Date: 2011-07-13
From: Thomas Levarti's House

To: Home
Miles today: 9.6
Weather: scattered clouds

(In which I return home for a visit)A southbound thru-hiker, Black Cat, arrives at Thomas Levarti's house in the evening, and after he and Thomas finish talking I have my first conversation with a live sobo. Having previously hiked the PCT, Black Cat is used to hiking big miles, but was impressed with the ruggedness of Vermont and New Hampshire. "I mean, up there you have to walk fifteen hours a day just to get your thirty miles in," he says.Having planned to be picked up on top of Mt. Greylock, I change plans to be picked up earlier in Cheshire instead, allowing plenty of time to make it back for family dinner.Early in the day I have my second conversation with a sobo when Jason stops on the trail for a brief chat. Like Black Cat, Jason has hiked the PCT, and like all of the southbounders who have made it this far south since Katahdin opened for the season on May 30th, has necessarily been hiking big miles. I recall the Barefoot Sisters' account of their initial negative impressions of northbounders in their southbound hike, formed early by encounters with the fastest hikers to reach Maine. First impressions are important, and having the fastest of the fast be the ambassadors to hikers of the other direction helps explain some of the historical animosity between nobos and sobos.I arrive to the meeting spot two hours early and hang out in the shade. After writing the first portion of my journal entry and checking my email I have time to sit and do nothing, the rarest of luxuries, and a contrast to the whirlwind of activity I know will take place once I return home.For several reasons I have been leaning away from my initial plans to take a week off at home and instead toward taking only a day or two off, while perhaps returning for another short visit from Vermont or New Hampshire. One of these reasons is that my experience in New York convinced me that returning to the trail after three days off is a lot more physically challenging than returning after one or two days, feeling in some ways like having to readjust all over again, not least with my feet. Another reason to avoid too much time off the trail is to stay connected to the social trail scene. Slowing down has given me the chance to see hikers whom I haven't seen in months, but a week off would mean that I would likely miss meeting many of these again for the rest of the trip.The downside of only taking one or two days off is that I have already built up a week's long list of things to do at home. This list contains some important items, such as creating an updated version of the Kindle app that lets me write these journal entries, to replace the original version that is slowly failing under the weight of the existing 100+ entries and will very soon cease to load, preventing any further updates. Other items are less critical, such as loading my music collection onto iTunes and my iPod, but having looked forward to this every day for months, I know I would regret skipping it. Add onto this the socializing with immediate and extended family members that I haven't seen since I started and the normal resupply chores that can easily fill half a day themselves and I know that there won't be time for everything.My sister, returned triumphant from Denali, picks me up from the trail, and from there the whirlwind begins. Catching up, driving home, starting the computer updates downloading, family dinner, out to buy food, sync some music, and before I know it it's 1am.Tomorrow will likely be an even busier day, but with luck the next journal entry I post will be from a new and improved version of my app (though from your perspective all this means is that the journal will not suddenly stop).