Date: 2008-06-21
To: Day 3
Miles today: 0.0

   It was with great surprise and delight that Erik came over to my tent at 7:07 am, saying, ¢I was thinking, it will probably take us 5 hours to do the next 9 miles¢ (our planned course for the day). Yay! Our journey would continue! We would not be failures! I guess a little rest was all that was needed to re-set our bodies and minds. Once we had breakfasted, signed the trail registry, broken down our shelters, retrieved and purified more water, and packed up, we were merrily on our way at 8:58am. Glastenbury Mountain, here we come! My spirits were high, and I was ready to attack the trail with verve. After a couple of downhill segments, we came upon our first sight of the day- the beaver pond! It was huge and brilliant blue! We marveled at the work of these mammals, took in the view and snapped a few pictures (poor Erik had to keep digging into my pack pocket to find, pull-out, and put away my camera each time I wanted it¢¦).    Along our way, we passed a few long weekenders who had stayed at Kid Gore the night before and were heading north. One of them told us to check on an older woman, who apparently wasn¢t doing well and was well behind them. When we met, however, her spirits were high and she seemed well aware of her limitations. She had come out here for an adventure, and I think she got what she was looking for. Next up - a thru-hiker! He asked if we could tell, and I said I could because of his beard. I think I might have accidentally insulted him when he told us he had been growing it for three months, and I responded, ¢Oh, that¢s all it¢s grown since then?!¢ But his face held a bright smile for the entire duration that we talked with him. His name was Footloose and he was excited to get home to New Hampshire for a week¢s break. The biggest surprise about seeing these thru-hiker¢s for me was how clean they appeared to be! They looked cleaner than me! Footloose says he stops in town every 3 days and brings out fresh veggies with him. He had a 27 mile day ahead of him, so we let him go, although I could always talk a lot longer with these guys. I almost missed our next scenic point- a beautiful vista to our right. I was used to looking down at the ground at every step, careful not to trip on a stray rock, or root. I was lucky to have looked up at the right time to see this! A great place to rest the shoulders¢¦   We descended another hill, and then traversed several more PUDS. I thought I could see the next shelter through the leaves of the trees, but then again, maybe it was just a mirage¢¦I had been waiting to take our lunch break at the next shelter. It wasn¢t long before I saw a definitive roof! Maybe it wasn¢t a mirage after all. But then we discovered that this was the dilapidated shelter¢¦ Discouraged, we dropped our packs and I pulled out my guidebook pages to read that the real shelter- Kid Gore- was at the same mile marker, and that the campsites for Kid Gore were here. So we put our packs back on and trudged just a little bit further up the trail. It was definitely worth the extra distance, as this shelter had a spectacular view! It was a perfect spot for lunch!    With each passing day, the temperatures had been warming. This also meant that the bugs were coming out of hiding. The flies annoyingly buzzed around us during our lunch, but we were spared any bites for the moment. I hopped up onto the shelter platform and opened the door to the trail registry cupboard. Happily, I opened up the notebook for some enjoyable lunchtime reading. To my dismay, the notebook was completely new! Only one entry had been placed by the people who had swapped out the old one! So much for trail gossip, here! I turned my attention toward the view and happened to see a humming bird sucking some nectar out of a flower. I guess it was a worthwhile trade. After a couple more pictures, we signed in our entry, and headed on.    We next encountered Jenx, who I recognized from Trail Journals. He wanted to know if there was any food or pop on top of Stratton Mountain. I informed Erik that we had 1000 ft to climb to the summit of Glastenbury Mtn. just as we started an uphill segment. He responded ¢I think we¢re climbing it already!¢ It was a particularly long uphill, but it was too soon to be Glastenbury, and we shortly descended a similar change in elevation. On the real ascent of Glastenbury, we saw a pair of mating dragonflies on the path. (Funny that I also saw them on the way down¢¦) Nearing the top, I began to see more sky and imagined coming out into a clearing like on Stratton Mtn, but it was just a tease. A little more wandering in the forest, and then I saw the metal legs of the fire tower. ¢We¢re here!¢ I yelled out. There was a man at the summit, who did not seem at all amused at my enthusiasm, or interested in greeting us. After a little look around, I was somewhat disappointed with this summit. If it were not for the fire tower, there would have been no views at all. And by now, the bugs had come out in full force. The non-amused hiker informed us that they were also really bad at Goddard shelter, which we planned to stay at that night. Great¢¦ (Did he have anything positive to say about being out here?¢¦) He asked me if there were campsites at Kid Gore and I told them they were just ahead at the dilapidated shelter. We climbed the tower to get some respite from the insects and check out the view before moving on. It was cold and windy up there, just like on Stratton Mountain!    Goddard shelter was just a little ways down the other side of the mountain. This shelter also had a beautiful view, but I was partial to the one at Kid Gore. It was here that I was first taken for a thru-hiker, myself. I felt quite proud! A young man named Brian asked if I was a northbounder, and when I smiled and said no, he asked ¢southbounder?¢ I thought he was a thru-hiker, too, so I asked him ¢What¢s your name?¢ He said he didn¢t have one yet. ¢How could that be?¢ I thought, before learning that he was just starting out on the Long Trail.    Erik and I sat down inside the shelter (me with the trail registry in hand). As I read through it, several hikers began stumbling in. A group of middle-aged guys also thought I was a thru-hiker. The black flies were bloodthirsty here, so our stay was not all that pleasant. I began thinking that maybe we should start our planned miles for tomorrow now. Our last day was to be our longest day, which was a concern for us, not knowing our limitations. Since it was only 3:30 now, with plenty of time to do the four miles back to Kid Gore, and our bodies still feeling fine, this seemed to be the best plan. Then, our minds could relax about the final 8 miles back to the car. When I heard that a troop of boy scouts were on their way for the night, our decision was finalized. We were out of water, so we filled up our bottles at the nearby stream, and then spent a half-hour purifying it. Meanwhile, a father and son had come in and staked out their campsites. It was going to be one busy night there! Dodger, a thru-hiker, had also come in after already hiking 22 miles that day, for a lunch break of cereal and powdered milk. We chatted for a couple of minutes and then took off.   I was getting concerned about how full Kid Gore would be. I had already alerted the hiker we saw on the summit of Glastenbury as to the whereabouts of the small campsite, and Brian and his Dad were planning on staying there as well. Plus, Dodger passed us during one of our pack breaks. I contemplated moving on to Story Spring- or even to the car, for that matter! I¢d have to try night hiking at some point ¢¦ During one of my thoughts, my leg struck a dead limb extending from a tree stump. The pain stopped me in my tracks. This was going to be one big bruise! I could tell that this one would leave a scar- exactly parallel to one I got while bashing my shin into a rock on the way down Mount Washington a couple of years ago. I tried to ignore the pain the best I could and continue on. As we neared the campsite, Erik began complaining about foot pain. We were definitely stopping for the night. 13 miles wasn¢t bad for the day.I couldn¢t believe it when we found the campsites completely unoccupied! As we were setting up, Dodger came in asking if he could camp there as well, as the shelter area was crowded. The others had decided to set-up their tents over there. I didn¢t mind the presence of a thru-hiker, at all. In fact, I was hoping we would camp with some, but it had been so quiet until now. Dodger was incredibly kind and polite- almost to the point of detriment to himself. At one point, he moved away from the large, smooth-surfaced rock to a tiny, uncomfortable one to write in his journal so that we didn¢t have to crane our necks while eating and talking to him. I asked if he could teach us how to throw a bear-bag, and he so kindly obliged. He had collected 2 sticks of the right size- one for his bear bag and one for ours, and he gave me one of his carabiners to keep, as well (my first bit of Trail Magic!). He taught us the Pacific Crest method of hanging, and I stood back and watched as he demonstrated tying the clove knot, throwing the line, and how to retrieve the bag in the morning.    Dodger was looking forward to finishing the trail and returning to his ¢normal life,¢ which I found interesting. He had concluded that humans aren¢t meant to live in the woods. He also realized that the trail seemed only a means of delaying big decisions, and not a place in which any profound conclusions were reached. It had been a lonely 3 months for him, as he had not attached himself to a particular group. I told him that I was thinking of doing the trail myself, but that after hearing his thoughts, maybe it wasn¢t such a good idea. He didn¢t want to dissuade me, though, and even began encouraging me. I said it was at most a 50% chance at this point. He looked at me and said he thought I would do it. Earlier, I was talking about other people¢s web journals and he asked if I would do one. He said that he didn¢t know much about computers, but that he would try to look me up and support me. I was so grateful. I felt that I had already begun to find what it was that I was looking for.