Date: 2006-08-17
From: Almost Crawford Notch

To: Zealand Hut
Miles today: 8.2

Almost Famous?Up early to evacuate my stealth site and get into town to resupply. I meet Mr. Parkay heading north as I am eating a Snickers bar for breakfast. Another nobo passes while I am packing up. Then as I am hiking down to the road, I pass Hellbender and Dinasaur, two female nobos (go girls!) and another couple. Big group of nobos today!Finally at the road, it takes a while to get a hitch. An Irishman from Manhattan with his dog, Grace, finally picks me up and drops me off at the store. I buy Froot Loops, milk, and a honeybun for breakfast. Mmmmm, healthy! Then I buy food for camping, a turkey sandwich, an apple, cotton candy ice cream, and a cream soda. I call home and eat the ice cream while we chat.Then I'm out trying to get a hitch again to go to this other campsite where they supposedly have shower and laundry facilities. As I am walking along the road which follows a river, I see a great blue herring take flight. It is huge! After a while, a hiker pulls over and picks me up. When we get to the campsite, there is no one there who can help me regarding the facilities, so I decide to have the driver just drop me back off at the trail head. I've gone this long with dirty clothes, a few more days won't matter. At the trail head are the couple I past coming out to the road. Seems the girl is not feeling well, so they are going to take a day off. I get out and they hop in - what a considerate driver to pick up two hitches! I head over to the parking lot to repack my backpack with my supplies and eat lunch. A man approaches me, introduces himself and tells me he is taking pictures of thru-hikers and asks if he can take my picture. I agree and we sit and chat for a while and he takes several pictures of me. He tells me that I am a very good model and that my next line of work could be ads for REI, EMS, and the likes. His suggestion for my trail name is Supermodel. I don't know...is 35 too old to begin a modeling career? He's an interesting guy from Boston and for my time he hooks me up with a bottle of water and some Snickers bars. Two other hikers approach, Miss Parkay and Shenanigans, and he takes their pictures as well. Miss Parkay and I have the same pack and we chat about hiking for a bit. Then its time to move on.This next section of trail is supposed to be the easiest yet as its about five miles of flat. I'm cruising along and get to Ethan Pond. Ten Bulls and Scott, who I met at Lakes, tell me its a nice shelter so I check it out. It is nice, but I like Cloud Pond in the 100 mile wilderness better. I read the register and have a snack and a nobo named BP comes in. Mountaingoat had mentioned this fellow to me. I ask him about his name and he tells me that it is for Balance and Peace and also because he is working for Backpacker magazine to GPS the AT. He's a great guy and it turns out that he will be flipflopping and heading south after September so we may meet again. We both have the same philosophy on hiking which is take it all in no matter how slow it makes you.Again, time to move on as I want to get to Zealand Hut tonight. I bet you can see a pretty sunset from this Shelter though. As I am leaving, I cross paths with a woman who turns out to be a reporter for a paper in Minneapolis who is writing a series of articles on pilgrimages. She asks if she can interview me and I agree. She asks the basic questions like why am I doing this, what's in my pack, when will I finish, when did I start, etc. She did ask what was one thing that surprised me about this trip and I think I responded something about how long its been since I shaved my armpits, but I should have replied with this: one of the things that has surprised me is how hard it is for me to let myself eat junk food. Now, don't get me wrong, I love chocolate, but its really funny how I've conditioned myself to eat healthy and low fat for so many years, to now know that I need to eat this high calorie, high fat food to give my body the energy it needs is hard. And what makes it harder, is that I don't crave the junk food like I might in my normal life. Anyway, she takes my picture and tells me she will email me when the story runs (there will be an audio component on the web as well), so when I know, I'll let you know.I cruise on over to Zealand Hut and they don't have work for stay because there is not enough food for a third person, but they do let me sleep inside. I meet Grizzly Bear and Spitball, who are doing work for stay. Grizzly Bear is sobo and when I walk up he asks me that all too familiar question, "Are you Allison?" He's been reading of me in the shelter registers and since there aren't too many of us sobos this far north still, he figures it must be me. Spitball is a nobo and he is quite talkative and eager to finish his hike I gather.There are falls next to the hut and they sound wonderful. The evening sky is full of stars. It is a beautiful night.