Date: 2015-08-26
From: Wilbur Clearing Shelter

To: Mark Noepel Shelter
Miles today: 6.6
Weather: clear sky

The good thing about tenting last night was that I got my tarp dried out.I hiked up Greylock this morning with Clue. Actually, he¢s a younger, faster hiker than me, but we left camp together and were at the top together. I stayed at the monument at the top and called my wife on the cell phone, and he went on down to the Bascom Lodge.I first met Clue last Monday at VT 9, when I got back onto the trail. He had just come down the road and was hitching a ride to Bennington to re-supply. Clue didn¢t stay in town, so we¢ve actually camped at the same shelter every night this week. We just hadn¢t had many opportunities to talk. I understood from other hikers that he was from Florida and had never backpacked before starting the AT this year. So when he started the trail, he was Clueless. Now, after two months and 600 miles on the trail, he has a clue as to what is going on and has dropped the ¢less¢ from his name.So Clue and I had lunch together at the Bascom Lodge. He had a cheeseburger, and I had clam chowder and a big spinach salad. Clue said that I had just missed Tom Levardi, from Dalton. Tom offered to slackpack Clue to Dalton today. Tom took Clue¢s pack to Dalton, and now Clue is doing 20.5 miles today.Clue told me that he was working in New York City and learned that his mother was diagnosed with cancer. He wanted to see his mother, but had no money to pay for the trip; so he decided to walk from New York to Florida. Then someone told him about the Appalachian Trail¢he had never heard about the trail before! Clue¢s mother started a blog about his hike to raise awareness about the need for a cure for cancer.Clue said that he had wanted to meet me and had been reading my shelter register entries since Maine! Other hikers had told him that WILDCAT was ¢one bad ass backpacker¢ who knew all about the AT and all the other trails. That may not quite be true, but I took it as a compliment.Clue said that, two nights ago, he asked the college students, ¢Who built the fire?¢ They told him that ¢some chaplain¢ just came into their camp and built the fire for them.Clue is going SOBO, so I¢m looking forward to hiking with him again and teaching him how to build fires.I did a short day today, so I can end up at Tom Levardi¢s place in Dalton tomorrow. Tom lets hikers stay at his place and pitch their tents in his yard. He¢s been doing this for years and has become a trail icon¢much like Bob Peoples at the Kincorra Hostel in East Dennis Cove, near Hampton, TN. The rumor on the trail is that this is Tom¢s last year, so I¢m looking forward to meeting him.Since I did a short day today, I was the first person at the shelter. I unpacked my backpack and spread out my sleeping system on the left lower bunk where WILDCATs prefer to sleep, thereby ¢claiming¢ the shelter for thru-hikers. An hour later, ten Yale students showed up. It was actually funny to see the expression on the leader¢s faces when they saw that a hiker was already in the shelter. I¢ll admit that it was probably not the most Christian thing that I¢ve done on this trip, but it felt good to beat Yale at their own game of ¢Occupy the shelter.¢ They¢d had the shelters for the last two nights¢tonight we won. Thru-hikers: 1, Yale: 0. I did offer to share, but they declined and decided to set up their big tarps.Later one of the students, Sticks, and I worked together to build what they told me later was the best campfire that they¢d ever had. (That¢s just what WILDCATs do!) There are three SOBO AT thru-hikers and one section hiker sleeping in the shelter tonight.