Date: 2002-09-15
From: Maine

To: Manchester, Vermont
Miles today: 9.0

Sunday September 15, 2002 day 406:15 and it¢s still dark outside. I am up here on this mountain and the wind blew all night long. I did not sleep very good with all the dead branches falling and worrying about branches falling on my tent. I got up and I have my headlamp on, and I am out of here. I am walking on the trail with my headlamp on and it¢s still dark. But I had to get away from that area. I think that was probably one of the more stupid things I have done in a while. After I was set up I thought about moving but then didn¢t know where I would move too. So here I am on the trail. I am at Cooper Lodge, 3 ladies here from northern Vermont; they don¢t have trail names. Then met Wildchild, he is from Colorado. He has done the trail before but now he is doing the long trail. The 3 ladies spent the night with the wildchild and they seem to be okay from the experience. As it turns out I could have made it to the cooper shelter before dark last night but that is the way it goes.   Nice old stone cabin with a door on it here, where they were staying. I am moving on here and remembering my Grandma Reed. It¢s funny how you are walking along here and slipping on rocks and watching roots and feeling mesmerized by the trail. Thinking about things in the past and my grandma Reed, just thinking about fishing with her, and she had those long cane poles. She lived in Webster City, Iowa. We would go across the tracks and down under the bridge or we would go east and then north and there was an area there where she would go fishing. The best part of the whole experience was the lunch.   Ha. As I remember we never did catch a lot of fish but we sure had a good time just sitting there. I don¢t remember what we talked about but she was so good to me. She loved the outdoors, flowers, and nature. I think if she were alive I think she would be proud of me for doing this. She would support me wholly. Just met a north bounder that did the AT last year and is doing the Long trail. The long trail adjoins with the AT somewhere down here anyway this guy is hoping to do the long trail in 7 days. I don¢t know how long it is But he is Trail Ninja AKA !trailninja He is from Vermont. I guess this hiking gets in your blood, but it hasn¢t gotten into mine yet but it could happen. Ha. That guy I met back at the Cooper¢s Lodge shelter, Wild Child, that is all he wants to do is hike.   I said well you must be independently wealthy and he said NO, well I got enough money to get by on and he made some good investments and got out of the stock market at the right time. He has some real estate and half interest in a demolition company with his brother in Missouri, so he can afford to do what he wants to do for awhile. He has done the tails in CO and the AT and he just likes to hike. I have met many others the same way. Like Kevin, hiked this trail 4 times, and the pacific crest and the continental divide and then starts up in Canada and then walks home to Virginia. So it must get in your blood. That guy I just met Trail Ninja !trailninja he said last year when he hiked the AT, his trail name was Zerk. I asked Wild Child if he had seem the gentleman with the cowboy hat on and he said he had with El Torro and Black Dog, I said Black DOG!   I left him in Hanover I said he was waiting to get a bus to go home and testify and now he is ahead of me. I said he must have zipped right by me sometime. I just came across a BIG BULL MOOSE, and he is standing up there looking at me. I know that is what it was the other morning when I thought it was a bear. I can hear the similar noise now.   He is walking along going oomph oomph oomph crackling through the forest and then he spotted me. He carefully, carefully, raised his legs up real slow and then he turned and looked at me. I finally got my camera out and got turned around where he was supposed to be, I Took 3 shots and I hope I got him. That was quite a thrill, he was a big old Bull Moose with huge rack. Stopped at the Governor Clements Shelter, it¢s just a stone lean to. I was going to take a break but it was full of people still sleeping. It is 10:15. One of them was up on top smoking a cigarette and I said, getting a late start today huh? (I see a pick up sitting there with Louisiana plates in it), and he said, Oh we had a party last night. They looked like they were pretty sick. Bunches of beer cans lying around and whiskey bottles. So I didn¢t stay there long. I am glad I did not make it to that shelter last night. That would have been a disaster. Looks like the day might end up sunny, clouds are breaking up. I am going across this mountain stream and I hear this clanking sound, a noise like rocks clanking. So I come around the bend here and here are 2 guys naked, building a dam so they can have a little swimming hole. I just laughed, and laughed and laughed. And they are local guys evidently because they didn¢t have any packs with them. I said to them, it¢ll never work and they just laughed. They said they come up here and do this every year and when they come back the next year it¢s gone. I said YEH, I said you know hydrology is a strange thing, it¢ll move boulders the size of houses. I took a picture of them and they said, hey don¢t use our names. I said well I don¢t know your names. I guess there are other things they could be doing but here they are out building a dam in a mountain stream so they have a place to go swimming. That water is cold. It¢s a Sunday morning they should be in church, ha, ha. I suppose the good lord will forgive ¢em. I mean they are out here communing with nature, just building a dam and having innocent fun in their birthday suits. So they are not really just kids, they look like they are in their late 20¢s. But that doesn¢t mean they can¢t have fun. Just past by a pine tree, old growth forest. It¢s like walking on carpet when I walk on the pine needles. I love that. This one tree sticks out; it¢s about 3 to 4 feet in diameter. Huge old tree. I was thinking about my classmates, the class of 57of OWASA.   I think they probably had dinner last night. But I was thinking about old times and good times we had. Wondering who was there to reminisce. We always had good time. Jeannie Balvanz always accused me of writing something on her jacket and I still to this day can not remember what I did. But we grew up together. Most of us went to school from 1st grade all the way up to graduation. WE had 14 of us who graduated. 7 girls and 7 boys. I never thought we would get this old. At that time I thought we were the top, we were the elite. Never thought about getting old. Whoever thought that 45 years would go by and most of us are still alive. I think Jack Warden is the only one of us that has died. All my classmates were good guys and gals. They were all good. They never got in any trouble. I am the only one that ever got into any trouble. The rest of them were successes in life and always did the right thing and still do. I am just fortunate to be alive. I guess now I could call my life a success. Back then couldn¢t. They say one in 12 people are alcoholics, here we were 14 in my class and I was the alcoholic in the bunch (in my class). Back to trail, the trail has been following a mountain stream for about an hour and a half. Walking right beside it down the mountain into the valley. It¢s fun to walk along beside it and listen to it. The trail is good here. This is ridiculous; this Wing Foot puts out this guidebook and doesn¢t mention any roads at all. You don¢t know what road is what. So it says turn right on 105, well how in the heck do I know what road is 105 when I come to a road! No explanation at all. They just say, oh you are going to pass this road, don¢t stop on that one. I made a mistake by not getting maps in Hanover. Screw up big time. The long trail which joins the AT at New Maine Junction. It goes north 165 miles to Canadian border and goes south to Massachusetts.   It¢s the nations first long distance trail. A lot of people just come out to hike the Long Trail from Massachusetts to Canada. The AT and the Long Trail share for 105 miles through southern Vermont.   Just met a north bounder on the long trail headed to Canada.   Trail name is ME, I didn¢t get why his name was !me but he had a lady with him and she didn¢t have a trail name. They had a black dog with a pack on. He was telling me about a day and half-ahead of me is a lady they call Buckets. She carries 2 five-gallon buckets with her instead of a pack. Interesting HUH? Just met Hooligan, retired guy from the U.S. Coast Guard. He is hiking the Long Trail and a few years ago he hiked the AT. He was having some trouble. Looks to be somewhat younger than I. He is from Louisville, Kentucky. I am sure glad I ask him about the Whistle Stop restaurant. It¢s about a half a mile up the road here on the highway, and he said it was closed on Sunday afternoon. That just saved me from having to make the trip one-mile each way. I don¢t need any of the darn restaurant food anyway. I am happy with my ramen noodles with mash potatoes in it and hot chocolate, and pop tart and I am good. I also got pita bread and I put peanut butter on it. I am glad I got the peanut butter, it really helps, especially like to put a little on my pop tart too. Life is good. Came on another wild apple tree, they were really good. What a treat that was. Came along a swinging bridge here that was built and dedicated in memory to a Bob Brohm that died in a flash flood in 1973. Kind of a unique bridge goes over a pretty gorge with a nice cascading stream going through it. Thinking again about family as I am walking along. Thinking about the Reed Reunion where I saw all my cousins. I had seen Eloise who was Loreene¢s daughter, for the first time in 30 years or more. It was like we had not been apart that long. We connected right away. We really got close as kids as far as cousins go on my mom¢s side and on my dad¢s side too. Because we had reunions and had get togethers. I think we need to get back to that. Because my grandkids have special feelings for their cousins too. I know one of our favorite things to do, and Charlene feels this way too was go to Loreene¢s for Thanksgiving or Christmas. She was such a good cook. All the kids together and we had such a great time together. Talking about food, she made the best banana cake, white frosting with maraschino cherries on top. I would do anything for a piece of that cake now. Anything. I made the Minerva Hitchee Shelter for the night.   Got in about 4:45. Tried to get some water and all I found was a little stink hole. Had enough water to cook supper. El Torro is here, it is raining pretty good, so I am glad to be in the shelter. I am at mile 505 tonight. A young man just came in and it¢s 7:30, dark, raining like heck and another guy behind him so he is going out to see if he can guide him into the shelter here. Not much of a sign only one little arrow. They have no lights and they are soaked but they are section hiking a week at a time.   They are going from hwy. 103. Steve and Ted came in, hiking through the rain and they are going to Stratton Mountain. Miller came in and he is going to Canada. He has 2 weeks to do it. He came in later.