Date: 2008-07-17
From: Williamsburg Mountain Goat outfitter

To: Seth Warner Shelter
Miles today: 8.0
Weather: clear sky

Sleeping under the starsMountain Goat Williamstown to Seth Warner Shelter: 8 miles When I got back to the Mountain Goat last night everything was soaked; my sleeping bag, my pack, anything that was out in the air had dew all over it. I figured the sleeping bag is synthetic so it should still work fine wet so I packed everything up, put the pack cover on it and went to sleep. The bag worked fine, I got up in the morning and it was still wet but I slept fine. I think everything go so wet because we were sleeping right next to some river and the temp went way down. My knee wasn¢t feeling any better. I didn¢t think I would be able to walk on it but maybe it would feel better after some breakfast and maybe some lunch and maybe a zero day? Nah, I¢m going to try my best to get out of here today. Indy was hangin¢ with me and we tooled around and got coffee and charged some electronics. I have decided that Williamstown has something special in the water. I officially name it the city of beautiful legs. They were everywhere! We got some really good pizza at the place next to the outfitter and packed it up to go. I bought one pair of new socks because I have holy socks and dwindling finances. We managed to get on the bus, which was free because it was my birthday! Yee haw! I knew birthdays were good for something! The climb out of Williamstown was steep but it wasn¢t too bad, it was a climb with a lot of intersecting trails. You had to keep your eyes on the blazes. I took a pause at Eph¢s Lookout, although I didn¢t know that¢s where I was at the time. It was named after the founder of Williams College, Ephraim Williams. Imagine that, we have the same taste in lookouts, it must run in the family. After that I got to the Vermont/Massachusetts Border and took a few pics and texted the event to a bunch of my pals since I had some good cell service. It ate up all of my battery. I realized I¢m coming up on Bennington in one day and I was supposed to meet ¢Truckstop¢ there. I¢ll shoot off an email but it¢ll probably be too late notice to meet up. I met Truckstop with Oshwagonda down at Damascus and she said to email her when I got to Bennington to do some Karaoke. I forgot to email her earlier so I hope I have service at the shelter. I¢ll be passing Bennington tomorrow in the middle of the day and it¢s really to short of a distance to stop; however, there¢s a steep descent into VT Route 9 and my knee might need the break. My knee really only hurts on Downhills. I got in to the shelter and took care of business early. I hung the bear-bag line right away, got a lot of water at a slow stream, set up my tent and got dinner started. I was on a roll. I didn¢t light a fire until Indy rolled in and it was getting dark. lI had to go way out of camp to get an internet signal to email some folks and I saw that some more people have given donations on my Birthday. Thanks Guys! That makes me think I might be able to make it happen. My brother Doug dropped some dough on me now that he¢s back at work and now I might be able to afford some new socks. The Guggenheim (Grant C.) dropped a C-note on me and that was very generous of you. Thanks buddy and Happy Birthday. He is exactly 3 days older than I am. That means that four days ago, when he donated that money, he was older than me; however, I¢m now older than he was back when he donated it. The last few days have been really great for hiking and I know it will end soon. Then again, maybe I¢ll get through the Greens without slippery rocks. That would be nice. It turned out that Indy and I were the only ones at the shelter so we slept in peace. I played guitar until 2330 and then I realized, I better get some sleep.David AKA ¢Mister Gentle Spirit¢ Website http://www.wbafinc.org Photos: http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproofVideos: http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1