Date: 2008-07-26
From: Stealth site, ~ 0.6 past Pomfret Rd, VT

To: Happy Hill Shelter, VT
Miles today: 12.3
Weather: scattered clouds

DAY 61.WEATHER. Beautiful blue skies again! Gorgeous views of mountains and valleys. Got a nice, invigorating bath in the cold stream behind the shelter when we got here.LUNCH. At at a general store right on the trail. I got a HUGH chicken-salad sandwich (they called it their "small"), a coke, a root beer, some ginger molasses cookies, and two bags of chips. The sad part is that I had no room for ice cream! OH, HELL. While signing a hiker register there, I noticed someone, presumably a Christian, had written an entry threatening people with eternal damnation and hell. The next day someone else wrote an angry diatribe against a number of Christian beliefs and biblical assertions. Neither party signed their entries,which seemed kinda chicken to me. I write a several-point rresponse to the second guy, in what I think was a calm, reasonable tone. He'll never read it, because he has hiked on. I would certainly like to find him and have a conversation with him/her. But I'd really like to find the first guy too, and ask him why forgot to mention "GRACE" alongside his "JUDGEMENT" blast. sigh. At least subsequent readers might see that not all Christians are as mean-sounding as the first guy!...THE STUPIDEST THINGS I HAVE DONE ON THE TRAIL (so far). My list continues to grow to a "Top 10 List":(10) Tripping myself with my own trekking pole (in my own defense, this has usually happened when brush on the side of the trail kicked my pole back toward my feet while I was mid-stride); (9) Stabbing myself in the top of the foot with my own trekking pole (this one is taken care of now, with the little rubber thingies covering each pole tip); (8) Carefully chlorinating some questionable drinking water, and then 5-10 minutes later sipping it while hiking, just out of habit! Yuck (supposed to wait 30 minutes). (7) Trying to hang my hammock from two nails inside Dick's Dome Shelter, and when I sat in it to test it, one nail flew out toward my leg as I fell to the floor with a whoomp! (6) Smacking toward my face at a KEG (Kamikazi Eyeball Gnat) and hitting my eye so hard that it made me see stars! (5) Hiking in a complete circle - no, NOT because one of my trekking poles was shorter than the other, but because of poor trail blazing (have done this twice - fortunately, only about a ten-minute delay each time); (4) Forgetting which way - when coming out of a shelter that is a bit off the trail, getting to the A.T. and then wondering, "Do I go left or right?" I have had to more than once throw my pack off, get out my map, and look at which side of the trail the shelter is located - and hoping the map is correct (I'm not the only one who has done this; a woman leaving the shelter this morning asked me, "Left or right at the trail?", and ONE guy left the shelter in the morning, and hiked 18 miles all day only to discover he was back at the shelter he had left the day before!)(3) Getting the Shoe-Stick-Shoe Trip - that is where the toe of your back foot catches a 2 - 2-1/2 foot-long stick and wedges the FRONT of the stick into the heel of your FRONT FOOT and either takes you to the ground or sends you into the goofy-looking flailing stumble; (2) Forgetting earlier to include my #1 Dumb thing in my previous list - it is the one dumbest thing that was the reason for doing a list in the first place! (1) Hiking head-first into a tree. Yep. You heard me right. Head-first. Ten times. It happens when I am looking down like a "trail zombie". When it happens, I usually say ugly things about the too-short trail maintenance people. But the problem is really me. I mean, come on. TEN TIMES, for crying out loud!