Crocs at Glencliff, New Hampshire August 21 1791 Miles

August 16   Thistle Shelter VT  1733 Miles
It rained last night and I stuffed the wet tent in my bag and left at 7:30, wanting to get to Hanover, NH before nightfall.
There were two 3 mile long ascending hills and I was feeling good, after eating a few peanut butter and honey tortillas and drinking copious amount of H2O--but not pushing it.  In fact after my last event, that might be my motto for the rest of this hike--Not Pushing It.
About eight miles into this 16 mile day,  I run into slender Grinder and chubby RV, a couple of sixty-something guys that I saw at the shelter last night.
They were about to eat lunch at a footbridge in a marsh. I told them of the pie lady who ran a store about .5 miles away. They were onto it.

We landed at the country store about 15 minutes later and waited a bit for it to open. Grinder looked tense while his buddy, RV, spoke on and on about running a store like this one. 
Arriving in a van, the owner brought in a couple dozen pies, small and large and freshly baked.

Yes, they were good. I ate a blueberry/cherry pie that was finger lickin good and was tempted to go back for more but I had to move on up a mountain. I did pack out some of her cherry muffins though.

Then, about 12 miles into our hike Grinder suddenly takes off while I am peeing and I don't see him for the rest of the day. His month-long hiking buddy, RV, walked with me after that and  worried and fretted about why his buddy, Grinder, took off so suddenly and why he left him behind and where Grinder was going to camp. Grinder hadn't ever done anything like this before RV tells me.
Maybe Grinder wanted alone time I said. Or he though that my peeing off the trail was too uncouth.
Naw, he said, Grinder pisses every other hour. Now his shits are different matter all together.

By the time I got to the shelter, I was ready to relax. Grinder wasn't at the shelter when I got there and so I watched RV scurry down the trail, a portly anxious Squire looking for his wayward Don Quixote.

August 17  Catholic Church      Hanover, NH 1749 Miles
I left the shelter early the next morning.  I was looking forward to reaching New Hampshire, not only a new state, but one of the most challenging hiking states on the AT.
I walked a few miles before coming across a couple who had met and fallen in love on the trail. There are a few of those about. She was English and I had a good time asking questions about English food. She described all the food they eat at Christmas, including turkey, fish, and different kinds of puddings. 
Hikers talk a lot about food and I was hungry by the time we arrived at the AT house, a house by a river, that a couple has made into a home of trail magic. We crossed the small bridge and went up to the porch where Linda, the homeowner, had made cookies, pies and muffins, and soft drinks that we devoured. 
We spent about an hour on the porch talking with Linda and then her husband and grandson came in from the creek with a trout on a line. He was one proud 10 year old. 
Then I went to the little country library and blogged some until the library closed at 12:30.
Then I walked down the street and got back on the trail, walking towards the Dartmouth College town of Hanover, New Hampshire. 
After seven miles I came out onto Elm Street in Vermont, then walked a mile down to a hwy and another 2 miles along a a traffic-jammed street into Hanover, New Hampshire. The bakery was closed so I went to an Irish bar, changed clothes in the bathroom, and drank ale and had a burger, talking to the locals.

Then Canadian Que came in and we decided to Uber it down to the Catholic Church where a hostel put up hikers for a donation. Once there, I put my bag on a mattress on the floor, put my clothes in the laundry and went to the local grocery for sandwich food, Gatorade and chocolate milk. I also resupplied for three days in the woods.

 Came back and all the young people were watching the newest Harry Potter saga on TV in the living room. Amazing how popular it is with the twenty-somethings. I guess it is comforting, like watching reruns of Gilligan's Island or The Rifleman would be with me. 
I went to the basement and played the church organ a bit and then hit the sack. It had been a long day. 




August 18  Church Hanover, NH 1749 Miles
I had planned on leaving this morning but it was pouring and it continued to pour all day. I talked with the energetic priest who ran the hostel/church in the kitchen as she was typing out a novel for a male gay publishing company. She said there was quite a market in uplifting gay literature that had a sense of morality to it. 
I thought, well, I am definitely in New Hampshire and not in the Southern Bible Belt.  

I helped put together some bunks down in the basement, chopped some kindling, and read some of the church books in the library. Then I hit the sack, the mattress.

August 19 Tenting , NH    1766 Miles

I slack packed with three young people out of Hanover and into the mountains. The couple was a little uptight and arrogant for my tastes so I left the group behind and walked on my own, enjoying a nice Pooh-bear day. 
I ran across a thru-hiker who said he was ready for the trip to be over. And I had to agree that we had reached a point where things started to mush together: the hostels, the shelters, the woods and hills, the views. I had begun thinking of home life too.
But I still liked walking even though my toes were going numb, perhaps a good thing, not feeling them throb all night. 
After 17 miles, I saw our packs by the side of the road where the shuttle guy had left them. We went a mile or two and down to a stream where we found some flat spots to tent.
The three wanted to slack pack 23 miles tomorrow. I told them that I was going to break it up into two days and walk with my full pack and for them to leave in the morning without me.


August 20 Hexacuba Shelter, NH  1776 Miles
I slept until nine and when I woke up the three hikers were gone. 
I walked ten miles of a nice clear day with sme nice hills to Hexacuba Shelter, the only hexagon-shaped shelter on the trail. 
There I met a guy who was hiking for a week and we got into a discussion of alcoholism and family dysfunction. 
I lay in my bag and fell asleep on the poor guy and when I awoke I met a guy named Whistler who had his bag unpacked and freezer bags scattered about. He was 70 years old, lean and seriously factual. 
He was an obsessive. I could tell the way he got into the minute details of the trail, and I kind of related to that--the obsessive part, but not the details of the trail. Overthinking the difficult parts of the trail is tiring to me. If it seems difficult and I'm tired, I just take a rest break and recoup until I'm ready to tackle it. I plan on where I'm going just a few nights out.
He seemed like a nice guy. Maybe I would like hiking with Whistler.

August 21 Hiker Welcome, NH 1791 Miles
Whistler is a good hiker. He reminds me of Momentum who was also a quick agile hiker that I had to keep up with. 

We walked about ten miles and came across the famous Omelet Man on the trail with a tarp in the trees overhanging his stove and tables. He makes omelets for hikers, asking hikers how many eggs they want in their omelet. I asked for four and he gave me five. 

The record eaten there is 30 eggs. The omelets are filed with cheese, peppers, onions, and ham. They were fantastic, especially after walking with a heavy pack over hills for ten miles. He also had muffins and mango juice in jugs.

He refused money or a donation. He was out there six hours a day, six days a week, all through hiker season.
It's not about me, he said, it's about you hikers--you are doing all the work. This is about you, not me. 
A beautiful person really. Amazing really.

Whistler stopped early and I walked into Glencliff, NH to zero at the The Hiker's Welcome and to prepare for the famous White Mountain range, the most challenging and breathtaking mountains on the AT.

Crocs at Winturri Shelter August 15 1720 Miles

August 12 Comfort Inn   1704 Miles

I didn't die last night, but I'm sure I will when I get the ambulance/hospital bill.
I'm glad the ambulance techs came out; I really am; but after getting oxygen and saline, I told them I didn't need to go to the hospital. But they insisted and strapped me down to the gurney even when I told them I could walk to the ambulance. I know. Doing their job. But they don't have to pay for it.

So at 2 PM today, after no sleep last night, I was still sitting next to the bed in the chair the nurse had put me in four hours ago, the saline solution running through my veins. I thought the chair meant that I was on my way out. In fact, two smiling doctors had told me last night, after I had come in, that my vitals and blood work were good and that I'd be out early in the morning.

So this morning I had had an Echo-cardiogram and an electrocardiogram and then the cardiologist was supposed to see me about 9AM but didn't show up until 11:30 and hadn't looked at the charts or hadn't  seen the results of this mornings "grams."
Then he left and came back around 12 and I had to fill him in, as I had a few other doctors, on my backstory. Why don't they pass around the info to each other instead of asking the patient over and over what happened? Glad I didn't have respiratory problems.

Then I got a call from Sam, the park ranger, that they had found my food sack and my sack with my wallet in the cart that Sam had driven me in last night. Thank God. She said would bring it to the hospital.

The cardiologist came in and said the mitral valve prolapse idea that I was given  nine years ago was no big deal but he said that I had a weak valve that would get worse in the coming years. He said to have my liver enzymnes checked.
I remembered the old medical measuring method: So doc, on a scale of one to ten where would you place this weak valve? About a 2 he said. I can live with that I thought. Heh, heh.

He left and I told my nurse, Barbara that I really would like to go now. You have to wait for the doctor she said. She said you could go now but the insurance would not pick it up because you had not been officially released.
I asked her to please call the doctor (that I had seen for about five minutes the night before), and let him know that I had seen by the cardiologist and that I am alert and oriented and ready to go.
She did so and came back with the release form and release instructions: Patient should hydrate and rest.

Then Sam came in and gave my missing stuff and offered to take me back to the trail Monday while she was doing bank business in town.

I found out there was a Comfort Inn down the road from the hospital and backpacked it a mile to the motel, negotiated the motel cost down about $40.00 and went upstairs and slept until dark. I woke up around 7PM and walked to the Dollar General and bought some TV dinners for about $1.50 each and some Gatorade and went back to the motel.
In the room, I fell asleep before I could eat that Salisbury steak and Mac and cheese dinner.

August 13 Comfort Inn  VT1704 Miles
I felt fine, a little run down, but I thought it wise to rest up. Who knows what stress my heart had been through after all that beating last night (pun intended).
I lay around most of the day and ate my TV dinners and sung some tunes on my Karaoke app ( I ain't no Pavarotti but it is fun and it relaxes me.)

August 14  Stoney Brook Shelter  VT 1710.8
I blogged this morning and Sam picked me up around 1PM just as I had reached a stopping point, and took me back to the State Park where I picked up the trail and walked 7 relatively easy miles to the next shelter.
I took it easy, stopping every so often to drink water and listen to my heart. It sounded fine and normal.
I arrived at 5PM and met a lady in her fifties probably named Patty, a day hiker, and then went to sleep in the shelter about 7: 30, ignoring all the new people coming in. Thank God for earplugs.

August 15  Winturri Shelter   1720 Miles
So while I was asleep last night, three of us on the shelter platform, a bear came to visit a few yards from me and my fellow sleeper shined his headlight into his eyes and clapped at it while he was pawing Patty's backpack. He then lumbered away. Me? I slept through the whole thing. Just my luck.
I walked ten miles today and though there was one steep hill I felt fine. I love Vermont. It reminds me of North Carolina hills and terrain. Lots of hills in northern Vermont but the terrain on the trail is easy to moderate in rocks and roots. And I love the fir trees, the maples and the occasional birches. The weather has started to get a little chilly, some due to the elevation, but I have my winter bag, long pants, and rain jacket back and so am prepared for cold weather.
Because of my arrhythmic heart event, I haven't had a chance to use my old winter bag until last night. Even with the added weight I am happy to have it with me again.
I got in about 3:00 and finished my book called Amsterdam, a nice one, and tented out even knowing that it would rain that night. The mosquitoes really sucked in this shelter.











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Crocs at Rutland, Vt. 1704 Miles

 August 2  Autumn Inn  Bennington Vt.  1610 Miles
Walked 10 miles to Bennington, VT and called the local motel. I was
picked up and taken to the motel for seven dollars. I walked a few miles to the Post Office and picked up my winter pants that I had sent home a couple of months ago. I bought some food and resupply at the convenience store and went back to the motel and slept and watched Good Will Hunting on the TV.  Great movie. It moved me enough so that I called Terrie and tell her how much I appreciated her.


August 3  Goddard Shelter Vt. 1620 Miles
Peter, a Taiwanese-American hiker, and I bargained with the Indian shuttle driver over the seven dollars again. Persistent bastard. Then the driver took us to the trailhead where I met Jaws, an ex-Army officer, and began hiking with him.
Jaws, despite the name, is a thin bearded guy thirty-something who eats a lot and so that is how he got his name.  He is with a group of ex-army folks who are out walking the trail in the name of PTSD veterans. He was a bodyguard for a General in Afghanistan and served a number of years.
Today his back was hurting him. He twisted it when he slid on a rock. Sounds like a backstrain. He was walking slower which was about my normal pace.
It was a clear day and muddy. Vermont is famous for its mud as Pennsylvania is famous for its rocks. I learned to just let the mud cover my shoe and walk though most of it. Sure beats walking on point rocks. And actually, it didn't seem that much to me at all. Perhaps more after a rain.

We got to the top of a hill and Jaws met a couple who were a part of his group. They suggested he go to a service road and get picked up and taken to a clinic back in Bennington. He would have to go back the way we came. What a drag.  I left him there and went to toward the shelter with the couple behind me.
Then it began to thunder and I began booking it up the hill, practically running. I made it to the top of the hill and the shelter and Peter was there and several others. Then the couple came in. Then it began to pour.
I set up my bag in the 8 person shelter and then Jaws showed up drenched. I let him have a short swig of a small bottle of whiskey that I carry and gave him some pain pills. He planned to go down tomorrow if it was worse.
The couple and a few more people decided to leave and walk five miles to the next shelter after the rain let up. And then 15 minutes later it poured again. You know they must have gotten drenched.

More people came in that night, NoBOs, South bounders, SoBOs and Long Trail people. It was packed and I had to step over people when I crawled out off the platform the next morning.


August 4  Story Spring Shelter Vt. 1629 Miles
Today I walked just nine miles to the shelter. It was a wet and rainy day. At the shelter I stayed with Unfiltered, Five Year Plan, and Pine Cone. Unfiltered is a proud and outgoing Vermont dairy farmer doing the Long Trail that goes to the Canadian border and Pine Cone, a happy 23 year old girl, is also a NOBO on the Long Trail. Five Year Plan, a guy in his late fifties, is flip-flopping the Appalachian Trail, going south from Harper's Ferry after he reaches Katahdin, Me.
If he does that then he won't hit Georgia until November at the earliest. Good luck to him.


August 5 William B. Douglas Shelter Vt. 1644 Miles
Today we walked up the five mile Stratton Mountain to the summit on which Benton MacKaye was inspired to propose the creation of the AT. It was a cloudy and overcast day and a after a few hours of climbing I saw little view at the top. I met Unfiltered and Pine Cone up there and they wanted to climb the tower. I knew they wouldn;t see much and so conitinued down the mountain to Stratton Pond Shelter where I planned to stay the night.
When I got there it was about 2 PM and several men in their sixties and seventies were staying there and doing some day hiking. Pine Cone came in and we decided to press on to William Douglas Shelter.
I passed a little lake, climbed some rocky areas and five miles later landed at the Shelter. This shelter  was .5 miles down a soggy grassy overgrown landscape on footboards. The shelter itself had been built originally in 1958. We found a very small pool of water from a spring and I thought it was potable. Then five year Plan came in.
Unfiltered filled me in on the use of robotics in the dairy industry: how robots make it so that the cattle can milk went they want to, rather than forcing them to milk, and much more safely, and much more thoroughly. He said Europe had been doing it for years but the FDA had stopped robotics in the USA, mostly because of job loss he said.
Then Jimmy showed up. Jimmy was a very thin high school senior who said his parents dropped him off and he walked to the shelter. He was tenting he said. He acted insecure and asked if we would like some fruit. He had two apples and two tomatoes.
That is all he had. What are you living on, Pine Cone asked. Apparently he had been staying at the shelter for a number of days and going into Manchester Center, VT every so often. Pine Cone and I looked at each other and raised our eyes.
We told Jimmy he could lie beside us on the platform that night. But in the middle of the night I woke up and saw that he was gone.

August 6 Green Mtn House Manchester Center Vt. 1650 Miles
Where is the kid, Five Year Plan asked when we awoke this morning.
I guess he went back to his tent, I said.
Then, under the platform, squeezed in a two foot space, Jimmy popped his head out and said,"I'm here." What an unusual person.
I left early, after Pine Cone, and headed off toward Manchester Center. I was ready for a shower and I needed to resupply.
Pine Cone and I hitched into Manchester Center easily and I resupplied at Shaw's, an upscale grocer and then met Pine Cone and Five Year Plan at the outfitters. I bought a long sleeve shirt. It was getting chilly out there.
I went to the laundrymat and washed my backpack. Long overdue.
Then I regrouped with Cone and Plan and we called for a shuttle from the Green Mtn. House. I was pleasantly surprised to see a well-kept, clean and organized home where for a nice Vermont price Ihad access to the kitchen, shower, laundry, and TV.
That night Five Year Plan and I ordered a pizza delivered and we watched a mountain climbing movie on video.
August 7  Lost Pond Shelter  Vt. 1665 Miles
Woke up to a Fruit Loop breakfast and cheese sandwich at the hostel and then the three of us and some others were shuttled to the trailhead.
Today we walked the four miles to the top of Bromley Mountain, a ski lift area, and took pictures and enjoyed the views. Then we 12 more miles to the shelter.
August 8 Minerva Hinchley Shelter 1680 Miles
Walked fifteen miles to the shelter. It rained sporadically and I met Unfiltered there. He had skipped town earlier. It was good to see him. Then Pine Cone came in and a few others and we settled in, drying are wet shoes on the metal roof of the shelter.

 August 9 Rutland, Vt. Yellow Deli Hostel  1700 Miles
I had planned to do 10 miles and stay at the Governor Clement Shelter if I arrived late. But I got there at noon and decided to press on. Pine Cone wanted to do 20 miles and go into town to meet her boyfriend and go to a Greg Allman tribute festival in Pennsylvania.
I pressed on and then after climbing the steep four mile climb to the top of a mountain and meeting up with Pine Cone who had been ahead of me all day, we descended together and hit a thunderstorm and walked in the rain for eight miles.
But then the sun came out and by the time I got to the road to Rutland I had dried out some, I met Crayola along the way, a twenty-something with purple hair and lip rings, and we hitched into town with some guy who had too many brews before picking us up.
We made it alright though in downtown Rutland and were dropped off at the Yellow Deli Hostel, a place where a Christian group puts up hikers and very kindly encourages them to leave the trials and tribulations of this society and join them in a community of peace and love and fellowship.

There were about 30 hikers at the hostel and three rooms with bunks. The Group were very accommodating, not charging a fee but asking for donations, and providing bunk, laundry, and shower and breakfast at no charge. Some called them a Cult. But aren't all non-mainstream religious groups called Cults, a way to ostracize them? But they weren't pushy about their need for new members otherwise hikers would not come there. But they were not insistent that you leave either.

After eating at the Deli next door to their Hostel, and listening to a threesome play some nice Medieval/Celtic sounding flute and accordion music, I got a bunk and went to sleep. I was tired and thought I would stay two days.
During the night, the Deli's ice machine kept dropping ice. I'm moving to a different room in the morning.

August 10 Rutland, Vt. Yellow Deli Hostel  1700 Miles

Today I picked up a few things at the Walmart, in walking distance, took a bus to Killington, Vt and picked up my wife's care package, did laundry, blogged some at the library, and helped clean dishes at the Deli, doing a little service work.
I moved to a different room, bunking near Five Year Plan, and I ate a sub sandwich and had some chocolate milk.

 August 11 Rutland, Vt.  Rutland Regional Hospital  1704 Miles

I woke up early in the dark and packed my backpack out in the hiker's lounge at the hostel. Then I went downstairs and over to the Deli for breakfast. On the way I noticed that my heart was racing and that I was short of breath. 

This had happened before, about nine years ago, when I was out at a little party on a lake on a hot summers day. I went swimming and lay on a raft in the sun and then after climbing on the landing I began to feel dizzy and faint and I lay down  and people had me elevate my legs. They said I was turning pale and that my lips were blue. 

After fifteen minutes, I felt fine but they were doctors and nurses and insisted that I take an ambulance to the hospital. The doctor there said I had a sticky heart valve and that I should have regular heart checkups. There was no cure except surgery and my case was mild and he didn't know what to do about it. 

Great I thought. Now I have to pay for a large medical bill and in turn received nebulous and cloudy treatment and solutions. 

So at the Deli, I lay down on a couch, elevated my feet, and massaged my neck artery. After about fifteen minutes my heart slowed down to normal and I went in for an egg vegetable  dish.

I ate and drank some coffee with my fellow hikers and then took my pack to the back of the Deli and caught a bus to the trail head at Rt. 4.

I found the trail off the highway and set off down it following the white blazes as I usually do. It was a warm clear day and I was making good time. I expected to see a National Park in four miles accoring to my AWOL guidebook but after four miles I hadn't seen it or signs of it. I must have been eyes to the ground and missed the turn off.

The trail went up and over many hills but for them most part it was moderate terrain and I was making good time. I saw signs that mentioned the Long Trail and I knew that the Long Trail and the Appalachian trail were together for a long while. I was expecting a split pretty soon. I kept following white blazes.

Then I met a girl going SOBO and we stopped and chatted. She said she was hiking the Long Trail south and I told her I was doing the AT to Maine. 

But you are not on the AT she said.

What do you mean? I said. 

This is the Long Trail.

I checked my Guthook app. Sure enough I had walked twelve miles on the Long Trail, the Wrong Trail. I turned around and walked with the girl twelve miles back, going as fast as I could so that I could get to a camp before dark.

I got back to where the AT split off, I had missed these poorly marked signs, and turned onto the AT and walked four miles to the National Park where I hoped to set up a tent.

When I got there I felt exhausted. I started unpacking my bag. 

Then my heart started racing again. Racing madly. I could barely catch my breath. I sat down at a picnic table and lay back on a bench. But it still not calm the heart racing after a ten minutes. 

Then some campers came in and I asked them to call the Ranger. The Ranger came about 15 minutes later and we gathered up my stuff on the picnic table, put it in my backpack, and she took me in her cart to the ranger station and I lay down on a couch. I was feeling cold and they took out my sleeping bag and covered me. 

Fifteen minutes passed and my heart was still racing and they called 911. An ambulance arrived, they put me on oxygen, I told them not to give me a heart pumping. My heart was beating at 200 beats per minute. I called my wife and she told them about my former episode.

Then about ten minutes after giving me oxygen my heart went back to normal. I asked them to call it quits, saying that i was ok and that I could walk and felt ok. But they insisted they strap me down and take me to the hospital. Which they did.

I arrived at the hospital and they had a number of people talk to me and I realized my wallet was not in my backpack when the registrar showed up for billing info. It must be in my bag at the park.

They wheeled me up to the ICU and all night I was hooked up with saline tubes and had my blood drawn a number of times, feeling the occasional squeeze of the blood pressure strap on my arm.

Crocs at Seth Warner Shelter, Vermont 1599.1 Miles

July 23 Salisbury  1499 miles
I left the three weekend hikers sleeping at the shelter at about 6:00. I wanted to get into Salisbury and it was over twenty miles away. Although it looked like rain last night, today should be a nice warm day. 
I walked along a rumbling river for a mile or two watching the insects come out in the morning sun.
I walked through about 7 miles of  PUD's, lots of swampy fields with footbridges and then a long climb up Mtn Prospect. 
Then I took a road that belonged to the old AT, past the Audubon Swamp and then got attacked for three miles by a swarm of hundreds of nats and mosquitoes. 
I stopped and sprayed Off repellent over my head until it ran dry. 
It did no good; they continued to follow me down the road.
Then I grabbed my shorts hanging out to dry at the back of my pack and began swatting to either side of my face. It worked. I continued in this vein a few more miles out of the swampy areas, flagellating my shoulders like some odd hiking sinner.
Then I came to a shady apple tree along the road and filled my belly with fruit. 
Then I walked toward Salisbury and was picked up by some former hikers who took me into town.
Salisbury is a small town but it is an expensive one. I found a hostel for forty dollars a night. The floors were angled every which way, there were a number of cats jumping about the house, and there were piles of newspaper in the fireplace. The shower had a curtain wrapped around a tub and water leaked onto the floor. I pointed this out to Victoria and she thought calling the plumber might help.
I was tired so I would stay two days. The bed was comfortable.  

July 24 Salisbury  CT     1499 Miles
I zeroed, read my paperback novel, slept some, and ate some nice pot roast, my favorite comfort food, from the local high end grocer. 
I picked up a package of goodies from the post office.
I talked with a few section hikers about some upcoming states and hostels to check out. 

July 25  Hemlock Shelter MA   1512 Miles
Left around two o'clock after blogging some. Victoria is eccentric but she was nice enough to take me the two miles up to the trailhead. 
I passed the 1500 mile mark. Just about 700 milesto go! 
I make a 600 foot climb over a mile up Bear Mountain and then came down and crossed from Conneticut to Massachusets. Then another long climb up Mt. Race. 
I thought Mt. Race was Mt. Everett, the mountain I had been warned about, and thought that the climb wasn't too bad and so I  took my time coming down it. But about 7PM I realized that I hadn't hit the 1000 foot over one mile climb up Everett. 

When I did it was eight o'clock PM and the sun was low. I came to a long steep hill that went straight up, with wood blocks bolted into the rock face. I'm glad I didn't have poles because I had to crawl up the mountain, keeping my pack as tight to my back as I could make it. 
By the time I reached the top it was almost 9 PM and I was in the dark, looking at the lights of a town come up in the distance. I took out my headlight and prayed to God that the ascent down the mountain was not as strenuous as it was going up.
I got lucky and went down the mountain through a winding trail of the usual rocks and roots. Had to be careful though that I didn't trip or slide off a rock. 
About forty-five minutes later I crossed a gravel road and went down further into the woods and into a clearing. Twenty minutes later I found the shelter and got into my bag without awaking anyone that I know of. 
Then I saw another headlight come in as I settled into my bag. The hiker climbed up into the rafter platform and got in his bag. 
I wasn't the only one doing some night hiking. 
.
July 26 Community Center, Great Barringto, MA  1539 miles
The hiker who had come in the night before left very early. He was a German in his twenties and he told me he was doing thirty to thirty-five mile days and hoping to finish in August. 
My feet and knees ache just thinking about that. 

It had rained in the morning and the rocks were slippery today but I planned to go into town after my long day yesterday. Along the way I heard a voice call out ahead of meto watch out for the rocks because he had slid and fell a couple of times.
I said I would go around them into the bushes and then he said "Crocs?" 
It was Dundee. It was good to see the sensitive and matter-of-fact guy again. He hadn't seen Lil' Cub in a week or so, apparently Cub had blister problems. 
Then he told me he was off the trail today. His daughter was graduating and he was going to Arkansas to meet her. I could tell he regretted leaving the Trail. He is one of those who truly enjoys hiking. He done more than a few hundred miles though, a section hiker, and he was glad that he had accomplished what he had. 
Perhaps we would meet up again in Austin, TX. 
We came to a highway and I hitched into town where a lady in a parking lot asked me if I needed a ride to the Community Center. I was thinking of staying at the cheap Eastern Retreat place that I saw in the guide but she said this was a great place.
The community center had a swimming pool, sauna, showers and a place to eat. I put my pack in a locker and swam and then walked to a local optician and had my glasses adjusted, then to the Travel-lodge to use their washer/dryer, then to a goodwill store to buy a long sleeve shirt (been getting chilly early mornings) for three bucks, then to Price Chopper for dinner and resupply.
I went back to the center and feasted out on a roast chicken and cole slaw. Then, around nightfall, I set up my tent with a few others in a field near the Center. 


July 27 East Mtn Retreat Center   1529 miles
I felt I needed to zero and ate some blueberry muffins at the Center, took another shower, then went to the library and blogged. 
Then I called a shuttle driver who took me up to this dirt road and dropped my off. He didn't want his czr going over the rutty road. a mile or so up the road he said. 
I got up to the top of hill with a pretty view of some hills and a couple of older houses. A sign at the first house directed me to go to the back of the second house. I went in and claimed a mattress on the floor out of three of them.
I met Stitches who was napping in one of them and later that night I met Trail Mix, another young twenty-something and we ate pizza and played chess. 
I noted all the religious books on the shelves and picked a book out called Non-Violence. Might be a good antidote to Jack Reacher and the Westerns that I had been reading. 
The lady of the house, eighty years old and spirited still, came down and said I could have the book and that people came to the Retreat to meditate and find peace. She liked hikers. They expected so little. She asked for twenty dollars and said she expected that I would be quiet and retire early.
Falling to sleep on my mattress that night I heard the elderly lady loudly shouting and walking on the floor above me for almost an hour, "No, no, no! Did you hear me Ruffles? I said No! Why don't you ever listen to what I say? Did you hear what I said? I said No!" 


July 28 Shaker's Campsite 1538 Miles
On a clear morning, Trail Mix and Stitches left me behind on the trail rather easily. I walked up to The Ledges, an easy rise with a nice view of the mountains. Mostly easy to moderate terrain.
After ten miles I met 77 year old Turtle who said that the Ledges had been rough and he may have to get off the trail.
He said he had been traveling the trail since Virginia. 
I thought that odd since The Ledges was pretty easy compared to all the very rough terrain in PA and then Mt. Everett a few days ago for instance. 
I walked a half a mile with him and we set up tents at a little site off the trail. I retired early.  

July 29 Upper Goose Pond Cabin  1548 miles
Did another ten mile day because the shelters were either tens or twenties. It was a warm day with some pretty swampy areas that you don't expect to see in Massachusetts. 
I had heard about goose Pond Cabin and was pleasantly surprised after a .5 mile walk to it, to find an enclosed cabin run entirely on gas, with a nice fire going in the fireplace. People were playing cards on the porch and the bunkhouse upstairs was full. I snagged a bunk and went downstairs and met Duane, the guy who Redo was so angry about. He was sitting at the table outside with his dog. I also met Turtle again and Duane and I were both puzzled by his story of walking from Virginia. It didn't make sense that he was bothered so much by MA. 
We figured he might have been confused.
It was a beauiful day and some hikers rented canoes and went about the lake. 
I watched some, came back to the cabin and taught Duane how to play Gin Rummy, and then went to bed to the sound of young guys laughing down below. What a boring guy I am! 

July 30 Kay Wood Shelter  1565 miles
Had a wonderful pancake breakfast given by the Cabin's caretaker and packed up and set out around eight o'clock. A few miles down the path I ran into Redo and said hello and kept on walking. I wanted some alone time. I wondered if she would run across Duane whom I had left at the cabin. 
After eight miles Duane and his dog caught up with me and we walked together and had lunch together and then pressed on to visit the "Cookie Lady" who handed out cookies and soda's to hikers. He said he had apologized to Redo about being a jerk and he wanted to avoid her.

When we arrived there Redo was there and she gave me a weak fist bump, I was with Jerkface, and I had some cookies and a soda with the elderly "Cookie Lady" and picked a few of her blueberries from her big berry plot. 
Redo went on and then Duane and I went on to the next shelter. Redo wasn't there thankfully.

July 31 Mark Noepel Shelter 1582 miles
Left alone from the shelter and was to meet Duane for breakfast in Dalton. Walked three miles into Dalton and went for an egg sandwich at the local coffee shop. 
I was to meet Duane for breakfast but I figured he would stop and have coffee with some hikers that I passed. So I walked out of Dalton and onto High Street for a mile and had a nice easy climb to the Cobbles, an outcropping with on marble with a view of Hoosic River Valley, Mt. Greylock and the town of Cheshire, where I was to pick up a care package from Terrie.
Then I walked three more miles to Cheshire, intending to sleep at the Catholic Church there. 
But when I arrived at the church, they had only tenting and had stopped lodging and providing showers. What's the point I thought. 
I met a couple of guys and we went for lunch and then I went to the post office and walked out of town , up a long pasture and to the next shelter four miles away. 
I met the two guys there, Dan and Dragon, and Dan told me all about hiking in New England. Got to sleep about nine. 

August 1 Seth Warner Shelter, Vermont 1599 Miles
I left late, around eight o'clock, and Dan and Dragon were gone, hiking the fourteen miles to the MA-VT border before they left the trail on their section hike.
I climbed Mt. Greylock, the highest peak in MA  at 3491 feet, on a clear day and then came down about 6 miles into the Hoosic River Valley and then crossed the border into Vermont. 
I was officially in the Green Mountains of Vermont. New England. It was also the beginning of the Long Trail, a trail that runs about two hundred miles to Canada. 
I have to say I was pretty excited about the prospect of hiking the great state of Vermont. Three more states left on the AT!

Crocs in Conneticut

 July 17 Graymoor Spiritual Life Center, NY   1409 Miles
Today was a long day, a thirteen miler, after having such a nice short hike yesterday to West Mountain Shelter.

I woke up early, having had a nice view of the NY skyline the night before. But this morning the view from the shelter was shrouded in a mist of car exhaust; the sky itself was clear and spoke of a warm day to come.

My goal today was to go into Fort Montgomery and pick up a food care package that my had wife sent to the Post Office. I had deliberately eaten up my food stores so I could put in the new food.
My wife was concerned that honey buns, peanut butter and tuna packets were not the healthiest food to live on.

Yet it is wonderful traveling without food, keeping the pack weight down around 20-25 pounds. So much less stress on shoulders, hips, and feet. With my average food resupply, it can go up to 30-35 pounds. But I would say many hikers carry around 35-40 pounds after a resupply.

After a couple of miles of descent, I climbed a thousand feet to Bear Mountain and where there were several day hikers taking pictures of the Hudson River. The usual two foot wide trail expanded to accommodate wheel chair access and I enjoyed that easy walk around the summit and the views.

The two mile descent to the Bear Mountain resort area was notable because it was two miles of wooden steps built into the AT. Most hikers hate steps because they are more tiring than just hard trail. 
This hill was quite steep and I passed about 20 tourist types huffing and puffing their way up it. I was glad I wasn't one of them.

Arrived at the Bear Mountain Inn about 10AM and had some coffee and a cup of Pistachio ice cream down in the café. I chatted with a few hikers and then learned where a computer was located, received the Inn's password from the Spa ladies, and typed some.  

It was a two mile walk into Fort Montgomery and I hitched a mile of it to the Post Office. My wife had sent me a wonderful package full of things I enjoy: canned oysters and sardines, juicy dried fruit, and Trader Joe's snacks among them. Very nice. I took what I needed and left the rest in the PO's hiker box.

I lazily took an 8 dollar Uber the two miles back to the trail. I had added about nine pounds to my pack and was in no mood to carry it off the trail as well. 

I crossed the car-laded Hudson River and went by a zoo with bears and foxes and birds locked up in cages. The bear cage that I passed was the lowest point on the AT, at an elevation of 177 feet.

From the highway I ascended five hundred feet to Anthony's Nose and then left the views of the Hudson behind me.

By 5PM I arrived at the Graymoor Spiritual Life Center I was tuckered out. This was a monastery with a number of acres. The baseball/soccer field was used by hikers to tent and a small pavilion provided rain protection.

I passed by the monk's cemetery and then arrived at the field where there a number of port potties lined up on one side of the field and some umbrella spaces on the other. Apparently there had been an event on the field recently.

I set up a tent under a large umbrella and then took a very cold outdoor shower, it had no heat, to wipe off the sweat. It was shocking but refreshing too. I washed my shirt, shorts and socks with some soap lying about hoping they would dry some by morning.

Lil Cub and a number of hikers came rolling in about 6AM just before it started to rain. It was good seeing Cub again, an easy-going guy older guy with a good sense of humor.
But he was without his partner, gentle and matter-of-fact Dundee. He told me Dundee had hurried on because he was to meet up with his daughter soon and wanted to cover as much trail mileage as he could. I texted Dundee and found that he was a day ahead of us.

I ate very well that night, eating sardines rolled in a tortilla flat that made the German hiker Illegal wide-eyed and envious.  

July 18   Clarence Fahnestock State Park  1423 Miles

I left camp late but earlier than Lil Cub. We both knew that my pace was faster than his. But we though we would rendezvous at the State Park.

As I left Graymoor, I noted the life-sized white statue of Jesus on the cross in the cemetery and all the marble stones of monks and Father's that had died since around the 1920's.

Sometimes you get lost in your thoughts. This day was one of them.
The statue got me to thinking about how Jesus is seen in so many different ways depending on the culture; how the Germans seemed to depict Jesus on the Cross with terrible bloody suffering and in Italy how Jesus is portrayed as beautiful and masculine even in death.
This Jesus, though emaciated, was just asleep it seemed: no anguish, no pain, no spike in the hands or feet, and pure white, angel white. Not really human really, drained of blood, except in form only. A sanitized American Jesus.
And then I thought of the Buddha, the emaciated one who through suffering found Nirvana, and the fat happy golden Buddha who found pure joy by transcending base Desire.
Then I thought about the Jews and the Moslems. They don't depict a savior or a messiah. They don't really have one except for prophets such as Abraham and Mohammed. What do they worship? God in prayer. But you can't identify with God can you? So what do you celebrate? The Tribe? The history and tradition of the Tribe? So you've got Social religions. Members of a Holy Club as it were.

And then I tripped on a root and stumbled down the path a few yards and realized that I had walked a few miles and seen nothing. It happens that way when you are hiking.

It was a hot humid day and the trail terrain had some nice low rolling hills and pine-needled trail. Along the way I picked some sweet and tart raspberries that were in full flower.

I came onto a parking lot where a busload of middle-schoolers were walking a mile or so to a camp. I talked with a few other hikers sitting in the shade, ate some dried fruit and nuts and went on.

I came across a flowered memorial on a rock, the mother had died and a note on the rock said she would have wanted us to smile and be happy knowing she had lived.
 Interesting, that I'd be thinking about death earlier today. I got to thinking about it again off and on for the next few hours. 

Then I came to a highway where there was supposed to be a lake and concession stand. I was hungry and tired and took the road to the State Park campsite. There were a few sites set up for the hikers near a loud expressway behind a hill of trees.

I set up my tent, took a hot shower and went to the concession stand and the lake for a Gatorade and a burger, returning to my tent to eat some more food and read about Jack Reacher until nightfall when a fellow hiker came in and said there were no more sites.
I told him to set up next to me.

I don't know what happened to Lil Cub, he's a slower hiker than I am. I guess he hit a shelter.

July 19 NY RTE 52  Deli and Pizzeria  1434 miles

I took another shower before I left camp just because I could. I refilled my water bottles and went back to the trailhead.

After about three miles I met a woman named Redo climbing up a hill. I recognized her from a few months ago, struggling up a hill then too, looking mighty unhappy.
Her pace was similar to mine and so we walked together.

Thirty-nine years old and a plain looking woman, Redo said that she rarely walks with anyone because people don't like hiking with her. She said that it may have something to do with the fact that she is so plain and unrecognizable. That people don't remember her, that she is totally forgettable. If she died, nobody would remember her, she said.

Sometimes, she said, I get so depressed, I see a moving car and feel like jumping in front of it.  

Yeah. I've been very depressed before, I said, I know it can be bad.

Not like mine, she replied. Mine is Clincal Depression, not just your everyday depression, what yer talking about. I've had it since I was fourteen and I have to live with it for the rest of my life.

A few weeks ago, I said, I found a book in a bunkroom called Optimism. It was written by a psychologist who says that Optimism leans to happiness. I took the survey in the book and apparently I am a very Pessimistic person.

It is NOT about pessimism. I have a ClINICAL disorder, she emphasized. I also have ADHD and severe problems with my stomach.  Every day I wake up it hurts. Lately I have even more pain because of this jerky guy Duane. He is the one who gave me the name Redo because I am so indecisive.

What do you do for a living I asked.
I'm a counselor but I got tired of hearing about other people's problems. It really drains you.

We walked through a lot of swampy areas on footbridges and some nice fields and after about ten miles of hiking we hit Stormville, NY and we were both craving a Coke and a Pizza that was mentioned in the AWOL guidebook.

We got a nice New York slice at the pizza place and a few beers and was told we could tent behind the deli after the pizza guy was gone. He didn't like hikers tenting behind his store.
So we sat with another hiker couple and ate and drank until nightfall.

Redo began talking again how jerky Duane used her, took advantage of her and then left her behind. She had another boyfriend that did the same to her.
The couple listened to her politely.

I left at that point and went off to set up my tent and get some sleep.

July 20 Edward R Morrow Park   Pawling NY  1446 Miles

I left with Redo about 7:30 AM after eating sweet rolls and drinking coffee at the deli.  There are some advantages to tenting behind a deli.
We got back on the AT and walked ten miles and decided to camp at this pavilion in Pawling, NY because we were both tired. and Redo was to pickup a package at the PO.
She tried to hitch for a half an hour but no luck so we ended up Ubering for 5 apiece and was taken into town where we ate sandwiches and drank beer at a bar. 

While there, a patron ordered me a couple of shots and I started talking with the locals a bit. Redo started talking about Jerkface again and I mentioned to her that perhaps the reason nobody wanted to walk with her was that she was so negative.

When I came back from the restroom she was gone. I had another beer and then went outside and grabbed my pack and started walking.
Along the way a lady came out of a convenience store and asked if I were hungry. I must have looked homeless. Yes, I was I said. So she put $10 of credit for me in the store and I bought a sandwich and a drink.
But it was dark and I couldn't find the pavilion. But I found the park and a ballfield and tented near the home-plate stands.


July 21 Ten Mile River shelter CT
I couldn't find Redo in the morning or the pavilion. So I took an Uber back to the trail head and walked 12 miles of mostly easy terrain. It was nice walking alone again and enjoying the warm weather in the cool of the forest.
Apparently the nats and the mosquitoes were enjoying it too and were quite bothersome, swarming along the way around my eyes and ears. I noted a lot of people wearing net masks. I had a bottle of Off but that didn't do much good. It just came off with my sweat. 

I got to the shelter about 4pm and it was near the Ten Mile River where I went swimming and took all my sweaty clothes and washed them out and hung them out on a tree near the shelter.

I got to sleep about 7 in the shelter. I had it all to myself I thought until  9PM when Redo came in in the darkness with her headlight on and set up in the shelter too.
She did a lot of thrashing about on her crinkly air mattress and some loud snoring that night that was a little disquieting. 
In the morning she told me that she had Restless Leg Syndrome.
Ah, I said, that accounts for it.

July 22 Stewart Hollow Brook Shelter  CT  1473 Miles

This morning Redo and I walked eight miles into Kent, Connecticut passing out of New York. There were a hell of a lot of PUDs and both of us were glad when we picked up a hitch and landed in the middle of this touristy town for food (and a milkshake on my part.)

Redo called some relatives, her mothers' boyfriends' brother and wife to be specific.. She was worried beforehand: What should I say? What can I tell them? They want to know how they can help me.
Tell them you would love to take a shower and do some laundry?
Do I smell? she asked.
You stink, I said, just like I do. Don't worry. I'm sure they'll understand that you haven't bathed in five days of hiking.

They came and picked her up and I introduced myself as the person that had been hiking with her. Only for a few days Redo mumbled.

I caught that limited friendship innuendo. Or the "this guy is not staying with us" message.

I asked them for a ride up to the trailhead and the "brother" dropped me off and shook my hand. Good luck on your journey he said.

I walked another seven miles to the next shelter alongside another river where I met three weekend hikers who peppered me with through hike questions and stayed with me at the shelter that night.