Date: 2016-06-03
From: North of South Twin Mountain 

To: Mt. Jackson
Miles today: 18.0
Weather: overcast clouds

I hope you don't mind if I go backwards a little bit before we talk about today. You know that family of four that Will told you about yesterday? Well, what he didn't tell you was that as we chatted with them and they asked about our hike, the mom told us that her youngest son had dreams of someday hiking the AT. I guessed him to be about 10 or 11 years old. As we were leaving, I said to him, hold on to your dreams of hiking the AT, there are boys out there not that much older than you hiking this trail.We hiked on a while and took our break at a saddle. While we were there the family passed by us. I began thinking. I have been carrying the AT patch that the ATC sent us when we pre registered for the trail. I put it on at home in Arizona and had never taken it off. So at this point I had carried it about 1,825 miles. I had planned to take a picture of it on my pack when we reached the northern terminus in Maine and send it to the ATC at Harpers Ferry. But another idea entered my head as I sat at break. If we caught up to this family, I would give it to the youngest son with a dream to hike the AT.We finished our break and we did catch up with them at the summit. I took the patch off my pack and sat down by the boy who was seated by himself. I explained what the patch was and how long I had carried it and told him I was giving it to him. That when he was old enough, if he hiked the AT he was to attach it to his pack and carry it all the way to Mt. Katahdin. His eyes got huge with wonder. It was a small gesture but a priceless moment. His mom had been listening in and said, you've started something now! I truly hope so. She took our picture together   It felt like I was Passing on the Torch for the love of long distance hiking. As I was leaving I asked him his name. William. The same as my grandsons.But now, today. Kind of a rough one for me. I had fallen towards the end of the hiking day yesterday and fallen with all my weight on my right knee. Super painful and giving me problems today. We had to pull out the big guns in our pain meds to keep me going.   We started out with a descent to the Zealand Falls Hut. We stopped in to the hut for a moment and picked up a piece ginger cake. When we came back outside to hike we were given a few bum steers for directions and wandered around for a little bit. But soon we were back on the trail and made our way past the Ethan PondThat's when we had a nice relatively flat stretch of Trail. We Savor these moments because we don't get them very often. We followed this into a descent into Crawford notch. We stuck out our thumb to go resupply the General Store. We were soon picked up by a nice gentleman and his wife. He did Trail maintenance. The General Store however was a total bust. We would not suggest that you resupply there if you're coming through. Very expensive and nothing to buy. Hitch back to the trail was pretty easy as well we were picked up by former thru-hikers Rambo and Tiny Giant. Very nice of themNext it was a very steep ascent to the Webster cliffs. The views were awesome from there. Then it was more steep boulder hand-to-hand rock climbing up Mount Webster and finally to Mount Jackson. We were thinking of continuing on to the Hut but we were pretty wiped out by then. There was a small clearing at the top of Mount Jackson and we pitched our tent there. Didn't look like much to start with but it turned out to be a nice spot. With a great sunset.So we're hunkered down here for the night. I guess I'll turn in. I'll catch you later.Road Runner