Date: 2009-07-22
From: Seth Warner shelter

To: Bennington, VT
Miles today: 11.5
Weather: overcast clouds

It was still raining in the morning and no one was in a hurry to get up. The southbounders were the first to leave. No Name¢s tent had leaked all night, and all he wanted was to get inside the shelter to try to dry out. I didn¢t know where I was going that day. I decided not to have a maildrop sent to Bennington because it was 5 miles off the trail, and I thought it would be too much trouble to get there. I would just play it by ear.   When I stopped for a break near a pond, Stats passed me. I later saw him at Congdon Shelter where we both took a lunch break, 7 miles in. The register had entries talking about a hippie couple in Bennington who let hikers stay with them. They lived in a red house with a mannequin on the porch. (I felt like the instructions could have been: Go into the center of town, find the old oak tree, look for the gnome who lives underneath, and he will tell you where they live!) Stats decided he was going to spend the night there, and I figured I might as well, too. I had visited Bennington after my first backpacking trip last June and thought it would be neat to see it again on my thru-hike. We hiked the 4.3 miles together and caught up on things. I wasn¢t going to tell him about my recent drama, but when Mr. Pink¢s name came up for other reasons and Stats described him as ¢odd¢, I asked that he please tell me more. This was the first warning I heard about him. Apparently, he was known as a player and his motive for hiking the trail was to pink blaze. One girl had left a warning message in one of the shelter registers. Another girl who had recently hiked with him described him as ¢slick¢. Unfortunately, I had not seen the warning entry, nor heard anyone say these things about him earlier (he attached himself to different groups throughout the course of the trail, many of which did not question him much). I never had a good feeling about him from the first time I met him, but somehow he sucked me in with the stories and game playing, when he first had the opportunity to hike with me alone. Stats told me he was in the construction business and operated like a used car salesman, using and manipulating people to get what he wanted. He also told me that he only told the story about the ex-girlfriend to the girls on the trail and that there were different versions of it (he refused to tell any of it to Stats). Hmmm.. finally I had some info about him!   We also talked about some of Stat¢s problems and the way he was dealing with them. He wanted to know my opinion concerning his behavior, and I let him know what I thought. We got to the road and stuck out our thumbs, but no one stopped. We decided to walk aways while we tried hitching. No one slowed down! I couldn¢t believe how difficult it was to get a ride! After a long time, someone pulled over. He admitted that he was not going to, but then thought that maybe we had been waiting for a long time. I told him we had! We asked him if he knew where Friendly¢s was, and when he brought us there, I asked if he would mind driving us to the red house with the mannequin. We had found the secret place! Chris met us outside and showed us around. We had several options for where to sleep- in the garage, on the porch, or in our own shelters. We were allowed to watch TV, and use the internet if we let them know ahead of time. Bennington center was in walking distance, so after I washed the mud off my shoes and socks with the hose, Stats and I walked to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. Squeegie, the Twins, Halfmoon, and Sunbeam also decided to stay there. I also got to watch ¢So, You Think You Dance¢, so I was very happy! Chris watched part of it with Squeegie and I, and commented on the dancers. I was able to ask Sunbeam and Squeegie what they thought of Mr. Pink since they were his current group, but I did not tell them what he did when we were alone.   I could not find any trees for my hammock, so I decided to sleep on the porch. I thought it was pretty there, with the flowers. Stats decided to sleep right next to me. We talked about his problems and what I thought he should do about them until midnight, and then I told him we better go to sleep!