Date: 2003-05-23
From: Pine Grove Furnace State Park and Hostel 

To: Alex Kennedy Shelter 
Miles today: 15.5
Weather: overcast clouds

Aloha! Just when I think I don't have much to chat about, along comes something or someone to rectify the problem. Let's chat shall we?   We last chatted at the hostel. Nothing really exciting to tell you about there unless you want to know that I ate grits for breakfast. Sleepy Jean and Anklebear opted to call a relative to pick them up for a few days of R&R. With the possibility of rain they chose not to partake in the day's hike. They truly are fair weather hikers. Good on them!   Anyway, I trundled off a little later than I had hoped but not so terribly late ¢ 8:45a. Right off the bat I met an elderly gentleman out for his morning stroll. The pack on my back brought the normal questions and then his tale. It seems he hiked from Maine to Pine Grove in 1955 with two buds. He arrived in Pine Grove and called it quits. Accordingly he became impatient with the trail (?) and decided that Pine Grove was the place to be. He now walks 2 miles a day along the AT to remember the good old days. Neat, huh?   After our chat I headed off in search of my day's adventure. The first thing to come into sight was the old halfway sign. The actual halfway spot is now almost exactly in front of the hostel due to trail changes down south but it's still exciting to see it. You'll see when you get there yourself. After that it was pretty routine. Ha!   Have you ever had one of those days where you're just in a funk? Of course you have; hasn't everyone? No matter what I did I just couldn't get out of that funk. I stumbled around stubbing my toe from one rock to the next, felt like I weighed a ton and couldn't get the negative thoughts out of my head. Just totally out of sync with my hike and me.    I fought this attitude almost all day while trying to figure out what was happening. I tried blaming the grey overcast skies, the 50 million rocks, the lack of being in trail shape, not eating enough, not drinking enough, or whatever. Blamed it on everything and nothing. I tried rectifying the situation by stopping on a bridge, dangling my legs over and munching down on a snack. Helped a bit but only for a short. Later I even made the trip to the Green Mountain General Merchandise store thinking a deli sandwich, chips and coke would do the trick. Nope, just made me really full. (I did get a turkey sub to go for diner though.) I drank a ton. Nope, not it. Just irritated me more for now having to make more stops! I even slowed down! That helped a little on the stumbling but not all that much. Nothing seemed to be working. Grrrr.... Until...   As I was muttering along to myself I met a southbound section hiker called Miles to Go. She and her husband, Mr. Blisters, were hiking opposite directions so that they could pass the keys to the scooter. She chatted quickly and for only a moment. Her last statement was to have fun with the rocks ahead. "Massachusetts all over". I smiled sweetly and laughed along with her all the while looking at a woman carrying nothing more than a fanny hydration bladder and tennis shoes and thinking 'yeah right.... I've had enough of these damned rocks!" Silly me - she was so right!   Shortly thereafter I entered the Mini Moohousac (however you spell that) practice zone. Obviously I haven't made it there yet since it's in MA but I've heard stories. Boulders as large as houses, four hours to get one mile, places where you must take your pack off to squeeze through or climb up and over, like a playground. Today's mini was not quite to that degree but it still consisted of boulders, four-foot steps and tight squeezes. I loved it! I had a blast. The trail needlessly cut in and out of the boulders and I'm so glad it did. By the end of the journey my funk was gone. I don't exactly know why but it was gone, gone, gone. Way cool!   Shortly thereafter I caught up with some other hikers - Butch and Gaylan. Both hail from Baltimore and are only out for short sections. Gaylan is actually prepping for his thru-hike beginning next month in Maine. (No better way to get in shape than to hike.) Super nice guys. I'm sheltering with them both tonight.   Yes, you heard correctly, I'm sheltering again. There was a moment where I thought I'd go back down the mountain a little ways and set up my tent at a lovely spot next to the water. But then... it began to rain... and continues still. So I'm tucked up here on my single upper bunk happily writing to you and enjoying the sounds of the rain. And feeling back in the groove. Ahhh... life is good again.   Wow! It's late, dark and raining and we've just been joined by another section hiker - Recon. Recon hails from Nashville and has been doing 25 to 30 miles a day since starting his hike from Rockfish Gap less than two weeks ago. He claims he's not fast; he just hikes longer. He's determined to cut his hiking distance down to 18 miles a day his next go around. He'll be off at Boiling Springs tomorrow and will have traveled approximately 260 miles by journey's end. Unbelievable. To top it off, he recognized my name and reminded me that I'm not suppose to be doing more than ten miles a day and I did more if I came from Pine Grove today. Oops! Interesting man.   So that was my day. A good one in the end. If I can end my day by saying that I'm happy to be here and having a good time then I know I'm all right. Not only am I all right but also I'm great. Tonight I'm great.   Time to shut this down and bid you all a lovely evening. I'm sure you have things to do before retiring for the day yourselves. Should you find yourself out of sync with the world tomorrow, try eating, drinking and rock climbing. One of them is bound to work! Or it did for me!BS&T: kind of fell today for the first time. Thanks to poles and well-placed trees only one knee ended up on the ground. No blood but a few tree burns on the wrist. As for sweat, lots of it on the rocky UPs. Tears? Not today. A&Ps: noneM&Gs: only the ones I already mentioned. Waaah!Critter count: 5x chipmunks, 1x squirrel