Date: 2003-11-08
From: congdon shelter

To: seth warner shelter
Miles today: 7.2
Weather: clear sky

i knew today would be a good day. although, i was a little sad that today was here. today, i would say good by to my hero ¢amanda sprader- and continue my southward journey. we were awake with the sun. it was cold. a crisp cold. a sun is shining, crisp cold. a good cold. the kind of cold that i like. the kind of cold that i really like to hike in. probably my favorite kind of hiking weather.after breakfast amanda and todd packed up their gear and got ready to hike back to the trailhead. since i was only hiking seven miles today i was in no hurry to get my stuff packed up and ready to go. i have to kill some time between now and monday when the post office opens in williamston, mass. (i only had 14 miles to do to get to town as of this morning). the three of us prayed and then i bid my friends a fond farewell. i didn¢t like seeing them go. i¢ve enjoyed their company immensely. amanda sprader is still my hero. todd is a great guy. i¢ll miss them both.and, just like that, i was once again alone on this journey. i hate it when that happens.two minutes after they left, i was sitting in the shelter opening and i heard someone coming down the trail. i thought for sure maybe one of them had forgotten something. instead, it was larry from new hampshire. he was out for the weekend. it is the weekend, isn¢t it? sometimes i forget about that. that is when (and usually only when) i see people out here these days. larry and i talked for a second before he hike on down the trail. i told him i would see him at the next shelter tonight.i sat around, twiddling my thumbs, for a few more hours before finally deciding to pack up and start hiking. after all, it was a beautiful, sun is shining, crisp cold, perfect hiking weather day. i decided that i would just take my sweet time over the seven miles.and, i did just that. it took me nearly five hours to hike seven miles today. i took lots of breaks, enjoying the sun and the breeze. there was one place on the trail where i had a good view of mount greylock (the highest point in massachusetts). it never really warmed up too much. it never really got above thirty degrees. i got to the shelter around 3:00 and it was already starting to cool off. larry from new hampshire showed up a short while later. he¢d hiked past the shelter and gone down to the vt/mass state line. the state line is also the southern end of the long trail. the long trail and the AT share the same footpath for more than a hundred miles northward before the AT turns off towards maine and the long trail continues to the canadian border. larry has been hiking the long trail in small sections for years. after hiking this part of the trail, he only has five miles left before he is completely finished.i positioned my sleeping bag in the shelter so that i could maximize the warmth of the rays of the late afternoon sun, and so that i could minimize the coldness brought on by the strong wind that had been blowing all afternoon. when the sun finally set at 5:00 it was already 20 degrees outside. it is kind of nice staying here with larry. he¢s done lots of rock climbing in north carolina, so we have something to talk about. i¢ve done some rock climbing, but not quite as much as he has. he said that he actually moved to new hampshire because of the rock climbing. i had no idea that there was good rock climbing around these parts. i guess that even if you aren¢t at the merck forest and farmland center, you can still learn something new.larry says that there is going to be a lunar eclipse tonight. i don¢t know if i¢ll get out of the warm depths of my sleeping bag to see it. i¢m sure it will be nice since the moon is almost full. but, there will be another lunar eclipse some other time. maybe when it isn¢t quite so cold out.