Date: 2017-05-14
From: Elk River campsite

To: Black Bear resort
Miles today: 18.6
Weather: clear sky

Between my missing gear, broken gear and items that I wish I had but have yet to purchase, I feel like I'm slightly falling apart. I'm hoping to fix everything at trail days when I can talk to vendors and get my gear fixed/replaced. I am impressed with how easy it is for me to reset these days when I arrive at a location with various amenities. I used to make lists of all the things to clean on my zero days. Now I can hike 19 miles to a campground, roll in at 7pm and be clean and ready to move on for another long day by the following 7am. I hadn't done laundry in 9 days and I hadn't cleaned myself in a week so y'all can imagine that I'm feeling pretty good right now. I'm most grateful though to have access to a real toilet. Wow, what a luxury! For some reason, the shelters haven't had privies in a while and I like to set a two hole limit for myself each day. However, my fibrus diet is not a fan of this. Toilets are by far the amenity I miss the most. I'm lined up well to walk into Trail Days on Thursday which I'm quite excited about. I've taken a handful of neros but I haven't actually taken a zero since Hot Springs. I'm supposedly taking three days off from the trail next weekend for this festival which should leave me feeling well rested and excited to get back on the trail, especially after I fix up all my gear and take care of things I've needed to do for a while.I'm trying to live in the present but I can't help to get excited about the familiar places I'll pass when I get further north. Nine years ago I spent my first and only summer without visiting Timberlock (the summer camp I've grown up going to). I can't really imagine a summer without at least swinging by and visiting. I also just found out that I get summer benefits at Killington, the ski resort I worked at this winter! The trail goes right over the summit of Killington and I'm looking forward to being able to take the gondola down, visit friends and still get discounts on beer and summer activities. Definitely looking forward to being closer to home. As overwhelmed as I get in NYC, I do think it will be nice to have access to public transportation as well as any store or restaurant I could possibly imagine. I'm also looking forward to being able to go to my home in Albany and have more control over my resupplies as well as switch out my splurge items. Over the past 5 years, I've hiked 85 miles of the trail between NH and ME and I'm generally more familiar with those areas. I think it will be more comfortable to feel closer to home and have a better sense of context/ feel more accurately oriented compared to now where I plot along and blindly follow my AWOL guidebook. I'm assuming my travels will be cheaper and easier when I have friends and family to host and shuttle me places up North but I'm also nervous that I'll feel a bit overwhelmed by all the people I will want to visit or that might want to visit me. I only know two people to visit in the entire southern section and I saw them both in one visit! It seems like my experience on the northern half though will be drastically different from the southern half so I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens. I'm hoping to take 1-2 weeks off from the trail at the end of June so I'll have to forge an entirely new community when I return. Hopping off the trail for a single day can already change your social surroundings completely! Perhaps this social dynamic shift will lend itself well to the northern half though so I will have time to visit the people I pass near without feeling pressures to keep up with my bubble and socialize with my trail fam. I want to give a shout out to my momma on this glorious mother's day. She's been doing an amazing job as my support system and I definitely would not have made it this far without her help! She's been sending me my food drops along the way, housing my belongings and cat and who the hell knows what else when I get closer.... (sorry and thanks in advance!). Love this lady to the moon and back.