Date: 2004-07-26
From: Glencliff, NH (Hiker's Wecome Hostel)

To: Smart's Mountain Fire Tower
Miles today: 20.0

We are up and at the P.O. by 7 AM. [Wow, they open early up north!] We got like 6 packages to go through! Some from home and some from bouncing. We picked through what we wanted and sent the rest to Killington. We pledge not to forward anything from Killington on! [Yeah, right!] We can't keep up with what is coming from home and what we are forwarding! We really enjoyed visiting with the NOBO's last evening and this morning, especially Wildcat and Bonespur. We hope to see them again as the trail passes near their homes further south (TN and PA) [hopefully not in that order!]. We didn't get out of there 'til 9AM. David left at 7:30 so we would have to work hard to catch him. The trail was nice with some flatter sections. We were almost able to run (we had our packs on so we could only move along so quickly). [Poor David, he can just never stay ahead!] We met Dharma and Se-la-vi. It was the neatest meeting Dharma since we had been reading his journal on trailjournals.com before we left in mid-June. It was sort of like meeting a VIP! Se-la-vi [pronounced Say-La-Vee, I assume] had a message for us from Muleskinr who was up from FL hiking a section of the trail in VT. I believe Muleskinr is the person most responsible for getting us started on this escapade! He planted the bug in our heads several years ago. Too bad we missed him. [Drats! He never did mention what the message from Muleskinr was. I just want to know!] We said goodbye to our new NOBO friends and then head south. We caught a couple of members of the dysfunctional family (Turtle and BeanSprout) who are slacking for the first 10 miles today. Five miles in we crossed a road where there was a van waiting. A woman asked us if we wanted a cold coke. Trail magic...how could we refuse?! She said that she and her husband are up here slacking her daughter, Laura (Steady), who is another member of the DF. We had met Laura briefly last night. She offered to take our packs so we could slack the next 5 miles. Woo hoo! The trail had few rocks/roots and steep ups/downs so we were able to really trail run this time. All we took was our water bottles. It was so much fun...almost like mountain biking! Near the end of the 5 mile stretch we saw David (walking with Steady's father)and screamed "outa da way, outa da way" as we whizzed by. It startled them and we all had a good laugh. David was surprised to see us and we walked with them for awhile. [At this point, do you think David is really ticked that they caught him so soon!] When we came to the road we met up with Steady's mom again and we stayed there as all the hikers she was helping to slack arrived (almost 10!). We chatted for about an hour and they offered to slack us tomorrow but we needed to move on. Steady's mom said we looked like we needed some mommy hugs so we got 2 each! They were so comforting since we miss our families. We hiked on to the Fire Warden's Cabin. Nothing was too difficult...just beautiful trail. The climb up Smart's Mountain seemed quite long but I think it was because it was at the end of a long 20 mile day with a late start and a lot of fun running! We decided to camp up in the fire tower along with King David and Jack Straw. Who said Moosilauke was the last time we would be above tree line! The sunset was georgeous. Definitely worth the climb.