Date: 2004-10-25
From: Bennington, VT

To: My truck, Notch Rd. North Adams, Mass.
Miles today: 21.5

21.5 miles todaySleeping in my truckNotch Rd. North Adams, Mass. I slept great last night, finally figured out that I've been having coffee with dinner to warm me up, but it's also been keeping me awake, so I switched to decaf and it worked. I slept mostly through the night and felt ready to start walking this morning. I had my usual coffee and small breakfast and Hippie and I started walking about 7:15am. It was 36 degrees and no wind, so it felt really mild out. We passed by Kat and Dave later in the morning. I was standing on a rock near some mud and talking to them when Hippie came around the corner trying to catch up to me. She was rock hopping through the mud and moving very fast, when she rounded the corner, she had both feet in the air and they were probably a foot or more off the ground. She was planning on landing on some rocks, but caught a glimps of us and looked to see who it was and she missed her rocks and landed right in the mud with both feet. It was one of the funniest things I've seen. I left her there talking to Kat and Dave to make arrangements on where we were going to meet in North Adams to give them a ride to Pittsfield and I took off again. I found a nice spring, so I waited on Hippie to show her where it was because I knew we were both running low on water. She caught up and we hiked together most the rest of the day. We finished Vermont today. That completes Hippie's Long Trail hike in the middle of her A.T. hike...congratulations Hippie!!! I got to say hello to Pamela when I crossed the border. The sun came out today!! It was later in the day, but the skies turned blue and the sunshine felt real good for a change. This was by far the muddiest area I've walked in this year. The far southern part of Vermont was still very muddy. I kept thinking of how bad it must have been a couple months ago when all the hikers were going through here. There are still some leaves on the trees at the lower elevations, but high up, the leaves are all on the trail. They hide the rocks, so my feet are twisting and turning all day on hidden rocks. By morning my feet feel great again and ready for another day. We got done hiking at 3:20pm today and went and checked our mail drops at Bennington, Vt and North Adams, Mass. and then picked up the other truck and went and found Kat and Dave. They just finished the Long Trail today and Dave has to be back at work tomorrow morning on Cape Cod. We found them at Friendly's Restaurant and they said they were stuffed and ready to ride, so we took them to Dave's brother's place in Pittsfield and we all went in. I took a shower and washed my clothes, then Hippie washed most of the dirt off her. She still has dirt on her feet, but is probably going to need a wire brush to make them look clean again. We said goodbye to them and headed back to Dalton and grabbed a pizza for dinner. I need to apologize to all my friends that I owe emails to. We have been so busy that it's been hard to even find the time to keep my journal going. I promise that I'll catch up soon. Hippie's going home this weekend and I'll have more time when we aren't moving trucks when we're done hiking. Another great day on the A.T.