on the trail yet. We sat outside and she brought out this huge plate of some really incredible stuffed rice, a pork chop, a Cornish game hen, teriyaki shrimp, vegetables, another Corona. It was just incredible. They treated us, for the rest of the night, like royalty. We ate; went upstairs; and we got a room for fifty bucks; took showers. Then Au Pa came up with swim trunks and we went down into the hot tub and sat there for about an hour. Vern jumped in the pool a couple of times. I couldn¢t do it. The water temperature difference between the hot tub and the pool was just too great for me. And then, after that, we went down to the kitchen and had chocolate cake with ice cream on top. Just unbelievable hospitality that we got from them. Definitely the best dinner on the trail and about as good as it gets with a stop.Went upstairs about 10:30 and watched t.v. until about 11. Then I went to bed.