Date: 2007-07-30
To: Special Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Special Journal entry by ¢Papillion¢ ¢ Bowleg¢s GirlfriendI have to admit I was not sure what to expect when I met ¢Bowleg.¢ I was very excited to finally get the opportunity to hike with him. We met at Arlington-Stratton Road (Thank you dad for dropping me off!) on Friday and decided to camp there for the night. So as previously stated in ¢Bowleg¢s¢ journal I did get freaked when I heard something BIG trudging by the tent. I shot up like a rocket and woke him up! He had no worries and went back to sleep! Morning finally came and we got up and headed out. I believe that we hiked 11.7 miles that day (thank you Jen for my awesome workouts). When we got to the first shelter, I thought we were done for the day, but to my surprise, we were just stopping for lunch. After our lunch break we moved on to William B. Douglas Shelter. ¢Bowleg¢ went for water and when he came back cooked dinner for us. It was actually pretty good! After that he tried to get a fire started, but no luck. Just as well, we were tired. The next day we got up and headed down Stratton Mt. And into Manchester Center, VT. I had my first experience with trail magic when we got to the road. While we were heading down, ¢Bowleg¢ stated, I feel that there is going to be trail magic and we are going to get a ride. Go figure, he was right! At the bottom there was a cooler filled with ¢soooda.¢ Man did that taste good! Once we crossed the road, we weren¢t even standing there for more than 5 minutes and a car pulled up. A hiker got out and we got in. The two men gave us a ride into town. We went to Friendly¢s and, yes, pigged out. I¢ll tell you, food never tasted so good!Once we were finished in town, we had to find a ride back to the trail. Once again, ¢Bowleg¢ did it! He got us a ride back to the trail and we hiked another 2 miles to the shelter. ¢Bowleg¢ once again went for water, cooked dinner for us and started an awesome fire. We ate our dinner by the campfire and talked for a while. It was nice to be able to spend quality time with him. He has been gone for so long and haven¢t had the opportunity in quite some time. We finally decided to call it night. When I was getting into my sleeping bag I noticed some mouse droppings on the trim that went around the top of the shelter. ¢Bowleg¢ assured me that there were no mice¢¦¢¦..Well, as soon as he turned off his headlamp, wouldn¢t you know I heard squeaking! I shot up again like a rocket and turned on my headlamp. Apparently my light is not as bright as his because I did not see anything until ¢Bowleg¢ sat up and shone his light. I caught a glimpse out of the corner of my eye of ¢Mike the mouse¢ in the corner of the shelter. That is all I had to see! I pulled the sleeping bag over my head and tucked it in as tight as I could, so no little visitors could get me! Luckily, I was spooning Bono that night, so he served as my protector! ¢Bowleg¢ laughed at me for the rest of the weekend!The next day we hiked up Bromley Mt. And the views at the top were spectacular! We took a lot of pictures at the top. We finally made it back to the truck and yes, it was all in one piece. I was a little worried about leaving it there for the weekend, but it ended up being fine! We headed back into town so that we could re-supply ¢Bowleg.¢ When we got back to the trial ¢Gorilla¢ showed up and we hung around for a little longer before we had to say our goodbyes again. It is never easy saying goodbye no matter how close I know he is to coming home or knowing I will see him the next weekend. This has to have been one of the greatest experiences of my life. I am thankful that I have ¢Bowleg¢ to share that with me! I was not ready to go home and wanted to continue hiking, but had to get back to work the next day. I have tremendous respect for all the thru-hikers out there. It definitely is not an easy thing to do and it is definitely not a vacation. It is hard work and a totally different way of life. I experienced so much in just those three days and also met a lot of great thru-hikers along the way. I look forward to the next time I get to hike with ¢Bowleg!¢