Date: 2007-09-12
From: Dalton, Mass

To: Connecticut
Miles today: 0.0

HA! What a great last few days. After spending my first night at Tom's, I decided that I would be able to take a zero, so I just sat around and did nothing. Except for watch TV, drink beer and stare even longer at the television to watch some movies. It was a grand time. We hit up a AYCE Chinese buffet, which was delicious, and weathered a massive rain storm which cooled things down quite a bit. Crashed on the floor for the night and slept very well. We awakened the morning of the 10th to find that it was still raining from the night before. We hit up the Price Choppers grocery store for a nice resupply, along with Dick's Sporting Goods, where we found everything you could ever want, as long as it was overpriced and not of good quality (I do believe, however, that thru-hiker's standards are different from most everyone elses' when it comes to money and gear). Barbarossa, Tartar Sauce and Squigglywhampus all decided to slack the 10 miles south of town, while Woodward, Uly and I hung out at Tom's. It looked like it was going to rain again, and we didn't particularly want to get wet, or to slack going northbound. When everyone was back at the house, Tom cooked up a huge meal of sausages, 'taters, vegetables and a bunch of other stuff. We watched The Big Lebowski for the evening, while drinking some of the beer that was left over from the night before, and crashed wherever we could find places to crash. The Big Lebowski provided some very funny lines to repeat at odd moments to lighten the mood/scare away day hikers or townies.Everyone awoke on the 11th to find cloudy skies that looked like rain...when would it ever end??? After a quick, yet tasty, breakfast at Duff & Dell's Variety Store, everyone packed up, intent on making it out of town and getting some miles done. Woodward, Uly and I only had to walk down Tom's sidewalk to get back to where we had finished, so we headed out of town at about 9:30. We had 10 miles to do before we got to where everyone else was going to be starting, and were making really good time when it started to rain again. It kept raining, then started to rain harder, then continued to rain even harder. It was not fun. It was miserable. Everything was incredibly wet, my pack cover had soaked through, my shoes were full of water, my clothes were glued to me, and the three of us decided that after we had finished the 10 miles to even up with everyone else that it was time to call Tom and head back into town. Tom came and picked us up at the Cookie Lady's house after we had some tasty chocolate chip cookies, and took us to the grocery store to get some food. We got 2 pizzas, each about 18 inches by 24 inches, one cheese and the other pepperoni. The guy working there said that he was going to have to make them, but that we looked so sorry and cold that he sold us the pizzas he had out to sell by the slice. We ate them all, but failed to warm up. We talked about how previously, we had all thought you would have to be stupid to get hypothermia when you're out on the trail, but came to the conclusion that if you were in our state, and had to sleep outside and the rest of gear was wet (sleeping bag, particularly), that it would be rather easy to get hypothermia. We made it back to the house by the comfort of Tom's jeep, took showers to warm up and crashed in front of the television. Got to watch the Daily Show, which included some particularly funny bits about the Senator from Idaho. Tom cooked a huge meal of ziti, peas, corn and some other things, and we all sat around and ate tremendous quantities of food. Towards the end of the meal, my stomach started to gurgle, so I jumped up and headed outside to walk around and see if it wouldn't be able to fix itself. My stomach did find a way to fix itself, but unfortunately, it involved puking behind the dumpster at the Social Development Center next to Tom's house...my sincere appologies to the people who have to take out the trash for the next few days. This was the first time in my life, I believe, that I have ever thrown up from eating too much, hopefully it will be the last time--it was not incredibly pleasant, but I did feel no less than wonderful after it was all over; it was a very liberating experience.This morning, we had lunch at Duff and Dell's again (the French toast is very good there), and we are all packed up and are being shuttled back to the trailhead in groups because there are too many of us, with our gear, to make it in one trip. Because I bought so much food here in Dalton, I'm going to be able to make it to Connecticut before I have to resupply again, which is nice. I'm carrying butter for the first time, in an attempt to pack even more calories into my diet, and I'm hoping to make eating pasta every night a slightly more enjoyable experience. Hopefully they put enough preservatives in it that it doesn't go stank after sitting, unrefrigerated, in my pack for a few days.A few words about the guys that I'm hiking with. Two are PhD candidates, one in biochem and the other in genetics; one left college to ride trains around the country (that's how he ended up getting to Maine, from where he lives, in Idaho); another is a database analyst/manager, two years out of school at OU; and I'm not sure if the last guy knows what he's doing himself.