Date: 2008-07-14
From: Velvet Rocks Shelter NH

To: Trapper John Shelter NH
Miles today: 15.2
Weather: overcast clouds

Day 148 Monday July 14 ¢ Trapper John Shelter NH - Miles Today: 15.2 Total Miles: 1751.0We had a rainy evening last night. About 8:00 a light rain started and it lightly rained pretty much all night. We did not have any water issues inside our tent, which is always a nice thing. The rain stopped around dawn so when we broke camp around 5:30, all we had to do was pack up a wet tent and head on. Packing a wet tent is so much nicer than breaking camp in the rain. We headed down the trail with our rain gear on.We had a few more sprinkles later in the morning, but nothing to really get us wet. Instead it was the wet, dewy fields of grasses, flowers and weeds that soaked our socks and shoes again. We worked so hard in Hanover to get our socks and shoes dry and the horrid smell out of our socks, but by 8:15 this morning, we were back to wet, smelly foot apparel. We give up. I can¢t believe our smelly socks are back, already!We had to be careful today because all the rocks and roots were slippery due to being wet. I¢d like to say it was a totally uneventful day, but that would be a lie. Brakeman fell!   Yep, he fell and Grasshopper did not! He was fine, so other than that, we had no issues. It was a pretty leisurely day. The hills were not too bad ¢ we had a bit of an incline at the end of the day but compared with what we've got coming up, it was nothing. The trail took us to the edge of a couple ledges, where we could see some sweet views. We can definitely see the big mountain ranges in the distance. Our world is about ready to seriously change - not for the best perhaps for our feet and bodies, but for our eyes, probably quite sweet. New Day and her 2 sons are now joined with the dad, Old School. We were surprised to see them today, as they should have been ahead of us. It turns out the kids convinced them to take a zero day in Hanover. They stealth camped just past our shelter last night. We leap-frogged them a few times this morning but by lunchtime we passed them for the last time. We're starting to see a few more southbounders each day. Today we passed 3 younger people - Santana, Mango and Grettle. They've been going about 6 weeks and are having a blast. We also passed a homeless man today about a mile and half from camp, which of course, immediately raised our caution flag. He was sitting alongside the trail, taking a break, with all of his belongs gathered around him. He was wearing numerous layers of clothes including a winter ski jacket! He had a backpack and what I would call a hobo stick - a stick with goods tied around it, which I think he carried on his shoulders. This was the first homeless man we have seen on the trail. Hopefully he is harmless. We arrived to camp about 3:00, as the first 11 miles were mighty sweet and fast going. We set up the tent, ate dinner at 4:30, then climbed in the tent to relax a bit before visiting with other hikers who arrived after us. You'll never believe who's here - Traveler. The last time we hiked with Traveler was in the Smokies on March 7th! And the last time we saw him was when he was slackpacking southbound near Roan Mountain on March 22nd, nearly 1400 miles ago. He's lost quite a bit of weight - about 35 pounds - but he¢s doing well and feels good. He's convinced that the only way to get to Maine is to take your time and not rush it. We spent some time swapping stories about other hikers. He did confirm for us that Virginia Slim got off the trail, but that he saw him in Virginia! Turns out that Virginia Slim was doing some southbound day hikes in Virginia trying to run into people that he had met on the trail. Bummer that we missed him!We updated him that Josh and Amanda were off the trail, as they were no longer having fun. He was quite surprised to hear that as he figured they were a shoo-in for finishing. He explained that he had followed them in the trail registers and that they had started to push their miles in an attempt to get done sooner. We both agreed that was probably a mistake. Arriving much later was Cricket, who pulled into the shelter last night with us, though late again, so we did not visit much.   We all talked about the homeless man, as we were all concerned about our safety with night approaching. We saw him 1.5 miles from the shelter. By the time Traveler arrived to camp, he was at the junction of our trail to camp and the AT ¢ just .3 miles away. By the time Cricket came in, he was no longer there. So we're not quite sure if he has moseyed on or what. We're thinking with as many people as we have here tonight, we should be fine. Traveler mentioned that someone in this general area has been stealing things from people's packs. All of our stuff is inside the tent as normal except for the food bag, which is hung in a tree. We really think that with this many people here and the sticks and debris on the ground, that if he tried to do anything at night, someone would hear him. So hopefully we will not have any issues tonight. It's 7:36 and 70 degrees. It's delightful. The mosquitoes weren't terribly bad and we had a nice cooler day. Per the forecast it's supposed to get mighty, mighty hot so I think we'll continue with our early morning starts and see what we can do.New Day and her family have not arrived to camp yet. We figured they were going to go past us since they're not here yet, but other hikers say they are still on their way. They're just going real slow because Dad was hurting on the hills today, which we can understand. But that would put them 4.5 hours behind us! What's so cool is that we have just 425.2 miles to go! It's going to be unbelievable to soon be under 400 miles! Goodnight from a pine forest in New Hampshire.