Date: 2006-07-13
From: Fort Montgomery

To: Get close to Beans folks
Miles today: 0.0

We are alive!!!   One thousand pardons for our seriously delayed update, it seems as though finding a computer gets more and more difficult as we progress north. We are however still pressing on northward and have been knockning out miles like crazy lately. We are in New york and have successfully completed New Jersey and Pennsylvania since we last updated. Penn. definitely lived up to its name as a very rocky state to hike through, but what we weren't warned about was New York! It is a very good thing this state is short because I think pound for pound this is the toughest terrain we have seen. Hand over hand climbing up huge rock ridges can be very trying with 40 pounds on your back, especially when you are square in the middle of a huge thunderstorm! We actually saw a grown man hit the ground when lightning and thunder struck right above us simultaniously. We turned around to laugh about how loud the thunder was and Mummy Toes was crouching on the ground for cover. We of course laughed at him but that was only to mask our deeply seeded fear and the fact that we had both wet our pants. Talk about motivation to get your butt moving!   We had one other really exciting moment a few days ago, when we took a side trail to Rutherford lake for a swim. We arrived at the lake in the mid-day heat and were anxious to get in the water. Rip was the first one in, and was enjoying the refreshing chill of the water when Treehugger started quietly calling out "snake." What began as quiet calls quickly grew into panicked shouts. We all got the message at the same time and noticed the 4 foot water snake swimming direclty at Rip. I have never seen a grown man move so fast in my life! He was to shore and out of the water in a matter of milliseconds. Of course we all laughed at him and called him a weenie, but that was only to mask our deeply seeded fear and the fact that any of us would have wet our pants.    In other, more important news Beans folks came down for a visit last week and provided some of the most thorough trail magic we have seen. They got a campsite near where we were on the trail and slack packed us for two days. The begining and end of both of those days was spent with them at the campsite enjoying an immense amount of good food which they brought for us, including veggie treats for tree hugger complete with a different pan and spatula so her veggie burgers didnt have to cook in beef grease. (veggie burgers that werent cooked in bacon fat, BRILLIANT!!!) So we would all like to once again say thank you to mama and papa Bean for two awesome days of trail magic. We cant wait to see you guys again soon. (and as a personal side note, I would like to remind all members of the championship cranium team to remain humble, I know it is hard when you are the champ, but be strong.)   Anyway, we are really sorry we suck at updating, but we will do better as we are getting close to beans folks. We are well and healthy. Still hiking with hugger and Rip and still enjoying their company very much. As usual we thank all of you for stopping in to check on us and hope you are well.happy trailsORK and BEAN