Date: 2011-07-21
From: (104) Tuceer Johnson Shelter (burned down)

To: (105) The Mountain After Pomfret Road
Miles today: 27.2

There is no doubt in my mind that the world is full of good people. Sometimes it is hard to have confidence in this fact, but no matter the bad everything always seems to work out in the end, however strange it may be¢¦Down to my last few granola bars and peanut M&M¢s, I decided to hitch/walk into Killington. My book had a grocery store marked at half a mile from the trail on Route 4, an easy resupply. Upon reaching the road I saw that I was heading uphill, and rather than walk it in the blazing heat (though a short distance), I stuck up a thumb and got picked up by a school teacher. Now when I say ¢teacher¢, I mean a guy only slightly older than myself who was driving a jeep with snowboarding stickers on it. He told me that he knew a great grocery store so I hopped in. The guy talked to me enviously about my hike as he sped down the road, going way too far and making several turns before dropping me off. Having been distracted by our conversation, I stood in a parking lot some six miles from the trail without any idea of how to get back! I shrugged, and went into the grocery store where I bought just enough food to make it to Hanover (Less food = less weight), where I would resupply again for the Whites. I also bought a huge block of Mozzarella cheese to eat.Outside, the sun burned down, and there was no doubt that the heat wave would continue in its upper 90¢s. I walked down the road I had come in on, thumb up as I went. Over and over I was passed by trucks and SUV¢s, but nobody would pick me up! Lost and desperate, I began to wave my arms while jumping up and down to try and flag cars down, but they all ignored or shook their heads at me. I couldn¢t believe it! I no longer had my beard, am young, clearly a hiker, and in obvious need of assistance, but nobody cared! Would they have stopped if I was lying there, bleeding to death? I cursed the north and their cowardice. Angry, I went into a nearby restaurant for directions. I walked forever in the blazing heat, still trying to hitch. Eventually I gave up on hitching, and pulled out the huge block of cheese to eat while I walked. Then I heard the noise of a diesel slowing down behind me, and I looked up to see not a car but a full size public bus had stopped beside me in the middle of the busy road and swung open its door. ¢That¢s a heck of a lunch!¢ said the graying bus driver, indicating my half eaten block of cheese. ¢Yeah¢ I said, ¢¢¦can you take me to the AT?¢ He didn¢t hesitate. ¢I can take you close.¢I got on the bus and saw that it was empty except for two people towards the front. I asked the bus driver how much the ride would cost, but he looked the other way so I sat down across from the other riders. One was an old man wearing shorts and a bandana, the other was a ragged and cross-eyed woman (I wondered if we were going to the island of misfit toys¢¦). ¢Hi¢ I said. ¢I¢m hiking the Appalachian Trail, and I went into town for food¢.¢Yeah!¢ said the cross-eyed woman in a loud voice. ¢You won¢t be able to get a sandwich like that in the woods!¢I looked down at my block of cheese. ¢Uh¢¦Yeah¢¦sandwich¢¦¢She grinned broadly at me.After a few minutes of riding, I got off the bus with the old man wearing the bandana, who turned out to be a runner, and he led me the rest of the way to the trail. Once back on, I thought about how the bus driver had picked me up when no one else would, and how his only passengers were a handicapped woman and an old runner, and how he hadn¢t let me pay. I smiled. Maybe the North wasn¢t so bad after all. And with this in mind, I finished my last few bites of cheese and started hiking. A bright day lay ahead.I never stopped sweating, not even for an instance, the entire day. The sun burned down with a fierceness I could have never imagined, while Northern Vermont¢s growing mountains added to my misery. Despite drinking several liters of water (nearly every stream I crossed), I still got a headache from dehydration. Because of my long stop in Killington, I deemed that a 30 mile day before nightfall was impossible, so I was forced to settle for 27 miles instead. Sun setting, I set up my tarp and bug netting on top of a mountain in the middle of the trail. Not far from me was a majestic view of the setting sun and the behemoth mountains of Vermont as far as I could see. I had done more climbing that day than any other by a long shot (mountain after vertical mountain, going down one only to immediately go up another, arms and legs burning from the exercise while ¢The Count of Monte Cristo¢ audio book played in my ears to occupy me). I went to bed drenched with sweat, and continued sweating as I waited for sleep¢¦ it was so hot out, and I felt sick (but awesome at the same time).