Date: 2007-09-07
From: Happy Hill Shelter

To: After Prospect Rock
Miles today: 9.0

mi. 9sleep hammockdest. Stealth site after prospect rock day 57 Side note. My Pocketmail is giving me fits with recieving emails. I am thinking that either it is pocketmail issues or someone emailed me some attachment or huge email that pocketmail can't handle. I'll try to get it fixed in Dalton, Mass in a few days. But until then, it's a one way communication link. Well I had a great viw of the sunset and the stars last night, but no sunrise. Everything was all socked in. Oh well you take what you can get. I did have a good conversation with the LT northbounder I stayed with Madd Hater. He does a lot of work with the Green Mountain Club and answered a few questions I had about it. He also told me about a great breakfest place in Mancestor Centor to eat at. Just what I have been craving. The hike down went really fast. I am finding that when I have town as my destination and I am close, everything falls into place. Plus the pack is usually lighter with less food. On the way down I ran across an older guy who was camped right by the trail at a little stream. He swore there was no water at the shelter I just pasted. I heard otherwise from multiple people but did not stop. He talked a lot about how small everyone packs seem. He looked to be carrying quite the load. I just said you have to get rid of what you are not using and find lighter alternatives to what you are. He was also wearing heavy expensive sandles as camp shoes and had a big 12oz bottle of either lotion or soap. He also seemed a little odd. Which says something coming from me out there. I told him I was on a mission with breakfest food on the brain and I was told of a really good resturant. He told me that Mancestor had a McDonalds. I just had to say thanks and move on. I got to just before the road and who do I see but Catz sitting next to a stream. No cemitary for him. He got in to town yesterday and out last night. But he was wanting to go back in since he didn't get everything done. So we hitched in together. If you are ever in town here, the Breakfest Upstairs resturant is great. I got a ton of food that really hit the spot. It is one of those great spots that you ask the locals about. There is no way I would have found it without being told about it. Way better than McDonalds. I was keeping with the mission. Now that I could think straight with a full stomach, I was headed to the grocery store. I still had 3 dinners so I didn't need too much. One thing I did buy that I am going to keep doing is buy fresh fruit. I bought the $5 mixed fruit bowel. Well worth it. I also wanted to pack out something to cook over a fire. It ended up being italian flavored sausages. I was thinking it was going to be a cheap resupply. But after all of that it ended up being about $35 anyways. Still not too bad considering i ended u getting m through 4 o                                                                  After that it was the EMS outfitter, which was right next to the grocery store. At first the manager gave me a strange look. His store did not carry the golite shoes yet. I dig all through my pack and couldn't find the recit. He ended up giving me the price that they came up in the computer. Which was $56. A little less that what I paid. I only had them for around 10 days, but I walked over 100 miles in them. They looked as if I walked 400 in them. One was ripped on the top, both were ripping on the sides from wear, they still had foam from my pad in the tongues, basically they been through the ringer. This store has a great shoe guy, he actually listened to what I was saying and really knew what he was talking about. He helped me pick out a pair of light hikers. It ended up being a pair of The North Face light hikers. The only bad thing is they are noticeably heavier than the golites. But they fit good. After that Catz needed to hit up a different outfitter to exchange some shorts that wore out. I went the oposite way. Towards the Ben and Jerry's store. I got there before they opened. I was waiting and screwing with my pocketmail as they were opening. He ended up giving me a good deal on a pint of hand dipped ice cream. I had to go for good old cookie dough. It was nice to sit and enjoy that in the shade. It was turning out to be a hot day in the 90's. I ended up sitting reading some of my book until Catz pulled up. The best part is the guy working there gave us some samples of most of the different flavors they offered. Great guy. Something I forgot to mention earlier, Catz found a t-shirt in the laundry mat yesterday. He called it his John Travolta shirt. It had the picture of some Spanish guy on it. Definitly not John Travolta. I just went with it though. He rolled up wearing some pants that looked like dress pants. We called them his banker pants. One of those things you had to be there and see him to fully get how funny it is. We had an easy-ish hitch out of town. We were feeling great. Me in my new shoes and Catz in his new shirt and banker pants. After about 10 or 15 minutes standing on the side of the road, a woman by herself in her 40's stopped in her landrover to pick us up,. I wouldn't have peged her to pick us up. Nice woman from the area. She was actually from the church that used to runa hostel in town. She told us a few stories about that on the way to the trail. Then southbound again. Funny thing was this was my first in and out of town. Every other town I ended up staying in one way or another. There is no longer a hostel or a cheap place to stay here. I am also done paying for places to stay. Afterall I have my hammock and can camp just about anywhere for free. We made a long stop at the first shelter in. We are starting to hear a lot of conflicting info on water. This one had a spring that wasn't running but a puddle enough to fill up on. We also had a good talk with a coupkle section hikers from Maine. Car 54 and his wife where are you. Nice people. We hung around for awhie and talked, then headed south. We were thinking about camping at a good lookout, but there was no water there. Both of us were feeling a good camp with a lot of water to drink. It was for the best. An older couple already had setup in the best spot. We ended up finding a really good stealth site off the trail. On stealth site, I really am liking staying in places where people can't walk up on me. It's nice to be off the trail a little. We had a great spot with plenty of firewood. The sausages and a little wiskey made the night by the campfire all good.