Date: 2008-07-07
From: Manchester Center, VT

To: Manchester Center, VT
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

I want to shout out to Signage, who after making it all the way to Maine, last year, broke her foot and had to stop hiking. She left today to finish her hike. I'm proud of you lady, and hope you have a wonderful time!Oh...I'm over the hill now...NOT! (I actually believe age is truly expressed thru your attitude and the way you live your life, which would make me about 12 now, because I'm such a nerd all the time--and BOY was I a nerdy 12 yr old back in the day! LOL). Hey, thanks for all the great birthday thoughts from all of you. It was like having the biggest and least complicated birthday party of a lifetime.Today, as zero days always are, was a cool day. I can't seem to sleep past 7:15 a.m. which drives me crazy. I want to sleep till noon, but my stomach won't let me. Last nite, by the time I went to bed, I could have eaten a second dinner.So I layed around and wrote some emails till about 9:00, then walked around the corner to this great little breakfast place called Up For Breakfast, where I got a huge iced vanilla latte and the Hungry Hiker, which consisted of 2 eggs, 2 bacon, 2 sausage, 2 pieces of toast, 2 pancakes, home fries, and coffee. I have to keep reminding myself it's rude to stuff food in your mouth with both hands, and using utensils really is a good idea in public settings as well. This place was hopping.Then I went across the street to the local outfitter, The Mountain Goat, to see if they had any hiking pants. Mine are falling off and the butt seam is still being held together with dental floss. They had no convertible pants, so I looked around and left. It was a cool place though.I knew I needed to write that statement for Wendy back in Dalton, but folks, I can't even read my own handwriting, so I really wanted to type it up and then sign it, so Frank told me of a shipping place that he thought had a computer and printer, so I took off to find it.I found it and walked in. Bill, the owner, has 2 computers and printers and charges $20.00\hr, but he said he figured it wouldn't take me too long so it would probably be $5.00.I sat down, wrote a 3 page statement with all of the detail I could, searched the internet for the mailing address, and then emailed my statement to myself. I actually took about 40 min., but Bill still charged me only $5.00.I did ask the management of the Shamrock Inn to reimburse me a total of $14.00, for what Linda overcharged me and for this $5.00 fee so I could use the computer here. Not getting my hopes up, but I sort of feel like it's the right thing for them to do. To bring something back from WAY long ago...I have to declare that the AT Patrol is still going strong! For new readers, go all the way back to my third nite on the AT last year, so like March 14, 2007 I think. You'll understand that last sentence.While I was typing the thing, Bill got an automated phone call telling him he'd won $1,000,000 and that it was being held for him, that he should call this 1-800 # IMMEDIATELY. He told me and this other lady and we all started laughing. I congratulated him and told him he'd better jump right on that, but did point out that amount of $ really wouldn't go far. He goes, "Yes, it would buy like 4 tanks of gas." I'm so glad I'm walking.Now I could go to the PO, but between here and there was an EMS store, and I've never been in one. So I walked all the way down there (the town is spread out a little), and walked in. I went to the women's clothing and saw some convertible pants.Ok (Certain soapbox time again), so really? When I want to purchase OUTDOOR ACTIVITY clothing...can we PLEASE stop going for "fashion" and start going for FUNCTION? I mean yes, the pants were synthetic and convertible, but the freakin cargo pockets and other pockets were these cutesy slanted TINY things that if I were lucky, I MIGHT fit a tube of lipstick in, because we all know how much I hate hiking without my lipstick. This tells me at least part of the outdoor clothing industry still thinks that women aren't "real" hikers\outdoors people, that it's important to look good while the men lug the gear around and do the REAL work. Give me a break. So, I'm just going to call REI and have them ship me exactly what I want hopefully to Hanover, NH (did ya'll catch that? NH, I'm 95 miles away!).I did find some more cord to put on my gaitors (the other with duct tape was still intact, but was needing to be replaced, and they had a clip that had broken on my pack, so I can now cinch the strap again that goes over the top and connects to the back mesh pocket. My pack is holding up great, but is obviously showing some signs of wear. Both my hipbelt pockets have small holes, so I used a vinyl patch kit on those. The meshy material on the part that goes against your back is ripping a bit @ the seam, but it's not a big deal.And I broke this clip by cinching it a little too tightly. Other than that, it's still fantastic (ULA Catalyst is my pack).So now I decided I needed to address an issue that has been stressing me out. I've been talking to everyone that has been in the Whites about my chances of being able to sleep in my hammock everynite, since you go above treeline. I keep hearing that I'll be fine except in the Presidentials, where you're stuck having to stay @ the huts (and I'm not thrilled about this by the way). If I have to sleep on the floor on a table, on a wooden bunk, whatever, that wide-load blue sleeping pad I use in cold weather, just won't cut it. I tried it 1 time in the Smokies, and did not sleep due to the pain, so I decided to look @ alternative sleeping pads.My blue pad works great in my hammock because it is 25" wide and flexible, and cut to fit nicely in there. I do hate carrying it because I constantly run into things because it's wider than me or my pack.So I went over to the pad section and they had a demo of each one blown up. I layed them all on the floor and tried them out. All of the thermarest (self-inflating), were just not going to work. What was left was a pad I saw Eldon using, and I thought he was just sleeping on one of those blow-up rafts you use to swim with as a kid, but it's actually the Big Agnes Air Core. It is not self-inflating (which doesn't bother me), but was the only one that "might" work if I'm forced to part from my hammock for a nite or two (which would break my heart and my back). So I bought it, and one cool thing is how small it rolls down to. I don't have to carry my wide-load pad now, and that makes me happy. This one is about the size of a loaf of bread, and 22 oz.Now...I KNOW this will result in comments from the peanut gallery (a.k.a. Persistent..Ground Dweller Extraordinaire), but I would like to point out that I'm being the "bigger" hiker by being flexible ad realistic.I'm so secure in my hanging ways that I can take the necessary steps to TRY to sleep somewhere other than my hammock in the event I can't hang. As for Persistent..well, she won't even touch the fabric of a hammock due to a fear that she may somehow be "contaminated." (yup...I know, I'm totally expecting a backlash from this one).I will do everything in my power to sleep in my hammock everynite, but I feel tons better knowing I have an option if I can't...cause if you can't sleep, you can't hike. The BA air core is $50.00, but the EMS was having a cool sale of 20% off your most expensive item and 15% off your next 2 most expensive items. I also bought 2 new pairs of socks, one of mine finally formed a hole in the heel.Now I needed to get to the PO to mail my statement, my sleeping pad up to Hanover and some used guidebook\maps home. As I walked out, I asked a woman which direction the PO was and she was confused because there used to be 2 or something, so she went inside to ask her partner (who works in EMS), and he explained how to get there. She, Frannie, offered to take me! It is a little ways. So I did that, and Frannie even waited for me and then asked if I wanted to go out for sushi..well OF COURSE! We drive there, but the owners were on vacation so the place was closed...bummer. Frannie took me back to the shopping center, I thanked her, and then decided to walk down to the movie theatre. Thanks Frannie!!It's a tiny 2 screen theatre, so my choices were Get Smart (not interested) or Wall-e, the cartoon. Well, I hate paying to see a cartoon...don't care how "good" it is, but I did this time. Michael @ the ticket window gave me a birthday discount on the ticket AND my popcorn! Thanks Michael!I don't remember the last time I saw a movie in the theatre, and the movie was fine with a meaningful message like ALL of the kid\adult animated cartoon movies. I really wanted to see Hancock though, but this worked and I had a good time.After, I walked down to the Price Chopper and resupplied, and ran into Eldon and another guy I'd met in Salisbury, CT named Goy (AL). We were all heading for dinner soon, so Eldon and I walked back to the bookstore to retrieve Lizard and dropped our stuff off @ the house, and the 4 of us went out to the Harvest Grille. They all chose it because of the pints of beer, I just wanted a place with some good salads...my body needed veggies.Nice place, I had some French Onion soup and an awesome Moroccan salad with eggplant, tomato, cilantro, hummus, pita bread, and then I also added some ranch dressing. Then I ordered some Tiramisu for dessert and Lizard sang me Happy Birthday.Goy is my age, a 5th grade teacher from Alabama. He just got a cortizone shot in his knee. He had requested a leave of absence from his job to do the whole trail, where he's tenured, but if he does take it, then the school has to let go of a non-tenured teacher, and he decided that wasn't right, so he just decided to hike to Hanover, go home for a few weeks and then go back to work. He was also in the Army and in Afghanistan for a bit. Really cool guy, I'm glad I got to meet him. We all laughed and talked about all of the lemon cars we'd owned, and I told stories about my most recent cubicle job. It was a nice time.Finally, we all walked back and turned in. It was way past our hiker bedtimes. I did talk to Karen for awhile, and we're starting to anticipate her final trip up to meet me, after she returns from her teaching gig and takes care of a few other tasks at home. It will probably be before I get to Monson, so there may be a little slackpacking in my future. We're going to play it by ear as we always do though. Man it's going to be great to see her and know we don't have to go through that torturous goodbye again.What a fun birthday. And best of all...I get tomorrow to just scoot around too! Man am I glad I decided to do this. Oh, forgot, when I got up this morning, Highlife, who hiked out, left a little note by my door saying "Certain, Happy Birthday, sorry I couldn't stick around." Sweet guy. Hope I see him again.~CertainCut and Paster Note:Backlash? No backlash...but I will post a comment in Certain's guestbook as I promised I would when commenting about the Hammock Cult.