Date: 2002-09-12
From: Maine

To: GA
Miles today: 0.0

Thursday September 12, 2002About 6:40 ready to go to cafeteria at Dartmouth and its buffet style all you can eat. Didn¢t sleep too well, I have a full pack for today. Man it is heavy this morning but it¢s nice out. Post office doesn¢t open till 8:30 and I am not going to wait around to mail that film. !kevin just met me and he is headed down the trail and I am surprised I have kept up with him for a week. But he has hiked this trail 4 times. He has hiked the pacific crest trail, the continental divide trail. He builds log houses. He has 60 acres down there in Virginia, I think I told you that but its between Lynchburg and Charlottesville and I can¢t remember the name of the little town right now. Lives off on a dirt road. He is building a house out of timber and pegs. Not using any nails. Coming up on the Dartmouth Outing club and they have 2 buses and they are all going out and going to hike the trail for awhile. They really don¢t look too enthusiastic. I got into the frat house computer and read all my email. Sent out a little note to everybody and by that time the post office was open. Killed a lot of time in this time. I will be glad to be out of this town but after being on the trail I would rather be out there with no people around. I read an email from Val and Leah my granddaughter said she would rather have me take her to a cabin somewhere and spend time with her than read me being on this damn trail. She¢s a character isn¢t she? So next year and we are going to go to cabin but we are going to Hike to a cabin. How is that Leah? How will that be?   Ha. Ha. This is day 37, and you will have to check me on this I am getting old and senile. Ha. The trail goes right through the middle of town and they have the white blazes on the telephone poles. You can hear the traffic and then cross the Connecticut River and I have been thinking about since I read Val¢s email and Leah saying she would rather I spend time with her at a cabin with the family that maybe I shouldn¢t be out here, maybe I should be spending more time with the grandkids. Now I am feeling guilty, darn it. But Leah I am not having any fun doing this and its work, it¢s hard work doing this. Ha. Ha. This morning at the college cafeteria I had pieces of French toast, big plate of scrambled eggs, bacon, hashbrowns and bagel with peanut butter and jelly and 2 cups coffee one cup of coffee and 2 pastry. No pop tarts this morning. Seems like every time I go into a town I spend 50 dollars. I stayed free in that frat house but then had to do laundry and spent 20 some in walmart and some grocery store and then 3 meals. Good lord I am just too tight to spend money like this. I better just stay out in the wilderness and take my baths in the stream but it did feel good to have that hot shower. I am now in Vermont. Boy I didn¢t think I would get to Vermont. Fall is in the air and it¢s very crispy outside. It is hard to find the blazes around here. On the license plates here it says Vermont: the green mountain state. But on to the top of the trail I slipped and fell but I am okay. My pack feels heavy today but you know what, that is because it is heavy and it¢s full and I think I have more food than I need and too many clothes. Only met 2 people on the trail this morning and they were just day hikers. Stopped at Happy Hills Shelter and signed in the log guest book and had a candy bar. Last night at the Anarchy Frat house a couple of guys were drinking, they had a bottle and it had some booze in it. The one kid took the lid off and turned it over and poured some in a lid and took some over to Hilltoppers and Sniffles dog and the dog started drinking out of it and he only drank about half of it and he didn¢t want anymore. I didn¢t think that was too cool. Anyway I saw them in front of the restaurant with their packs and the dog was laying there like he was about half dead. Probably had a hangover. One of the guys that was there drinking he has to go back home and testify or something but anyway he was one of them that was back in Gorham was in the same hostel and room I was in that stunk the place up by puking all over.Stopped at a little place in the road here, don¢t know the name but there is a country store here. I know what them people feel like when they live in the desert, go out in them caravans and then drop over a sand dune and they see an Oasis there. They must be a good feeling. But here I am, come over a hill and there is a little general store and they have just about every thing.   Got Chocolate Malt and 2 cups of coffee. It¢s West Hartford, Vermont. It¢s on the White River. Rick and Tina¢s Country Store is the name of the store. There is a little library. Crossing over the White River and the water is clear and I bet it is 10 foot deep. I am really using these tapes up.   The air is fresh and clean up here kind of reminds me of Wisconsin. I checked my email and I really didn¢t¢ have time to answer everybody. I just don¢t have the time to do that. I got one from Rose Kappel and she said take your time and enjoy the way. Don¢t get in a hurry. She knows me I think. That is sort of what I am doing today. It feels good and you know if I don¢t make Springer Mountain before Xmas, so what, I can always come back out and finish. I will go as far as I can go and whatever the trail gives me that is what I will take. I will try to live in this day. I say to hell with the devil. I just met a guy that was riding his bicycle and I thought man I miss my bicycle and I miss my swimming too. I don¢t know if it¢s the day or what but there is no haze in Vermont and it¢s great. Can see some color in the trees. I hope I had this tape player setting right on this fast play or slow play so you can understand Pam. Was thinking about all my emails and had 19 emails and 99 percent of them was positive and encouraging. That is really a good feeling to know that people are behind me and following me and are excited about this. It feels good to have their support. Talked to Mary this morning and she said Paul had come down and was having a tough time dealing with his Grandpa Bills death. He needs to grieve and take all the time he needs to do that can understand that. He is a real sensitive young man and how I love him dearly. I wish I was there to help him and he can get through. He needs to let himself grieve and that is what it is and you go on and dwell on it and you grieve and cry. That is what it takes. His Grandpa Bill was a fine man and loves him very much. Like I love him also. I am walking out here in the middle of no where and all the sudden I see this old cook stove sitting on its side. Over there in the timber. Where in the world did it come from; it looks like it just dropped out of the sky. I am walking through a beautiful Pine Tree forest right now and it reminds me of Northern Minnesota, where Pam is.   They must have had a pretty good windstorm last night. A lot trees and branches down. I don¢t¢ have regular maps and all I have is my guide book and so I was on this road and this car came along with a young lady in it and I said, am I in the right spot. She told me I was a long way from where I thought I was. I did find some water and filled up with that so now I have some extra weight to carry. So now I will have water when I get to the shelter. Lots of steep ups and downs today.   I need to stop at the next shelter and camp for the night. Really feeling the ups and downs and need to rest. It seems like whenever I get out late from wherever I am staying it kind of ruins my day for hiking. I seem to get into a rhythm if I leave at 6:30 but if I don¢t get going till 9 then I feel whipped all day. I am at the top of a mountain in Vermont and it is just beautiful. I am on the top of this hill and you see little patches of hay ground. Must be dairy farms. Beautiful green mountains and then all the sudden a 25-acre green meadow surrounded by trees. Then I came across a wild apple tree.   The apples are about the size of plums and they taste pretty good.   Just came across !squeaky from Baltimore, he knows a guy from Cedar Rapids, Iowa names Rick Stickel. He has done almost all the trail. He has a job bringing a ship from South Africa to New Orleans, exciting wish I was going along. He has to leave the trail tomorrow. He is in the inactive naval reserve. His boss called him and he said I am going.