Date: 2014-06-18
From: Little Rock Pond Shelter

To: Governor Clement Shelter
Miles today: 19.4
Weather: overcast clouds

Last night I was woken up twice from my restful slumber. The first was when a woefully unprepared father and his two children stumbled into the shelter after dark. Not only were their packs huge and their clothes made of cotton, but the father had purchased Aqua Mira for water purification purposes and had absolutely no idea how to use it ¢ he hadn¢t even opened the package. While I was attempting to explain how it works, he seemed absolutely perplexed when I mentioned the second bottle, which is essential to making the purifier work. I love it when I see people enjoying the great outdoors, but I always hate it when I see people sabotaging their own experience, but also potentially poisoning someone¢s opinion of the wilderness forever (in this case, his own children).I was woken again just before midnight when a huge thunderstorm rolled through the mountains. Though the sky was clear when we went to bed, it quickly changed to a downpour with high winds. We got up and moved all of our things deeper into the shelter to avoid the rain, and then I quickly went back to sleep amidst the thrumming of rain on the shelter¢s tin roof. So much for the trail being dry.Today was yet another day of long, steep climbs followed by long, steep descents. It¢s very tiring yet satisfying; as I always feel as if I have really accomplished something when I reach the top. I also think this section is great training for the White Mountains, which is notorious for its lack of switchbacks. Slightly after midday, Birdman and I hitched over to the nearby deli for lunch, refusing to learn from our experience in Massachusetts when it severely delayed our arrival. It was a great stop, with a meatball sub to die for, but we were humbled once again when we were unable to get a hitch for almost 45 minutes. Perhaps one day we will learn our lesson, but as long as restaurants and stores are this close to the trail, I doubt it.The last leg of our trip was also eventful, as we decided to stay true to our purist roots. In 2011, part of the AT was washed out in this section when Hurricane Irene blew through Vermont. Since then, hikers have been given a detour around this section, as one river crossing in particular lost its bridge. Birdman and I, however; simply aren¢t blue blazers; we hike white blazes and white blazes only. So we disregarded the detour and followed the original AT, which worked out fine for 90% of the section, up until the aforementioned river. Birdman, with his youngster legs and balance, danced over a fallen tree to the other side. I, with my huge pack and terrible balance, opted to wade across instead. Either way, neither of us had any real issues, and we wondered why the ATC felt that this section needed rerouting in the first place.We are tenting tonight due to the plethora of mice living in the shelter ¢ they didn¢t even wait until dark to start scuttling near our packs. We¢re sharing the tent site with fellow thru-hiker ¢Farmer¢, a Quebec native who has supposedly learned most of his English out here on the trail. That¢s extra impressive, as he seems almost fluent. It makes me feel lazy for not learning another language while hiking the trail. I guess I¢ll just have to be satisfied with hiking over 2,000 miles this year¢¦