Date: 2004-05-11
From: Crystal Mt. Campsite

To: East Dummerston, VT
Miles today: 4.6

Today¢s hike was mostly along the roads of Massachusetts and Vermont. After hiking out from Crystal Mt. Campsite, I considered my options for hitching rides to Brattleboro and decided I would likely have more luck if I went over to Rt. 7 then up to Bennington and across Rt. 9 to Brattleboro, than trying to find rides on the back roads that might be a little bit more direct but have less traffic. As I passed the Post Office with my thumb out, a man coming out of the building asked me where I was headed, so I told him. He said he would be glad to get me up to North Adams, so I hopped in his truck and the day of hitching began.After being dropped on Rt. 2, I got a ride almost immediately by a retired fireman who was on his way to Williamstown to do a fire inspection. He dropped me right at Rt. 7 and it wasn¢t long before a salesman picked me up on his way to Middlebury. He sells location/construction packages for bank branch offices, including market research to select a location, design, build and setup of the new branch office. Coincidentally his firm had been involved in the construction of a new branch office for the Northfield Savings Bank just down the road from me in Williston.After being dropped off at the intersection with Rt. 9 in Bennington, I walked to the outskirts of town through a major road reconstruction project before I was picked up by a student at Southern Vermont College who was headed up to the AT to climb Glastonbury Mt. He thought I was going to the same place, but I told him it would be a few more days before I continued my hike here. He dropped me at the trailhead and started up the mountain as I continued my hitching. Not very many cars were coming by and I began to question my decision to come this way when Walt came along. He was headed home to Plymouth, NH, after a road trip to MI, and his car was giving him some trouble. He finally got it going and we jerked and sputtered up the mountain until we could coast down the other side. Every now and then he would turn off the ignition key and then turn it back on again, saying it seemed to run better whenever the "Check Engine" light was on. And so it went all the way to Brattleboro, but we made it without any trouble and since he was going to NH, he dropped me at the Mobil station at Exit 3 of the interstate, right across from the Pizza Hut. So it was dodging traffic to get over there for another salad bar lunch before the final leg of my trip to East Dummerston.After lunch I walked another mile or so up Rt. 5 until I was picked up by CC (Cliff Claven), GA>ME 03. He was so psyched to pick up a fellow AT hiker and talk about times on the trail and was really aching to get back out there. He had already picked up another rider who he planned to drop off on one of the back roads in Dummerston, and on his way back to Rt. 5 he just happened to go right by my brother¢s house, so I made it to my destination in good time and was delivered almost to the door. And what a fun last leg, being able to talk with another AT hiker about our favorite places on the trail.So now it will be a few days off to attend the wedding, do laundry, organize my next food supply and prepare for the next leg of my journey. So far it has been a different hike from past hikes, but then every one is different. There have been few hikers on the trail and most of my nights have been spent alone in my tent or in a shelter. Perhaps the next leg will be a little different when I begin again, with more AT through hikers catching up and other hikers beginning their hike of the Long Trail. Whatever the case, it is bound to be enjoyable and to hold some as yet unknown surprises. So, I¢ll be baaack.