Date: 2011-07-18
From: The Vortex, Bennington VT

To: Melville Nauheim Shelter
Miles today: 1.5
Weather: haze

(In which I am joined on the trail by my friend Sarah)In the morning I try to coordinate cars and drivers so that my friend Sarah can meet me in Bennington, drive up to where she will finish her section, and then ride back to the start and start hiking north. We had planned on hitching down to our starting point, but after hearing from my hosts Arla and Chris that the only parking area the right distance from Bennington was in the middle of the woods off of a long dirt road, I call my grandfather and arrange for him to shuttle us back to the start. This coordination effort is hampered by the fact that I only have access to a borrowed cellphone whose number I don't know and my friend only has a borrowed cellphone that cannot accept incoming calls. Eventually we work out a plan with the help of some third parties (my father and grandmother) and Google Talk, and I lounge around the Vortex and play a game of pool with Twoper while I wait.Sarah and my grandfather show up in separate cars shortly before noon, calling the Vortex phone from the Friendlies parking lot, and I walk over to meet them. My grandfather, whom I had roped into driving at the last minute, has an appointment at 4pm, so I toss my pack in one of cars, wait for the GPS to acquire its satellites and then start driving north. Sarah's intended stopping point is on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere (the next major road being too far to reach), and to reach it we have to drive around a mountain range and then head back south on the winding, washboard dirt road for 11 miles. When we finally reach the small parking area Sarah and I hop into my grandfather's car and then head back down the road the way we came.By the time we are dropped off at the trailhead and say goodbye to my grandfather it's already 2pm. The shelter and tent site locations mean that our options are 1.5 or 10.0 miles for the day. Sarah plans to stay on the trail for three days, so I had tentatively planned 10, 8 and 5 mile days, leaving plenty of safety net at the end. Halfway up the steep climb from the trailhead it becomes clear that our pace won't get us 10 miles before dark, so we decide to stop at the first shelter. A downside of this new plan is that it necessitates longer, double digit mileage for the two remaining days, without the large buffer at the end. But we should at least have full hiking days, and there is some benefit to starting with a short day.Not long after making this new plan we pass Twoper, Bate and Clover, who are hiking southbound. "Pizza run!" Twoper shouts, and I put in an order for cheesy bread and soda, glad that we had already made up our minds on the near shelter. We make it to the shelter shortly before it starts to drizzle, and hang out under the shelter roof with Mama Goose and Walking Tree while we wait for our food. The pizza run crew arrive back a little over an hour later, calling out "Melville Nauheim Challenge complete!" and triumphantly unloading two pizzas, cheesy bread, two liters of Sprite and fifteen liters of bagged (formerly boxed) wine.Natty and Fish show up at the shelter, followed by Arrow, whom I have not seen since Hot Springs. (When I did see Arrow in Hot Springs, I remember commenting on how long it had been since we had last seen each other at Standing Indian -- since then my internal scale has changed such that the 1000+ miles in between our last meetings seems no longer than the few hundred between our first.) Arrow DJs some music on his iPhone and my speaker and we all dig into some food. "Can you imagine if every night was like this?" Arrow asks. "The only downside is that there would be so many people out hiking. People would be like, it's Friday night, drop me off near the shelter."Soon there are three or four conversations going at once, people laughing and talking loud enough to be heard over the rest of the din, and it's as close to a shelter party as I've seen. I think about the hikers I've met who would be annoyed by such noise and frivolity, and am glad that everyone who happened to show up is of the type to enjoy it. The partying falters upon the arrival of three section hikers who show up and stick to themselves at first, but when they join in with the merriment things return to full swing. The only other close call comes when a troop of boy scouts show up, wet and disheveled, trying to find a spot for their five tents. After their investigations turn up only a few small sites, one of the section hikers helpfully directs them back on the trail south to a fire ring and tent spot we passed headed up the mountain and the boy scouts head out again, both groups relieved at the parting.I see the shelter from the troop leaders' perspective, loud, boisterous college students partying in what should be the safe, family friendly realm of the woods. But I also see it from the hikers perspective, guys and girls who have been in the woods for months, whose home is in these shelters, who enjoy letting loose every so often.Sarah and I excuse ourselves from the festivities before it gets too late, and retire to the tenting area, far enough away for sufficient peace and quiet. I'm glad that we stopped at this shelter for the night, and though I might grow weary of such partying on a regular basis, for the night at least it was a pleasant and memorable experience, and a good example for Sarah of the trail camaraderie that can occur out on the trail.