Date: 2008-08-08
To: Manchester Center, VT
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

I'm still out here, plugging away every day on my way to Mt Katahdin in Maine. I'm in a hostel in southern Vermont where there is a sign over the fireplace that says Springer Mt, GA 1637 miles, Mt Katahdin, ME 538 miles. Wow! I feel so much closer to the end of the trail. However, when I look at what those 538 miles include and that I've still got a month and a half or more to go, I'm not ready to declare myself "inside the envelope." It was great to have entered Vermont this week, but I should have been worried when I read the handwritten words on the sign that said "welcome to Vermud". How was I to know that this was shaping up as the rainiest year on record in Vermont? At least the mosquitos are not that active here as the rain appears to have drowned them. The trail has been incredibly muddy, sometimes up to 9 inches deep. I've tried my best to dance around the mud by stepping on roots, rocks or slaloming as if on ski's from left to right. With my non-waterproof, open mesh boots, anything that gets on top, gets inside. My efforts have not been completely in vain, but my feet and shoes have still been mostly soggy and wet the last 4 days. This has led to potential blisters again, but tape or covering them won't stick at all so why bother. The thunderstorms seems to come two to three times a day and even if I manage to dodge the first one in a shelter, the next one always gets you. It's also getting cooler and being back at some elevation (almost 4,000 ft.) it's getting a bit chilly at night. So I've asked Connie to send my winter layer to Hanover New Hampshire to have for the WHite Mountains of New Hampshire where I'll be over 5,000 ft and which can get rough weather at any time. I'm resisting getting the heavy sleeping bag back thinking I can stay warm by sleeping in an extra layer of clothes. While all this may sound a bit grim, the trail still provides magic every day and I'm happy and grateful to be out here. The source of much of the magic when the sun isn't shining and the trail is tough is the people. I've been meeting south-bound hikers for about three weeks now. SOBO's as they are called, can't reasonably start until mid-June from Katahdin due to the harsh weather so are at best a third of the way through their journey. Most will finish between Oct 15th and Dec 15th in Georgia. They seem so lighthearted compared to us grizzled veterans of the NOBO hike. They are fun to be around and can tell us much about what lays ahead (hostels, food, terrain and conditions) but we only see them briefly on the trail or for one night as we pass each other on our respective ways. The NOBOs are a bit spread out and I've often gone a day without seeing another thruhiker heading North. I've been hiking with Micro for the past week or so. She's 25 and lives in Asheville, hiked 1,000 miles on the trail last year before stopping and then went home and decided she had to try to complete it this year. She hiked with her father through PA and Connie and I met them when Connie was up supporting me through PA. Her Dad had to stop with foot problems, but expects to join her for the last part of Maine. She typically would go much further and faster than I, but has a foot problem so thought she should slow it down for a bit. I thought one of the benefits of hiking with a female was that it would be easier to hitch rides into town, but today we hitched together with her in front and we didn't get picked up. She went over to a parking lot to check to see if some folks leaving could get us a lift into town and while she was away a woman in an Audi station wagon stopped for ME! I'm very proud of that work - my legs must look fabulous!!! (SP eat your heart out!) The other part of trail magic has been the fantastic poeple who have taken us into their homes. There have not been many (or any) pay hostels in the mid-Atlantic or New England states and the hotels are all much more expensive than in the south. What's more prevalent are the few kind AT loving folks who welcome hikers into their homes gratis or for small donations. Over the past week I've had two fantastic experiences. The first was in Dalton, Mass where Tom Lavardi. who had hosted hikers for 30 years now, offered us a cozy bed, huge amounts of food, drives to the store and laundromat, as well as a slackpack to allow us to stay a second night. All for nothing more than our company. He said that he'd taken in hikers even on Thanksgiving day and gotten together a dinner for them. I'll have to admit, it would keep you from ever getting bored in retirement. On the second night I was there, hikers kept walking in and he kept going in the kitchen and bring back more and more food. Incredible! Where I am now is another such place, only opened four weeks ago by an AT hiker who is retired and needed a hobbby, according to his wife. He decided his hobby would be to set up a house for hosting hikers so he bought a house with a barn near the trail and converted the BARN to be his and his wife's house and the house for hikers' use. It has been incredibly relaxing to be here, even if just for 16 hours. Believe me, the pleasures of a shower and washing the clothes are great enough, but to have a kitchen for your use and TV to watch the opening ceremony of the olympics, etc. is icing on the cake. So tomorrow I'm off again for the trail. My feet are feeling better now and my mileage ranges from 11 (today to town) to 19+ yesterday. A problem recently has been energy so I'm stepping up my diet as I don't think I'm eating enough. As I was measured with 1.4% body fat in Virginia I believe I've now consumed all that! So I make my town days 10,000 calorie days and will try to go back to more food on the trail. During the mid-Atlantic heat I lost my apetite and my desire to cook so I know I haven't been taking in as many calories. With the weight of my food bag after todays grocery store run, I should be okay to the next resupply. I better sign off to get to bed and refresh for another day. FreeWil