Date: 2014-07-06
From: Winturri Shelter

To: Happy Hill Shelter
Miles today: 20.5
Weather: clear sky

Day 116-July 6, Winturri Shelter to Happy Hill Shelter, 20.5 miles. I was not too excited about our 20+ miles today because I knew they were going up and down all the time. I also knew how tired I was from yesterday's 18 so I got into my "Just Do It" frame of mind and we were hiking by 6:20 this morning. Well, surprise, surprise-the miles went by quite nicely! There were 4 reasons for this: trail magic, hiking with other people, good weather and fine trail conditions. Trail Magic-we got lucky and hit it 3 times today. The first was just after we crossed a stream, where there was a cable strung across to assist with the rock hop crossing. We got to the other side and there was a bucket filled with cool stream water and 5 cans of pop. There were 4 of us hikers at the stream so we almost cleaned out that magic. About an hour later we discovered a cooler filled with homemade cookies and S'mores fixings! The S'mores bags had a chocolate bar, 4 graham cracker squares and 2 jumbo marshmallows! On the outside of that ziplock bag was written "There's only a few S'more miles to go!" I love the human race at this moment! There was also a place to leave our trash and a couple of gallons of water to refill our bottles! The third trail magic came as we walked into the town of West Hartford, VT. As we walked across the bridge over the White River in that town we heard someone calling out asking if we wanted a cold drink! Our guide indicated that there was a General store in West Hartford, but that has closed so this local family, the Hart's invites hikers to sit in their lawn chairs under their shade trees in their front yard and enjoy a cold pop! Inflammable and Marty got there ahead of us and were enjoying their drinks when we walked up. The woman of the house came out with strawberries stuffed with sweet cream filling and mini-chocolate chips and offered us each one! Delicious! The guy had lots of good stories to tell about when Hurricane Irene came through a couple of years ago and how he lost his house in the flooding river. So trail magic was amazing today and boosted our spirits and fueled our bodies just when we needed it. Thanks to all the trail angels!This morning we hiked with or near Inflammable and Marty. We gathered at tops of hills to admire the views or have discussions about Lyme disease. We leap frogged with each other as we took our morning breaks and at times were close enough to walk and talk with each other. That has not happened often during this AT adventure and Marty made the same observation. The weather was pretty much a repeat of yesterday with maybe a few more degrees and a bit higher humidity. But the sun was out and a nice breeze was blowing. Trail conditions- the trail was relatively smooth today which made walking much easier. When I can take my normal stride I don't have to use energy to shorten or lengthen my stride so I can get over rocks or roots. We actually had a fair amount of walking on pine needle covered trails which was soft under foot! A couple other notes from today. First, the tops of some of the mountains/ hills provided views-something that has been in short supply lately! And because it was a clear day we could see where we've been and where we were going. We are now starting to meet southbound (SOBO) hikers that started at Katahdin! This is very exciting to me! Today we talked to a young guy who started on May 30, two days after Baxter State Park opened. And now for a funny moment from today. During our lunch break I needed to pee so I perched myself on the edge of a log. Suddenly I noticed that little ants were running out from the loose bark where I was perched! One started to bite me! So I quickly finished my business, swatted all the ants off my butt and shook the ants out of my pants! And you thought life in the woods was easy!!All is well.