Date: 2004-09-02
From: Hanover NH

To: Glencliff NH
Miles today: 43.4

9/01/2004Gather:Gather called in from Glencliff NH on 9/1/2004 @ 6:39 pm from a pay phone.I¢m 117.1 miles from Maine!! Getting ready to head into the White Mountains. I¢m sending home some of my winter gear, I know I¢m gonna regret it. I need to go light as possible because the terrain is so rugged from here on to Katahdin. Up and down one rough mountain after another. My knee feels like it¢s getting ready to blow out on me. Slimer said his knee was giving him trouble also.Someone said ole Slimer was hiking with Wipe-Out. There¢s no way he can keep up with that gal, she¢s a hard charger. She¢ll drive ole Slimer right into the ground! I¢ve hiked with her, she can really walk fast. Ole Slimer will have two blown out knee¢s if he tries to keep up with Wipe-Out. Slimer is on his 4th pair of shoes now. I¢m still on my 2nd pair, getting ready to go to my 3rd pair. They just don¢t make shoes like they used to!!I¢ve figured if I can do at least a 10 mile average each day, I will make Katahdin by Oct 7th. So I¢m not gonna rush it. Katahdin isn¢t going anywhere. Everyone is freaking out and rushing up the trail before they close the park down Oct 15th. I¢m sticking to my plan. I will do what my body tells me to, and right now it¢s telling me to slow down! I don¢t want an injury that will put me off the trail. I¢m so close now, but it seems like I left just last week from Springer Mountain GA.I haven¢t seen a moose yet, just deer, chipmunks and other small animals.The trip from Hanover to Glencliff was rough. I do mean rough! My shoes are starting to come apart. I should have had dad drop me a pair here in Glencliff, oh well I¢ll try to get some up the trail somewhere.I am thinking about sending my tent home to get rid of some weight. I have packed this tent 1,775 miles. If I can find me a light tarp or even a piece of plastic I will get rid of this tent to save weight. Dad got kinda excited when I told him about sending my tent home.Been meeting some section hikers, a few south-bounders still coming through. Those guys are going to have it rough going through the Smokies in Dec and Jan. I came through there in May and almost froze to death. That¢s when I also ran out of food and the 2nd graders shared their snacks with me. Wonder what Mr. Clean is doing? I hiked with him, Doc, Dolphin and the Navigator through the Smokies. I wonder about all the people I met on the trail, and where they got to. Met up with Grey Panter down the trail a ways, ran into more mud too. Ran into a wild storm yesterday. I could see Mount Washington from a peak I was on, someone said it was Mount Washington, it seemed awful far away to me.Dad said he put a copy of the ¢Denton Orator¢ in with Slimers shoes he picked up here. Wish I could have seen it. Josh¢s sister Toni does one great job with it. Dad told me Josh had a place of his own now, ¢Way to go Josh¢!! Josh is completely out on his own now.If you want to take a peek at the newspaper articles Toni Ayers writes about us, the links are below.http://www.dentonorator.comhttp://www.dentonorator.com/_wsn/page8.html - direct link to the article, the page number may vary from week to week, you can always get to it by going to http://www.dentonorator.com , most off the time it¢s on the ¢Out & About¢ or the ¢Leisure¢ section. I saw the Slimers old shoes in the hostel, he just left them lying there, not to worry about anyone taking them. They looked as though they had been dragged down the highway behind Funny¢s Wrecker for 40 miles.Slimer stayed here in the hostel last night, he left out this morning with Wipe-Out heading north. He is a day in front of me. Slimer and the rest of them are racing up the trail, hope they don¢t get hurt.I¢d like to say hello to all my friend¢s, thank all the people who have signed my guest book, and all the people around Denton and the nation who are behind Slimer and I, as we make our way north.I will leave here in the morning heading north, putting one foot in front of the other, flashing my wicked grin ¢¦¢¦¢¦¢¦¢¦¢¦¢¦¢¦¢¦¢¦¢¦¢¦¢¦1,775 - miles behind me398.5 - to the big ¢K¢¢YES!!¢