Date: 2008-08-17
From: West Hartford

To: Campsite
Miles today: 13.0
Weather: clear sky

I am so tired. We planned a 16 mile day but just couldn't manage it. The terrain didn't seem so tough, we just couldn't get our speed up. Not sure why. So we ended up wild camping three miles before the shelter we were aiming for. We're hoping that threatening cloud passes by. We'd like to get out of here early in the morning without dealing with wet tents. But that's the end of the day, let's go back to the beginning.This morning we didn't move as quickly as we¢d have liked. Steve and Kathy's yard was a wonderful place to camp. There were a few awkward issues, like where to go to the bathroom when you are camping on a beautifully landscaped yard. Anyway, we got started about 8:00.Once more the road walk out of the community was hard to follow. You wouldn't think it would be a big deal to paint a few white blazes. Finally we turned up into the woods.The morning trail was beautiful. Most of the day's trail was nice, though varied. We walked through deciduous and pine forests, meadows, weedy overgrown fields and mountain tops with views. About a mile into walking we started noticing leaves on the ground. My first thought was autumn was beginning, but these leaves were green, not reds or yellows. Then we realized these leaves must have been knocked off the trees by the storm yesterday. The further we went the more leaves there were. At one point the whole forest floor was green with them. Then I noticed something strange on the ground, a pile of little white balls. At first I thought animal droppings. They were the size of moose droppings we have seen a lot of, but white. Looking closely I realized they were little balls of ice. It was hail from the storm the afternoon before that still hadn't melted. They were the size of marbles! I wonder how big they were when they fell if they are still this size the next day? We were suddenly glad to have been where we were yesterday just getting hit by small pellet sized hail instead of these balls.We came to a road intersection just afternoon that had a country farm store .2 miles away. We walked the road looking forward to promises of ice cream only to find they were closed. The sign said they were closed Sunday morning, but it was already 12:30. I guess church ran late. Oh well, we had one more opportunity for ice cream later in the day off of VT 12.We ran into two old friends today. First, on a mountain top after Cloudland Road we came upon Babu Simba taking a rest. We first met him at the ATC headquarters when we began our walk. Then we met back up again at Partnership Shelter after he began his walk. And again at Trail Days at the ATC tent and now today. Four times. There is only one other hike team we have met as many times, RamaSeta and we met them this afternoon on our last hill before Vt. 12. We first met at Mountain Harbor Hostel, the Sunnybank Inn and crossed paths in the Smokies just out of Newfound Gap. Four times. Funny we met them both on the same day.It was at our meeting with RamaSeta that they warned us that On the Edge Farm Store was closing at 5:00 today. It was after 4:00, we had to run to make it. If we missed ice cream twice we were really going to be disappointed!We hit the bottom of the hill at 4:30, turned right and walked fast. We got in the door at 4:40. Whew. We loaded up on two scoops of chocolate ice cream, a small sour cherry pie, two sodas, a block of cheese, loaf of homemade bread, a cucumber and two tomatoes. Dinner. We took it out on the porch and joined a couple other SOBOs and a NOBO.Turns out the NOBO was Pullup. Izzy had mentioned to Owl that he had met one other homeschooler on the trail and his name was Pullup. I don't know how she remembers these things! It did turn out to be him, the other homeschooler on the trail. We had a very nice conversation. We sat around and finished off our ice cream, pie and sodas. We packed up the cheese, bread and veggies for dinner later. We were actually blowing time because there was a threatening looking cloud moving over the mountain we were going to be heading up. Luckily it moved on by and the sky cleared.By now it's after 5:00 and we still have four miles up the mountain to the shelter. There was no way we were making it before dark or before our energy ran out. As we walked we watched for possible wild camp spots. We had to get a certain distance from VT 12 in order not to be camping on private property. It's always a trick to find a good spot. This one works okay. Now to stay dry and warm.Rabbit, Owl and RooJoshua 1:9