Date: 2004-07-19
From: Hemlocks Lean-to

To: US 7 (Great Barrington, MA)
Miles today: 8.0
Weather: light rain

If all of the mosquitoes and deer flies and gnats and black flies were to leave their stain on my body where I've swatted them, I would look like a tattoo artist's rendition of "The Swarm." (Now I can't get the tune "Lydia, the Tattooed Lady" out of my head.)The phlebotomist'sTouch -- a quick, precise puncture --Then blood. Mosquito!Drizzly day today. More treacherous descents down slippery wet rocks. Safely, though, thank goodness. I heard this morning that Doc slipped and cracked his head open on his way down the hill. He was planning to take a few days off anyway, but what a way to go...The bruise on my right palm is fading but now I've got bruises around both wrists, as if someone's been tugging me around in manacles -- must be from the impact of Saturday's fall. My disposable camera left its imprint on my thigh where I fell on it; a bruise complete with lens and view finder.Spastic back, sore kneeMy body holds me hostage.Still, I keep walking.Found this morning that Pokey and crew had left a birthday card for me in the trail register. Amazing! A picture of old ladies on the beach. The inside reads: "If life's a beach, where the hell are our cabana boys? Happy Birthday." Perfect! Can't believe she found one so apropos.I also reread the poem Kath e-mailed me while I was in Providence: "How to Be Happy: Another Memo to Myself" by Stephen Dunn. A good thing to keep in my wallet.Kath arms me with poemsTalismans against the creepOf prose in our lives.Just saw another little orange salamander (or "eft" as they're called here). Apparently, the presence of salamanders is a sign of the health of a forest.Little ochre eftToddling to a leaf's shelterFrom my giant foot.My right knee is still bothering me. "Death and Destruction!" as my high school English teacher Max Page used to say. Last night as I was walking, all I could think about was reaching a motel room in Great Barrington. Today, with the drizzle and bugs, I just want to get to the next lean-to.----------------------5:30 p.m. But I gave in to knees and bugs and here I am at the Monument Mountain Motel in Great Barrington after a whopping eight-mile day. The Berkshire summer arts festivals are in full swing, but my goal is to do laundry, make phone calls, get clean, do a full-body tick check, sew up the holes in my fleece sleeping bag and get some denatured alcohol before "Law and Order."This morning I chatted with the family I met on my way up Mount Everett yesterday -- a father, son and daughter who live in Egypt, and the father's brother, who lives in Connecticut and who offered to give the kids a backpacking tour of the area. They didn't know what they were in for! One of the toughest stretches of trail in this area, even when it's not raining. The father works in the foreign service and described USAID's work -- sounds like something I might be interested in, especially in the area of curriculum development for emerging democracies -- something to look into. (usaid.gov)Just calculated that I can average 10 mile days and reach Katahdin before September 15. That's a plan. I don't want to push my body harder than it wants to go, let alone do permanent damage.