Date: 2007-07-14
From: Little Pond Lookout

To: Forest Service Rd 71
Miles today: 14.8

I'm behind in keeping up the journal, so I decided to put in the latest entry first. I'm going to try to completely update it by the end of the week. I've tried to respond to comments from people in the guestbook, but for some reason I can't get them to post. The milage calculation is all screwed up. By my count I have gone 531 miles so far.It was chilly this morning, about 50 degrees and breezy. I got up at a little after 5:30 and was on the trail at about 7:20 after packing up camp and eating breakfast. I was going to wait until I got to the water source to eat my protein powder, but I was hungry and it fills me up really well so I used most of the rest of my water and did that. I used the water from my platypus so it was a protein powder, instant coffee, iodine and Emergen-C shake. Yummy! It was great, but it made me cold.I enjoyed packing up camp this morning. I did it fairly quickly. Seeing it go from the tent up with the stuff spread around to the neat little package that is the pack was very satisfying for some reason.The place I camped was very well-used and I had a feeling when I hung up my food bag that there would be critters about, and there were. I hung it in the most obvious place, right near camp. It wasn't quite high enough and all the branches leading to it were big, strong ones. Sure enough, a mouse or something chewed a small hole in it. It didn't get to the food, because the packages of beef jerky were up against the spot it chose. The beef jerky packaging is stiff, somewhat thick and very smooth. I don't think anything could get through it unless it happened to start chewing on a corner.The weather was great today - 60 to 65 degrees, breezy and mostly sunny. I made good time all day, close to 1.5 miles an hour when I was hiking. I got to the Goddard Shelter about 11 a.m. It has been completely rebuilt since the last time I was there. Its a beautiful shelter. I filled up my water from the spring and ate lunch there. Between the spot where I camped and the shelter there were 2 or 3 more nice campsites, so I could have gone a little farther last night.Then I headed up to the fire tower. There are some log "steps" that I remembered as being ridiculously steep and covering a long distance. They were nothing compared to how I remembered them. The sense of difficulty on the trail is completely subjective and it was very interesting to me how inaccurate my memory was. I always think I remember things so well - well, not as well as I used to, sad to say. Must be an age thing.It was cloudy momentarily when I got to the tower, so I didn't go up. Also, I was trying to do 16 miles today so I could meet Steve at Arlington/Stratton Road so I didn't want to take the time. I had tried to call Steve from the shelter, but got his voice mail. I took another break around 1 p.m. and reached him. There is a forest service road that cut off 2 miles for me today so we arranged that he would go there and hike in to meet me in the late afternoon.I got to the turnoff to the Kid Gore shelter at about 2:30 and took a break at the older shelter, Caughnawaga Shelter, that was built in 1931 and is no longer in use. If I hadn't wanted to go home tonight, I probably would have stopped at Kid Gore. I had gone about 8 miles and I was tired, even though I thought I had a couple more miles in me. The shelters were not spaced well for me on these 2 sections, at least for me hiking at this time. One shelter apart was usually not quite as far as I wanted to go in a day and two apart was too far. Maybe that's why there are so many campsites along the way.Anyway, I kept going to meet Steve and those last few miles were pretty much done on will-power. This section was not exactly as I remembered it. The elevation changes were less and the steep parts not as long. But it was still a difficult section. Some of the steep places were very steep, both up and down. Most of it, especially the steep parts, was rocky. That's the biggest difference that I noticed between these 2 sections and most of what I hiked down south. Down south, the trail is mostly like a dirt-covered path. Up here, it is rocky and covered with roots. It also happened to be very wet and muddy. This is the fourth time I've hiked all or part of this section and its the wettest I've ever seen it.Due to the rocky nature of the trail, the bottoms of my feet were much more sore this time. I'm going to get some new insoles for my boots. Because of the roots, rocks, mud and general slipperiness, it was harder work. And lastly, there was a lot more slipping, catching myself and twisting of various body parts. Just before I met Steve I turned my left ankle. Its the 6th time I've done it, but it went over farther this time because my boot had loosened up and I hadn't noticed. Its a little sore, but I think it will be o.k. The only thing that's going a little chronic on me is some pain in my right thumb.Anyway, I met up with Steve a little after 5:30. Seeing him is always great. We stopped at Story Brook Shelter and chatted with Lady Green and Sir Wounded Knee. They did 1600 miles last year and said they had to get off - they didn't say why. They had just started up again at Route 9/ Bennington and are hoping to make it to the end by mid-September.I told myself that I wasn't going to drink beer on this trail break, but the first thing Steve and I did was head to the Maple Leaf Brewery in Wilmington, VT. I had pulled pork, coleslaw, sweet potato fries and some ale. Then home to a bath and bed.These last four days were a little tough. My stamina wasn't terrible, but it was a little off. Maybe hormonal, who knows? The trail was also hard work, which I mentioned, so maybe that was some of it. Also, this was the angstiest 4 days I have spent out here yet. Processing, processing, processing - I did so much emotional work, it was exhausting. Hopefully I won't be doing that again!Once again, the highlight of these two sections was the people! I met some great ones and I was sorry I couldn't keep up with them.