Date: 2004-08-25
From: Gifford Woods State Park, VT

To: Moisture Issues
Miles today: 14.3

In yesterday's journal, I did not mention the events of the day after summiting Killington Mountain. Here are some other experiences.Whenever I stop and take a pee, I first unsnap the hip belts on my backpack. Then I hold my two wooden hiking sticks with my right hand. My left hand is used to hold slightly down the top of my pants because there is no zipper on these shell type pants. On one such occasion, the ends of my hip belts dangled in the wrong place and started getting wet. With my left hand, I let go of the pants and grabbed the hip belts to remove them from the, shall I say, target area. When this happened, the pants jerked upwards and diverted the line of pee to my hands, causing them to get wet. In the meantime, a mosquito was whining in my ear. The mosquito landed on the side of my face. I instinctively slapped the mosquito with my left hand¢the urine soaked hand. There I was, standing on the edge of The Appalachian Trail, with a urine soaked hip belt, urine soaked hand, and urine dampened face. I reached into my pocket, removed my bandana, and wiped off my face, hands, and hip belt.Late in the afternoon, I hiked into Gifford Woods State Park, my final destination for the day. There were lots of empty public camping sites and few campers. I occupied an empty lean-to shelter. At a nearby washroom, I took advantage of a coin operated shower. When a man showed up with a towel, I asked him if I could borrow some shampoo and he agreed. We struck up a conversation. He was visiting from Amsterdam and had never heard of The Appalachian Trail. I told him about some of my experiences, including the problems I was having being cold at night.Later that evening, I saw the beam of light from a flashlight approaching the shelter in the darkened woods. The flashlight belonged to the camper from Amsterdam. He offered me some heavyweight fleece clothing to wear during the night. What a nice gesture. I declined his offer, explaining that I would be sleeping in the shelter and using my tarp as an additional insulation.The temperatures plunged during the night. For a while, I slept warm in my pathetic summer sleeping bag, augmented by a child's fleece throw, and for the first time, the rain tarp for my hammock. Unfortunately, the tarp idea was a failure. During the night, I woke up and discovered that my sleeping bag and the tarp were soaked from condensation emitting from my body. The tarp is impervious to moisture; it does not "breath." I reluctantly put aside the tarp and suffered through another cold sleep. As I lay in the shelter trying to induce a shiver¢anything to generate warmth¢I lamented having declined the offer of warm clothes made by the visitor from The Netherlands. In the early morning as I left the state park, I quietly walked up to the campsite of the man from Amsterdam and placed a thank you note on his picnic table.The hiking was hard today with lots of ups and downs; it was like a rollercoaster, but not as bad as "The Rollercoaster," that infamous stretch of trail back in Virginia.I was sweating so much that my bandana, which I use to wipe my face, was getting wet from sweat and smelling like ammonia; it has been quite a while since that has happened.It dawned on me that my decision to ease my hiking pace to better enjoy the trail is now irrelevant. The further north I travel, the harder the terrain becomes. I can not match the pace of travel I sustained in the mid Atlantic states.I met for the first time some northbound thru hikers in their twenties. They are Chef, Impulse, and Sundown (a female). All of them seem friendly and sociable. I continue to enter a new cluster of hikers but have not seen any hikers that I used to hike with.Tonight I am sleeping in a cabin situated on the summit of a mountain. The interior of the cabin is bare and dirty, but the loft where I will sleep is clean. There is no water source here. In fact, this cabin is not situated on The Appalachian Trail. I chose this place to sleep because I will be warm at night.There is an observation deck on the roof of this cabin. The view up there is superb.Late in the evening, three other northbound hikers showed up to sleep here. They are Still Frank (middle age), Duke (middle age), and Impulse.Hopefully, I will sleep well tonight and overcome my sleep deficit.