Date: 2005-07-05
From: The Carriage House Motel - Manchester Center, VT

To: The Carriage House Motel - Manchester Center, VT
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

Miles hiked today : 0.0I woke up this morning at 7:50 a.m. and heard Turtle and Opa talking on the front porch. I sat up and reached out the window and grabbed Turtle's shoulder, which freaked her out, much to my delight. I got out of bed, hopped in the shower, and packed up. At 8:30 a.m., Michael and his father, Mark, showed up to drive us to breakfast.Opa had slept for 14 hours last night and had been running a fever. He'd planned to hike out today, but during breakfast, decided to take a zero. We'd previously discussed zeroing in Manchester Center, so I advocated that we split a room again. After breafast, we returned to the Carriage House Motel and got the same room.Turtle had zeroed yesterday and wanted to hike today, but also wanted to stay with Opa and I. She and Chairman, who had stayed on our floor last night, opted to catch a ride 5 miles north in order to slackpack back to Manchester Center. As such, we're all in town for another night. Michael and Mark were also planning to zero and had checked into the room next door. There was a grill on site and we obtained permission to use it, so planned to do a family style barbecue later in the evening.After taking care of lodging arrangements, I proceeded to the laundromat with Opa and split a load of laundry. With that taken care of, I went to a bookstore that offered free internet access and updated my trailjournal. I met Michael and Mark at the bookstore and, along with Opa, we stopped at Mountain Goat Outfitter, where I got fitted for a new pack. I didn't buy a pack there, as they were too expensive, but noted that the gentleman helping me, Ron, was very helpful in determining a good fit. He didn't even make any snide remarks about not wanting to touch me. Without hesitation, I recommend their shop to hikers passing through. We headed back to the motel and discussed going to a movie or a water park, but decided to go to a water filled marble quarry. The same quarry, in fact, that was used to obtain the marble for the Lincoln Memorial.When Turtle, Chairman, Michael, Mark, and I arrived, we saw that there were cliffs to jump off and a guy at the quarry showed us a tree with a very high platform to jump off of. Michael immediately climbed up approximately 35 feet and jumped into the water with an impressive leap and splash. Turtle was already in the water and Mark was standing next to the water when he asked whether the water was cold. I said "Find out!" and pushed him in. I jumped in shortly later to avoid being pushed in and climbed out with everybody.Michael and I walked to the other side of the quarry and climbed a ladder to a high cliff. I stood there for a moment pondering whether I should jump in. As I had never jumped off of a cliff before, I knew that if I hesitated too long, I'd chicken out. So, after less than 15 seconds of standing there, I leaped off the cliff and fell 15 feet into the water. Wow, talk about a rush! I swam about 15 feet to a ledge to climb out and had to use my upper body strength to pull myself out of the water using a piece of rebar-like material sticking straight up out of the rock.We stood around for about 5 minutes watching more people jump off the cliff when Turtle suggested we skinny dip and swim back across the quarry, which was about 100 feet wide. I didn't hesitate, stripped off my shorts, and jumped in, much to the amusement of my companions and others at the quarry. I quickly figured out that jumping in with my shorts in hand was a mistake, as I was having trouble swimming. I tried to relax and slowly swam to the wall of the quarry, though there were no handholds on the slick wall. I flipped over to my back and began swimming toward the ledge I'd earlier climbed out from, which was nearly 10 feet away. Michael jumped in and put his arm around me, performing a cross chest carry. Before we'd left the motel to go to the quarry, I'd mentioned to the group that I wasn't a strong swimmer and found out that Michael, Mark, and Turtle were all life guards. As such, I knew that once Michael had ahold of me, that I should just relax, so I went limp. Moments later, we were at the ledge and I climbed out on my own, then got dressed. I shouldn't have jumped in with my shorts in hand and emerged quite tired, but very thankful that Michael jumped in to save me. I probably would have made it back on my own with great difficulty, though I wasn't too proud to accept help when I needed it. What a guy to jump in and save a naked drowning man. Thank you, Michael!We left the quarry and dropped Chairman off at the laundromat before proceeding to the vicinity of a grocery store. I stopped in at EMS, didn't see the problem employee from yesterday, and was greeted by 2 other employees who recognized me. I briefly described to one employee the problem I'd had, told her that I went elsewhere to be fitted, and wanted to buy a new pack. I pointed out that the pack had a price tag $20 higher than the price listed on their backpack comparison sheet and asked whether they would honor the lower price. I was told that it wouldn't be a problem, so I got my new EMS brand internal frame pack for a little over $105. I'll ship my old pack home tomorrow and hope that my new pack will treat me well.We went into the grocery store and bought a bunch of groceries for our barbeque. We returned to the motel, grilled many different foods, including veggie packs and corn. For dessert, I made blueberry shortcake and also sliced up a pumpkin pie I'd purchased. After dinner, we cleaned up and headed to the coffee shop at the bookstore, where Turtle bought me a chai tea latte. It wasn't nearly as good as the one I'd had in Dalton, though it was better than nothing. We returned to the motel and watched television in Michael's room for a bit before I headed back to my room to sleep. I'm not sure how far I'm hiking tomorrow, as it depends on how Opa is feeling in the morning.While checking my voicemail yesterday, I was happy to find that I had a message from Freedom (Holly). While she hadn't returned any of the last several voicemails that I'd left her, she finally called back and let me know that she'd arrived in Boiling Springs, PA and is planning on finishing the trail on the very last day possible, which is probably in October. I am very glad to hear that she is still on the trail.Bedtime at 12:00 a.m.