Date: 2014-08-02
From: Petes Spring (almost)

To: Congdon Shelter
Miles today: 12.5
Weather: clear sky

Ahhh. Sleep in my tent. Bliss. Had some vivid dreaming but now that I think of it I can't remember any bit at all. Going to make more of an effort to pay attention because I thought hiking the AT would naturally help make progress on lucid dreaming. But hiking is a lot of work and I forgot about it!I woke up a couple of times throughout the night for no apparent reason. Maybe it had something to do with my dreams and that could have been my only opportunity to jot some notes down. Instead I tuned into the serenity that engulfed the woods around me. Didn't wake up again until after 7am and I didn't get out of my tent until after 8:30. I slept with my food bag so I lazily listened to a Drunken Taoist podcast with Daniele Bolelli as I ate breakfast in the comfort of my sleeping bag. Sweet.When I finally did start packing, I saw Sprout standing by the spring looking for the source or a way to fill up on water. I waved her a good morning laughing about how I camped 1/10 of a mile short of the trailhead to an actual campsite. It was like waking up on your front lawn after a New Years Eve party and seeing your neighbor picking up the news paper with a cup of coffee in hand. As I constructed my own public works department making a rock pile to collect some spring water, Sprout informed me of how the campsite was overcrowded and unpleasant. So it was a good thing I passed out on the front lawn apparently. From there the day went on at a tedious pace but in a lazy way at the same time. I was in no rush thinking I was only going to do 17miles. Did not account for how long the lava game takes for this kind of trail. I was successful until I got so caught up in Cherry picking all of my steps that I missed a turn. I ended up going the wrong way on a forever trail to nowhere for 30-50 minutes. I got the feeling I wasn't on the AT anymore within the first 5 minutes but a white strip of bark catching the sunlight just right deceived me so that I thought it was a white blaze. From there I rationalized that this terrible trail that looked more like a stream has been typical Vermont/Massachusetts trail anyways. Many hikers are calling this section "the Appalachian River" more like. The farther I went down the more I wishfully hoped I would not have to backtrack through this terrain. At some point my right foot slipped and dunked into the water. Then my left began to end up ankle deep in mud more often than not as I vigilantly searched for white blazes and stopped pretending everything is lava. This wasn't playtime anymore but I found myself yelling Tourette's Guy quotes as I trudged onwards. With the plethora of muddy human tracks (or baby sasquatches wearing hiking shoes) I was deceitfully led farther off track. Eventually there was no denying this was the wrong way in my mind and had to turn back. These fish sticks were hard as tits. Bob Saget.I got back to the trail after 3pm and hung my shoes in sunlight while I made lunch. Sprout popped out of the woods behind me and joined in on a snack break. This little girl has serious hiker munchies and seems to be eating every hour on the dot. Besides the last couple days I had not seen her since Fontana Dam and we never really got acquainted then. Strange how we're on the same hiker schedule now. We both arrived at Congdon shelter with the intent to continue another 5 miles but we ended up making dinner here and pitching our tents. Believe my thru hiker cred took a hit today going less than 17 miles and stopping before 5pm.