Appalachion Trail (cont.)

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August 19, September 1, September 24, October 15, October 21, November 2, November 16

November 16 - HOME!!!! NOW the trail is finished

Yep, can you believe it?  I can't.  Quick recap?  We drove.  I don't know when I sent the last e-mail.  I never do, do I.  I assume it was at Welsh Nomad's.  From there it was stops at various big cities and friends of Skittles.  Princeton, Philadelphia, Atlantic City, Newark, Columbus.  We were treated to 2 nights stay at a Ritzy hotel, Skittles won $80 within 5 min of playing on a slot machine, Welsh Nomad was our tour guide in Philly and we had a REAL Philly steak sandwich. 

 
Once Skittles and I were in our white ford Tauros rental and roadtripping we took a bit of a detour and went to the very SE corner of KY to climb its highest peak.  Skittles has a new goal to climb all the highpoints of each state.  We found MO's as well.  We drove to the top without even realizing it.  I mostly sulked about the thought of returning to materialism.  I don't wanna job!  Everywhere seemed to show it.  I was at cheap stores with glittery fashions, everything looked the same and was skin tight.  Do I HAVE to look like I just stepped off the set of a music video? 
 
One surprise visit we did was in IL.  I stopped in to see relatives that I haven't seen for at least 5 yrs.  We couldn't remember.  I didn't even recongnize my cousin.  It was sort of wierd to think that these were the first family members I got to see on my way home.
 
Even though the whole road trip was a count down we still took our time, took the back roads.  I even got to stop at garage sales!!  By the time I arrived in Minneapolis I didn't look or smell like a hiker and all for less than $5.  We played some cards, I got to meet Skittle's friends, ate at a chili's for the first time, and had a great time all in all.  I got to see REBECCA!!!  We skipped out on our own and talked forever. 
 
The highlight though, besides getting home and besides seeing Becky, was that Skittles and I had a long long after midnight talk.  Skittles, I'm sorry to be all blabby but I figure it can put all my friends and family on the same page.  See, Skittles and I have had an awesome time hanging out.  I mean, we've gotten along for over 2 months and we still have  a blast, it's so easy to make Skittles laugh and he's had to put up with my laugh riot cackle way too often.  We've talked about just about everything I've ever talked about with my girlfriends.  You know, life plans, marriage,  and all that.  We seem to have the same mindset about everything, same goal for hiking and roadtripping, it seems to be a team effort about figuring out the greatest plan ever.  But, I began to wonder. I mean, I don't trust myself much at reading people but it seemed like Skittles might like me in a differant way (is he in love?!) and I didn't feel the same.  Blah, blah, blah, it all finally came out and it turns out that his feelings and idea about "us" is the same.  We're the best of friends and even though it seems too perfect and conveniant and we should be in love and dating and we might as well get married since we have so much in common, we don't want to.  So there.  He also reminded me that it was ME that has been following him since we met.  Yeah, there is that. 
 
I also learned on this trip that each and every one of my friends would probably be asking me about this eventually so I might as well bring it up first to alleviate all curiousities and hopefuls.  I thought it was sort of funny to leave Skittles alone with his friends and then hear about the interogation he would get.  We think it's a great joke.  Coming home married would have been a pretty funny joke too. 
 
Anyways, Skittles' parents drove me home.  I was able to give them directions up to our dirt road and then I was all choked up and crying.  I was out of the car the moment it stopped and no one had even got up to see who had come down the driveway.  I was able to totally surprise Mom and Dad because I had been so sure that I wouldn't be home till Monday but plans changed and I was running through the door on Sunday.  It was awesome because Skittles and his family got to meet my family.  Awesome.  I got to show them all the stuff I haven't seen.  The barn is a huge work shop now, the bathroom is unrecognizable, my art is hanging up.  Winston is fat (our cat). 
 
So, the plan is still unknown.  All I know is what I don't want to do.  I don't want to get a job, I don't want to go to South America this winter.  One thing that is sort of unfolding is opportunities to paint.  Maybe.  Maybe it is time for me to try  to make some serious money off my art.  I don't know.  We'll see.  I still want to fit in a road trip some time after Thanksgiving.  I want to visit friends from the trail and especially get down to TX to visit my long lost friend Charity.  I want to sort through my photgraphs and maybe find a way to market them.  I would like to be able to help Dad on his wood working project, I want to send a letter to everyone I have met in the last year.  I want to see all my relatives at Thanksgiving, I want to visit the Nursing Home and perhaps give a presentation like they asked me to, I want to see all my friends and catch up with them, I want to paint.  Can I still make a real painting?  I want to finally write a short e-mail.  I think this is the one.  Sigh, I remember the days of 1/2 hour time limits and how I was always able to get my message finished in that amount of time.
 
Love,
(for the last time that I will sign this with my trail name) Roadster 



November 2 - let it begin (end?)

Hey all, hey all!  Well, the big news first.  On OCT 31 at about 1:00 pm Sikittles, my hiking partner, crossed the 2,176 mile mark of his hike.  That would be the finsh line.  I, on the other hand quit at the same time and I can now say that I have hiked 1,228 miles of the Appalachian Trail.   Well, it's at least more than half.  Anyways, my hiking is done for the year.  We celebrated by trying to get a photo of us jumping in mid-air.  We got some pretty dorky looking pics.  Similtaneous is the key and getting someone who can time snapshots is another.  Anyways.  We did a lot of other stuff too.  Shall I start from the college dorm?  I think that is where I sent the last e-mail. 

 
Kitchen Sink is a section hiker that let us crash on the floor of her place.  I think I already told you that but I forgot a detail for my video game playing brother.  We found a group of students that had reserved a lecture hall with one of those retractable screens and played video games in a surround sound theater.  The screen was nearly as big as a movie screen.  College. 
 
The big event that followed after sleeping on a dorm room floor was the CT challenge.  I think I told you a bit about that.  A plan to walk for 24 consecutive hours and to cover the entire state of CT in one single day.  Well, we prepared for that by sleeping and eating all day Sat.  I got out of my sleeping bag once for the privy.  Other than that it was a couple of crossword puzzles.  We got up and left at 9:20 Sat. night and hiked to a nearby road where Millipede, a hiker who just completed the AT, took our packs.  We took food and things and then ran off into the dark.  It was great.  The trail was perfect and we just walked.  We were hoping to cover 45 miles.  I didn't want to know time or distance but I tested myself.  Hiking gets you pretty accurate.  Skittles says I nailed it when I figured we were halfway.  I have been guessing the time within 10 min.  Even when daylight savings kicked in.  Anyways, the day just flew by.  It was as if we hadn't even hiked during the night.  20 miles were completed by 10:00 and we arrived at the end, 23 1/2 hrs later, but with a bit of road walking substituted in, that would be completion at 8:50 Sunday evening.  It was great fun explaining our accomplishment to the section hiker at the shelter.  Fortyfive miles!! Do you get it? 
 
Mon morning was another scheduled zero day.  We planned on being so sore and tired that we would once agian not be moving from the shelter but by 1:00 in the afternoon we were bored out of our minds and knew that there was a hotel available in 6 miles.  We were there by 4:00.  Now a hotel is the way to celebrate.  I stayed up till almost 5 watching good ol' TV.  Yay.  Pizza, ice cream, chips, cookies.  The only probelm was the hotel.  One of those nickle and dime places.  It really is the little things.  You know, not being forward about prices, there was a number of little things so if you are considering the Dutchess Motorlodge I will tell you in detail all the complaints I had about it but the best illustration would be when Skittles went and bought a soda from the pepsi machine which cost him EIGHTY cents and then came back with a lousy GENERIC COLA.  Almost a dollar!  I mean, when someone is going to rip you off that drastically for something that mineal, that gave me the overall feel of the DUTCHESS MOTORLODGE.  That's Wingdale, NY.  With a $10 credit card use charge, $5 for so generously taking care of our laundry, a prop phone, a bi-polar shower,  and a 10 am checkout time we were heading out with a sour taste in our mouth.  Speaking of "taste", Skittles ordered a deep dish pizza and when it arrived it was like a pie.  A thin crust on top and bottom and an oozing cheesy middle.  We couldn't figure it out.  It sort of messes with your head when you suddenly have to eat pizza with a fork.  And try that with a plastic fork.  I think plastic forks are sort of manufactered to have the same sense of humor as the rubber chikcken, as in, what's the point? 
 
Well, we were heading towards that sour taste but when we asked about a ride, connections to the hotel refused to charge us, drove us to the trail head and were so wonderful and cheerful and just plain human it was refreshing.  The lady even gave me 2 hair ties.  TWO.  I am in the pattern where I can only hold onto one hair tie for a week.  The last hair tie I had I thought was pretty inovative, I found it on the trail, it was the elastic armband of someone's shirt sleeve. I will refrain from my "ode to hair ties" paragraph, you've seen my hair, it's self explanatory how important something that minute is to me. We got such an unexpected early start that we really got to take the day easy.  The weather was beatiful and gorgeous.  I CANNOT get over the foilage, the colors.  Yeah, I tried to talk about it last time, it's like being in a candle flame.  Everything glows.  I took the time to casually look for ticks.  Every couple of miles there is a 14 in. illustraion of a deer tick.  Someone scrawled on one of the signs, "not actual size." With every illustration is the warning of Lyme's Disease and  the symptoms that follow.  I guess NY is infested.  Well, my casual search ( I lifted up my shirt and looked at my belly) revealed a fat little tick in the middle of a bright red patch of skin.  AHH!  A better examination and I found another tick, the same thing.  AHH!  After that I had problems like, for the first time EVER the head stayed attached and then this bite was on my side and so instead of laying back and relaxing in a grassy meadow Skittles was picking at my doughy love handle with a needle and tweezers.  This is one reason I would prefer hiking with a girl.  In all, there were 3 tick bites but only the first 2 looked bad.  I kept mental notes of symptons.  The main thing is feeling like you have the flu.  But really, some of the symptoms of Lyme's Disease were a little obscure I thought.  Yes, I did feel fatigued, it was the day we got up at 4 am and hiked 18 m.  And yes, I had sore joints, my wipeouts are getting more spectacular.  Another sympton showed up, sore neck, that was the night I slept on a concrete floor with no pillow. 
 
Wed was an easy easy day, less than 10 miles.  We stopped at a deli where the people were friendly and the Reubens were delicious.  They put cole slaw on the reuben instead of sauerkraut.  I've never heard of such a thing.  This was also the very first time on the trail that I had to actually buy my own supplies.  Bummer.  Well, Skittles actually bought them.  Remember, I left all my important money and ID stuff in Rutland.  Anyways, I bought pasta and fun sized 3 Muskateer bars.  From there we hiked on to a shelter where we have heard that you can have pizza delivered.  It's sort of surprising how difficult of a task that can be when you don't have the regular conveniances like a phonebook.  Then we found out you had to pack out the garbage.  Two pizza boxes?  We did a little roadwalking and left them in someone's garbage.  We did this around 4 in the morning.
 
There is a monastary next to the trail and according to the guide book you can have supper there if you arrive before 5:00.  That's why we were up so early.  It didn't do us much good because we stopped at the top of the first lookout and waited to see the sunrise.  An hour and a half later I was still napping and there was a frost covering my sleeping bag.  Skittles and I decided it was cruel to force yourself out of your sleeping bag twice in the same day.  The Friars' also turned out to be a basic disappointment.  There was no meals this late in the season and then there was no water, and no people. The place was absolutely empty we were hoping to gain a pity meal or something. We did find a phone though in an empty information booth.  When I dialed 9 it worked and I talked to Mom from the top of some hill in the middle of a monastary.  Cool.  I also forgot my walking stick in the bathroom and it got locked in and then removed the next morning before I was ready to claim it.  Bummer.  I had that stick since Monson.  So to even things out, later on down the trail I did a spectacular wioe-out where I broke my fall with my other remaining hiking stick which in turn broke my hiking stick.  In one day I went from 2 to no sticks.  I guess it really doesn't seem like much but there's some statistic out there about how many tons it accumalates to that is relieved off of your lower body being pressured to absorb when you have hiking poles.  Well, I really noticed it as we hiked up some hills, that or it was that Lyme's Disease kicking in.
 
Friday was actually a pretty easy day from the Friars' we went from there to the twilight zone to pick up our celebration treats for our last zero day and last nights in a shelter.  Serious.  Twliight Zone.  First, the trail crossed a suspension bridge that was over the Hudson river.  Once in town it was only piddly conveniance stores and NO Krispy Kremes!  That had been the craving and the plan for our staple celebration food.   We went to 3 differant conveniance stores and found pretty much the same stuff.  No cookie dough either.  We've been getting creative with the treat ideas.  I guess town itself wasn't the Twilight Zone, it was that middleground, heading out of town.  First, the trail turned into a zoo.  Literally.  You know, those educational things about your local woods.  The trail was paved and fenced in and suddenly everything that had surrounded and enclosed us and had earlier been referred to as "the wilderness" was now an exhibit.  Trees had green signs telling thier names.  Same with brush.  I liked the little signs that pointed out the "tree roots".  It's so satisfying to have them cataloged like that.  Look! It's what I trip over every day!  Skittles and I had a blast.  We took a million pictures, tried to put ourselves on the side that was the exhibit.  Farther down there was an exit sign that pointed the direction that we were heading that would get us out and into the REAL woods.  We sure got to see a lot of wild life though, including TWO black bears.  One was only 30 FEET from us!!!  Bears, on the AT.  Note that the "in a zoo" doesn't need to be emphasized here.  My favorite little posted sign though pointed out a white blaze on a tree. "This is a blaze marking the Appalacian Trail.  This is what thru hikers follow to take them from GA to ME."  Look ma, I'm in a museum.  I think it was funny when this was basically like our last real hiking day, it was like the entire trail was being filed for us.  Once that ended there was vending machines.  That totally distracted us.
 
You would think that would be bizarre enough but we walked from the AT exhibit into a park where there was an abnormal amount of joggers around.  We hiked along, minding our own business but it quickly became apparent that there was a highschool cross country meet taking place.  Not only that but now part of the AT was a race track.  We walked past people on the sidelines, our own personal crowd but they were cheering for the girls that came running up behind us.  Has anyone else ever experianced this because it's really odd.  It's like you're where the spotlight is going to be cued.  All these people on either side of the trail, out of your way, looking down the path but not even acknowledging you.  We were the camera people on another reality show.  To be so detached from the world.  You can really get philosophical about it.  It's like there's this ultra delayed reaction as the crowd starts cheering runners that were beginning to overtake us and then about 30 jiggling highschool butts surrounded us, passed us, and left us on our Appalachian Trail.  And I'm thinking, wasn't there an article  back when I was in highschool about these new streamlined but revealing running shorts?  They allow these?!  They don't keep anything contained! 
 
We got farther and farther from the city, this all took place in Fort Montgomery, but it was like we couldn't leave.  The trail took us straight up a completely pointless hill.  I confirmed this as we crossed roads that would have taken us around the mountain instead of over and when the top revealed a parking lot and no scenic view and one tower that wasn't a silo because it had corners.  The tower was locked.  I was annoyed.  Three miles later we spent nearly 2 hrs in the dark trying to find the shelter that was .6 m off the trail.  There was a side trail, various other colored blazes, other side trails, a loop and an obscure sign.  But arriving at that shelter was the highlight of the day.  To see the view, you could see the NY sky line, beautiful.  And the shelter was beautiful itself.  For one thing, it was empty but it was also made out of stone.
 
Sat are my zero days, have we established that by now?  Anyways, we pulled out all the junkfood.  Donuts, Smirnoffs, candy, Combos, etc.  We ate it all. Did some crosswords and in between all the day hikers I tried to remember the peace and tranquility of the trail.  Scratch that zoo and track meet thing.  Then Koreans began filing into the shelter.  It was a rainy eerie misty day.  Yeah, I said Koreans.  Within 10 min. Skittles and I were sitting cross legged on top of our belongings scrunched against  the farthest wall of the shelter and the rest of the shelter was packed with at least 17 Koreans.  Out of thier day packs they pulled tea kettles, Coleman camp stoves, containers of soup, tarps, tablecloths.  Skittles and I were suddenly foreigners in what has been the hiker home for all these months.  Weird.  They were a really nice group though, they gave us peace offerings of palmegranites, apples, and ginger candy but the most helpful gift was water.  The one puddle/water srouce had water that smelled like sulfur, it was also nearly a .4 m away. 
 
And then it was Sun and Skittles had hiked 2,168.5 miles.  7.5 and his hike was complete.  What a day to end it too. SAT was white out and wet but SUN was crystal clear and beautiful.  It was hot to be hiking in my wool pants.  Over and over we said how glad we were to flip-flop instead of hike straight through. We've hit the trail at the best times of the year, warm in ME, fall farther S.  Most hikers have been in the woods almost 10 days when they reach Katahdin and have to wait for a ride out of the park before they can get anywhere to celebrate.  We had pretty much had a week of celebrating with the reuben, pizza, hotel, etc,, etc. A "no parking" sign was Skittles' Katahdin sign.  I guess that's a bit anti-climatic but we hugged and screamed and jumped around.  Got pictures of almost all of it as well.  And that was the end.
 
Adventure continues or will continue.  We layed in the middle of a circle that's in the middle of a park.  Everyone had come to enjoy the day.  We called differant friends.  Then Welsh Nomad was tapping me on the shoulder and I got to see my awesome hiking friend again.  Awesome.  For an added surprise she took us to New York City.  Neither of us had ever been there.  We drove and gawked and the trail immediately seemed unreal.  I was clicking through all the movies.  Is this the How-to-Lose-a-Guy-in10-Days bridge?  I saw the Conspiracy Theory smoke stacks, the Vanilla Skies Times Square, the MIB and the Daylight tunnel (same tunnel), the While-you-Were-Sleeping Empire State building and that's about all I could place.  We walked around Time Square, stared at neon and costumes- it was Halloween, ate a soft pretzel, had a $4.50 slice of pizza and tried not to look like complete tourists.  Ha.  Skittles and I were approached about 45 sec. after getting out of the car. 
 
Welsh Nomad stocked us up with Halloween candy and helped us catch up on our movie watching.  It was Cohen bros. movies, more specifically. Right now I can remember 6 movies that we have watched in the past 24 hrs.  What a way to come off the trail.  One inspiration, I'm at 162 lbs.  I think that's good.  I can't remember. Skittles is at 213.  He has lost over 75 lbs on this hike.  I think he realized today that he has lost closer to 80 lbs.  Amazing.  Tomorrow we head to Princeton, NJ, visit more friends, more movies, maybe thrift stores, a car is rented for a week beginning SAt and the world is full of possabilities.  I had an awesome awesome talk with my old room mate.  I was reminded how much I miss being home and I have so much to do and to take care of.  My in-town sleep pattern is in place.  I wasn't going to sleep last night but I couldn't get on the internet.  So I got 4 hrs of sleep, tonight might be the all nighter.  We'll see.  I'll be home before Thanksgiving.  I can't wait to make the rounds!
 
Love,
Roadster
 
Rebecca, sorry I haven't responded to your e-mail.  I just thought that since I will be home shortly we could save it for a long long talk.  Let me know when you're available.  It sounds like Skittles and I will be coming through the cities on Sat 13.  I'll try to check my mail more often.






October 21 - counting down

Dear everybody,

Well, I am back on the trail and really back.  From now on I am hiking! For 10 whole days! Skittles and I are hiking it to the very end, Ha!  Well, we're hiking to his end. I still will only be half way.  Anyways, I have an unknown amount of time on this computer but not too many days to talk about, so lets go.
 
Friday Ben arrived late to the 12 Tribes.  It was so great to see him!  I was so happy and everyone was looking forward to meeting him.  We fed him leftovers.  Sat. it was a bit of catch-up.  He visited, we went on a hike. Sun was some long good-byes and then we drove on down to Dalton, MA to get back to the trail where Skittles would be arriving at.  THis is called yellow blazing.  Oh well, so I have skipped a few hundred miles.  I got to talk to my brother, ride in a rental, listen to my music and think about the last 3 weeks.  It was a great time.  I miss my family.  It is so nice to think that I will be home soon.  I think the highlight of being with Ben was reminiscing about family life and all that.  We had drinks at Denny's and laughed hilariously at inappropriate things, ahhh.  When I walked into Denny's it was like stepping into another time, like, the present.  I was standing there in a colorful skirt and baggy shirt.  I had spent the last 3 weeks in a victorian style house, wood floors, piano, lessons about modesty.  The first thing I saw stepping into Denny's was the back ends of girls saran wrapped in jeans, there was frosted hairsyles that where trying to appear casual but you could almost hear the clicking sounds when gel coated strands rustled together.  Then a goth/punk/rebel sort of guy came slinking by with Alice Cooper eyes.  Is that actually common outside of music videos now?  I think the flouresent lights and bright plastic decor sort of made everything that more glaringly shocking.  I stood there thinking, "This is the exact way that the old timers must percieve all this." 
 
Sun was Dalton, mostly arriving, driving around being lost. You try walking into a sports bar (hoping for directions) on a Sunday filled with the 35-40 male demographic and just imagine the empty stares you get when you throw out vocabulary like "hostel".  "Nevermind- hey, look!  A Budweiser commercial"  (exit quickly).
 
Rob was an awesome guy.  He runs the Birdcage hostel.  He just opens his house and his porch to hikers to visit, to stay, it's like visiting a long lost uncle.  His last name is Bird and it's hard to leave his place, hence "Birdcage".  There were a few other hikers and we were surprised at the number of us.  The number of hikers are dwindling.  I had another dissappointing jolt back to reality when we all went out to eat at an italian place.  It was more like the Morrill version of Italian which is one step above spaghettios.  Anyways, we got our plates, the atmosphere was nice enough but my head has been filled with wholesome goodness.  No white flour, no white sugar.  Do you have any idea how horribly we have regressed in nutrition?  I had no idea, I am not a health freak but I was fed the healthiest foods during my time in Rutland.  I was fascinated when I would try to eat just a single slice of bread after I was already full from a meal and how I would be uncomfortably overstuffed afterwards, and for hours.  At the restaurant we had white french bread that I could wad into a little ball and swallow slice after slice.  Then it was pasta and sauce from a can.  It was like I could almost see all the preservatives and artificial powders that make a $10 meal.  I ate the pasta, the salad and however many loaves of bread and didn't really notice.  We went on home and watched the Boston-Yankee game.  It went into extra innings, it was neat to see people excited.
 
Mon. we decided to slackpack.  Ben drove us to the trailhead.  We prepared by watching TV till afternoon.  What a way to get back into hiking.  The birdcage has sattelite or dish or whatever gives you 1000 channels.  A meal at Friendly's and we headed on down the trail.  Ben had to head off to the airport, he was running late. Oh- oh.  Last I heard he was still waiting stand-by for an available flight because he did miss his.  I'm so sorry Bean!  Poor Bean, that was on Tues.  After 3 weeks off Skittles and I hiked 9 1/2 miles in 3 1/2 hrs.  Pretty good.  We got to scheming about trying some crazy days. 
 
Tues we headed out again into drizzle and cold misery.  I was once again wrapped in my trendy footprint and I actually stayed dry.  Good!  Because it was cold.  It was 11 m. to a cabin where there would be a sheltered porch. This time of year the cabin is closed.  Oh well, we had crossword puzzles and a couple hours of daylight.  Our last corner of the day revealed the cabin and a lone guy out chopping wood.  Could this be the caretaker?  We couldn't believe our good fortune.  "Come on in," he said with a Brooklyn accent.  Inside was a fire! Bunks!  A propane cook stove!  We were expecting a damp porch, that's IT.  This was 5 star. "Want tea?  Want coffee? I'll make us some pasta."  We were just sort of dazed.  We got to hang up wet stuff, huddle around the fire and listen to endless stories from Slowfoot.  He's hiked the trail twice and has done a ton of other outdoor stuff.  He even had a radio so we could listen to game 6.  This was the third game between the Red Sox and Yankees that we got to hear.  We were getting drawn in.  We decided that if the Red Sox won game 6 we would have to stay at the hostel that was 19 miles down the trail so we could catch game 7.  So the Red Sox won and we headed out the next morning stuffed with blueberry pancakes.  The total cost for a night at the cabin is $3 a person.  I drew a picture of the three of us talking around the fire.  I colored it with some pencils or whatever.  I don't have my watercolors.  Funny story.  It was on Monday night when I tried to find my watercolors.  i was painting a thankyou for Rob.  I dug around in my pack and then it was like "ooooh, I know where my watercolors are, they're in my purse that's hanging off the bunkbed- IN RUTLAND with my passport, money, and visa card.  Smart.  So that's some weight I'll be doing without till the end of the trail.  The people at Rutland are mailing it to Welsh Nomad.  Will you remember that Welsh?  If everything goes according to plan then I'll ask you to bring that with when you pick us up.  So, the cabin picture paid for our night, everyone was really happy all around. 
 
Skittles and I had a great 19 m day hiking in to the hostel.  The weather was that absolute beautiful fall weather.  Weather that you don't even feel.  We came out into a field and got to look back at the forest that we had been hiking in.  Indescribable.  I've got to learn to paint this. 
 
The hostel was 1 m down a rd and then it had a 1/2 mile driveway.  No one was expecting us.  We even surprised the dogs but the lady was welcoming and fetched us a radio to listen to game 7.  We also had a game of Scrabble but no dictionary so the results are pending.  Skittles won but he might have won by a few more points.  Is "phrain" a word? 
 
So today we took it easy, hiking merely 8 miles.  Shah, whatever.  We were DRAGGING.  It was drizzly again, some great scenery but we were so tired.  Made me think of Lymes disease but we were both in the same shape so I figured it had to be lack of food.  Always.  Last night's supper was a PB&J sandwhich and this morning was a packet- 1/2 cup of oatmeal.  I fed off of hard candies all day.  I do not want to have another day like today.  We're supposed to be in training. Skittles calls it our suicide pact.  A bit morbid but it is a crazy idea.  There are "challenges" along the trail, stuff that you only want to try once and they either involve walking insane amount of miles or eating insane amounts of food.  You can eat a 1/2 gal of ice cream in PA(?) Walk through the state of MD- 40 m., do the roller coaster which is a 30(?) m. day of ups and downs and there are many more but you can see that I am really unfamiliar with most of them.  We have selected the CT challenge.  To walk through the state of CT in one day or one stretch.  I figured it was 40 m. like most of the challenges and eagerly agreed.  Then we found out that it is actually 53 MILES.  So, that starts Sat. after dark and we are hoping to end early early Mon. morning at the latest.  This is a slackpack, only a few essentials and a hiking friend is going to help us out with car support (he finished his hike not too long ago).  So cool.  Well, wish us luck.  We'll be resting up all day Saturday.  Tomorrow is Friday and a long day to the shelter.  Tonight I'm sleeping in a dorm, more help from hikers along the trail.  We are stocked with supplies, moderately fed and STILL AWAKE- what's with that!  I haven't slept outdoors since Gorham.  Interesting.  All right, it's late.  Good night.
 
Love,
Roadster
 
Welsh Nomad, we are making plans for heading to your place, trying to work out the car rental. It's looking likely that we'll be finishing on Nov 1.   Also, you always have great suggestions so we were wondering what you might have in mind for our road trip. We have nearly 3 weeks and want to have some cheap thrills.  Conerts, games, etc.  Know of anything?  Hey, if anyone else has any ideas, we'll be around Philadelphia, Cincinatti, Columbus, MI, WI, etc. 
 
Half Full, hello?  Are you there?  I hope nothing has happened to your computer again.  Sorry I don't specifically say "hi" all the time but Skittles and I talk about you all the time.  (in a good way).  Wish you were here.  Hey, what are you doing Nov. 1-4th?  You should think about a road trip to PA.  THAT would be awesome. 





October 15 - in a Rutland

Uffda, Sorry that I sort of haven't had contact in a long long time.  We'll call that circumstances.  I now have quite a bit of time to try to tell a bit of a story but not a lot.  So, Last you heard I was in Gorham, NH.  I told you that the next time you would hear from me I would be in Rutland, VT and here I am.  Between those places a bit has happened, not so much with adventure and all, so this might not be so overwhelming as I thought.

 
Basically, I camped at a shelter in Gorham, went to the Harvest dinner, didn't socialize much but had some good food.  It was dark by the time I was heading back to the shelter to camp.  See, in Gorham I stayed another 3 nights but I wasn't going to stay in the Barn.  No money, no trade.   3 m. down the road is the trail and then 2m down the trail is the shelter.  I was camping out there.  A bit of a hassle but worth the money I saved.  On the way out I was sort of reluctant to leave town and figure out how to safely do those 5 m.  so I headed to the police station.  I had a report to give anyways.  Did I tell you about that?  There was a hiker, Ishmael?  Some sort of biblical name, we had come across him hikining North.  A few days later it started circulating how he had severly twisted his ankle, had stashed his backpack on the trail and had hobbled to the hospital.  His dad came to retrieve his backpack but it had been stolen and belongings were strewn down the trail.  Somehow some crazy Jesus preaching guy was suspected.  All they said was that he was really wierd and had stringy hair.  Well, I had seen him come through on Sat and it had to be the guy, "wierd" is kind of an understatement.  He was off trying to trade a sub sandwhich he had for some gorp.  Later he gave someone some cheap Wendy's toy for a snicker bar.  It's funny because the NOBOs I came across had thier story about him, very identifiable.  I tried to get the details of his backpack and I told my story that night to the police.  They already knew he had been southbound, it was just a matter of pin pointing when he'd be getting to a road crossing or something.  Anyways, it was fun to pretend I was helping solve crimes, Miami Vice and all that.  I have an active imagination.  I walked outside the police station and was welcomed by an ominous rumbling clap of thunder.  There hadn't been any thunderstorm warnings!  I was about half a block away from the Barn when the skies opened up and dumped on all of us unsuspecting pedestrians.  I gleefully ran to the Barn and escaped getting truly drenched.  I was shamelessly happy though because this is what I needed to negotiate another night.  Who would turn a hiker out into the pouring rain to walk 5 miles in the dark?  Well, that's exactly what Doc said, we worked out another deal and I spent a comfy night in the hostel. 
 
Sun. I did my work for stay, Doc actually asked me to stay and do more work but I contacted the 12 Tribes community in Lancaster and I had a ride to thier place in an hour.  Cool! So, now I have been with the community.  On Tues. there was a ride going down to Rutland and I went with.  I was shown a bed, given some clothes and they didn't ask for anything.  I was immediately ready to start learning about these friendly people. 
 
So, I guess this e-mail would mostly be about introducing you to this lifestyle.  It's a bunch of families, they live in as many houses as they need to share in an area.  Rutland has about 35 people and they run a really nice health food sort of cafe.   You know, serving smoothies, wheat grass.  Peter, you're looking for your Eutopian society?  I think you should come and meet these people,  there is places close to Georgia.  They could at least give you some ideas. 
 
All the men wear a ponytail, it's a short ponytale.  Women have long long hair and wear baggy clothes, mostly skirts and wierd pants that look like clown pants.  Everything is real organic and natural.  Not much meat is eaten, mostly because it's expensive and because they are very aware of the awful way meat is raised these days.  Everyone works together, children are homeschooled and are always at thier parent's side.  When they are young they work with thier mother in the kitchen or where ever and when they're older they help thier father with his jobs. 
 
I came to experiance the life, really try to see why they live like this, do they really like each other?  Do they really like this lifestyle?  Would I really like it?  I've had great talks with everybody and I really like everyone here.  The time I've spent I've been really trying to figure out how I could really describe this place to you all.  Part of it is the lifestyle but there's an attitiude here as well to describe. 
 
The frist day here I asked for clothes so that I would fit in better and because I love being able to wear that old fashioned sort of stuff again.  I stayed in the kitchen.  It's the easiest place to find something to do.  Dishes.  I don't think I hardly left the sinks all day.  Then there was sweeping and mopping.  I watched the women work.  They take turns being in charge of meals.  One comes in and prepares and if she has children she has helpers.  I quickly felt like I was becoming one of the children, they would give me odd jobs to keep me occupied.  I hate those.  I've gotten pretty good at finding my own ways to stay busy now.  I haven't scrubbed any more base boards in the bottom back corners underneath shelving any more. 
 
In the morning at 7:00 people gather to sing and dance and talk about the day.  It's kind of neat to see who is awake at that time.  The nursing mothers usually sleep in, the cafe workers that are doing morning preps are gone, people that pullled double shifts sleep in, etc.  7:00 at night is another Minhah, the same thing.  I helped with washing and folding clothes, went for some walks, helped plant some bulbs for next spring.  Regular stuff. 
 
I asked every question I could about life, religon, personal beliefs, child rearing, training, why do the guys have pony tails?  Why don't the women wear jeans?  Why do they live a community life?  I love the houses, they're old victorian, wood floors, persian rugs.  Everything was simple, old fashioned.  My style.  To see everyone at the Minhah and the girls dancing.  It's beautiful, it's hebrew folk dance, cross steps, hops, spinning.  You've got these flowy skirts and long long hair all spinning about and it's all that cheerful sort of folk music.  If any of you have seen my storybook illustrations that is what the community seems to be like.  Just happy and fun. 
 
I got to go and help at the cafe a bit as well.  That's where the single people work.  I help with preps, dishes, orders, whatever.  I've tried some of the wheat grass drinks and things like that.  They do juicing as well.  I had a great time at first because thier desserts are made very healthy as well so I basically decided that they don't really count as junk food.  I had such good carob brownies and such.  I have to be all mindful now that I don't hike though. 
 
I was lucky to be able to see a wedding as well.  Skittles caught up about that time and hung out a bit.  It was great to talk with him about my experiance and his views.  The wedding itself was odd.  It was done as a prophetic play.  But there was also really pretty music and dancing.   One thing I really liked about it was that the bride and groom aren't allowed to see each other for the week before the wedding, can't even look at a photo of the other so the moment that the bride comes out everyone gets to see the look on thier faces when they get to meet up again.  It's also cute too because the two have thier own special book that they write in to each other throughout that week.  It was funny to see differant people going back and forth with that book everyday.  It was always being passed around, one trying to get it to the other. 
 
So today is Friday and guess what!! Ben, my brother is flying in for a visit!  I am so excited to see him!  He doesn't like the idea of community life and there was a bit there when I was really thinking that I didn't want to leave.  I think I sort of scared my family.  Anyways, religon, community and all that is a real sensative and weird sort of subject and I am trying to talk about it to so many differant people all at once.  I really plan on saying more about it later.  For the moment I will tell you that it's wonderful and I like this place and the people, thier hearts seem to be in the right place but it's not pristenely perfect.  I do think that I would like to live here.  That's why I plan to leave on Sunday with Ben, drive down to MA with him and we'll stay in a hostel where Skittles is going to be hiking into to meet up with us.  It'll be sad to go but it'll give me time to think on my own without influences from others.  From there it goes to the normal plan, finish hiking in NY, rent a car with Skittles, visit his friends, visit Welsh Nomad, go home and spend Thanksgiving up North.  I plan to e-mail soon after this weekend, hopefully I'll have a better way of talking about the community and describing it.  It's definately interesting.  I wanted to keep track of my thoughts and feelings.  I have for the most part.
 
Yesterday was a fun night.  I've looked through my journal to remember little events but the moments aren't much to tell about.  I could describe scrubbing wood walls and then dusting light fixtures or learning about where the dishes get put away at the restaurant.  Not too thrilling.  Last night though I got to talk to Bean.  He's so funny and sarcastic.  Sigh, I miss my family.  Anyways, we were talking about our plans for him coming up here,  it was one long phone conversation.  After that I hung out with everyone, the cafe was closing, things were getting cleaned up.  We decided that one of the brownies in the goody basket might be faulty so it was opened and split amongst the workers, just a bight but it was a tastey one.  After that Kesher, the manager, decided that we needed to go to the top floor of the parking ramp to look out over the city.  That turned into a race between the elevator and the stairs.  Amidah and I took the elevator.  She was afraid to take it by herself.  We lost because I pressed another button by accident.  The night sky and all the lights were beautiful.  It's just beautiful here.  Everyone has been collecting fall leaves to press, all the colors, wow.  Anyways, back to the boring elevator story.  I guess it was one of those "you had to be there"  sort of stories.  The thing is that Amidah and another girl tried to race us back down the stairs by takiing the elevator but the boys ran ahead to each floor and pushed the button so to summon the elevator, every floor.  The group of us who had taken the stairs stood outside in the light warm drizzle and watched as the elevator made its stop on each floor.  We were all laughing hilariously. 
 
These days have been reminding me of Little Women and Little House on the Prairie.  So cozy and friendly.  So much fun.  And now I should really go and help with the lunch rush.  I'll talk to you all later. 
 
Love,
Roadster

P.S. I forgot to tell you about Jacob!  Just a note, he decided he was going to come to the community with me and then continue hiking on the trail after that.  I think he was hoping to casually follow me all the way home.  I actually had to sit him down and explain things to him.  We got things out in the open.  Guess what!  He had a crush on me.  Sheesh, how hard was that to figure out?  So he went his own way.  And that's that.  Any other questions?






September 24 - and I would walk 1000 more

Ps.  didn't get to finishing highlighting

 Oops, it has been a very long time since I last wrote one of these things.  Well, a lot has happened.  The trail really has exciting things.  I was telling Skittles just yesterday how I was planning on just showing a lot of pictures about the trail instead of actually writing about it.  This is for my big book publishing plan.  So much for that.  So, last you heard I was in Monson, that's over 100 miles away. 
 
Usually I go in chronological order about what has happened and all that but I need to come clean on a few things.  See, the last e-mails I've been sending I haven't been real clear on my intent or fully honest about how I was feeling.  From the day I arrived at Katahdin I decided I wanted to go home and I wanted to go home NOW.  I just felt guilty after spending the money on the plane ticket and all that Wesh Nomad had helped me with so I told myself I would at least hike through the 100 mile wilderness. That would get me to Monson.  From there I was willing to hitchhike home.  I still felt a little guilty getting off the trail that early so I sort of left it up in the air to see if something might come along to change my mind.  The second day out I met Skittles.  I already told you about him, he lives 45 miles from my house, he's finishing up in early November, we have the same hiking pace, we officially started hiking together Aug 25. and we've had a great time ever since.  Well, we were both sort of ho-hum about hiking but at Monson there was no ride to MN and Caratunk sounded cool, it was only another 3 days away and we hiked on.   Some time in there, I think it was at the Caratunk house, Skittles looked at the data books and informed me that if I were to continue on the trail to Gorham, NH, I would have 1013 miles under my belt.  One Thousand Miles!  And it would be before the Feast.  I really wanted to be home for the Feast.  A religous holiday and family tradition.  By the way, the Caratunk house was amazing.  Paul was so nice and generous.  He let me trade for my art, gave us breakfast.  Didn't charge Jacob.  The place was so cozy, the food so good. 
 
A scheme began to form.  I would hike on until Sept 20 to Gorham, NH where they have a bus stop, I would catch a bus home to MN and surprise my entire family by being nearly 2 months early.  I had told them I was determined to hike and only return in time for Thanksgiving.  I was set. Throughout hiking this is all I have talked and planned and I couldn't tell people about it in order to keep it a surprise.  I do like looking for "signs" for guidance though and I couldn't help to see how conveniant it had been to meet Skittles.  He want's to rent a car to drive home, we get along great, all the timing on the trail works out to get home before Thanksgiving.  BUT at the time, everthing was also working out for me to be home for the Feast. The bus station, the 1000 miles, the timing.  There was even another town stop where I could do my 7 day advance purchases to get the cheaper bus fare.   I had a great time scheming about all the ways to get home or to get to my parents.  This was also during some days of terrible climbing.  Climbs that went on forever.  We did a blue blaze to climb the second highest mountain in ME, that's Sugar Loaf, a ski resort and they have an old abandoned warming hut that remains open for hikers.  Microwave, toaster, lights, total luxury and beautiful clear view of the stars.  I was also having a terrible time dealing with Jacob.  I felt like I was taking care of him and if I didn't then Skittles would and then I felt mean and guilty for not trying to help.  You'd have to be there to understand the frustrations and I don't really feel like explaining it all.  I don't really want to complain.  How about I say that he was being thoughtless, rude, and not taking responsability?  A vague complaint, but it seemed to be constant, you're literally followed when you're hiking, you can't just walk away. 
 
The day before we headed into Rangley we got rain. Rain isn't too bad but it was the day that we crossed Saddleback.  Saddleback is above treeline for 3 miles.  We could hear the wind in the trees and that sort of told us that this was going to be another crazy experiance.  We stopped before the top to prepare.  This is when I would reveal how poorly prepared I am.  I know what I have, I know what I have to deal with, it's just not a fun combination.  I have a footprint for a tent, this is my wind break.  I have already learned that it's not waterproof so wearing layers and warm clothes becomes pointless.  I wore my tank top underneath and stowed away my one long sleeve shirt and my one short sleeved shirt in a plastic bag.  At least I would be warm when we got to the shelter.  The more I listened to the howling wind the more I realized that I was going to need more windbreak protection so I took out my blue tarp and also wrapped that around the center of my body.  So I looked like a total idiot but I was more focused on thoughts of hypothermia. 
 
Now, Jacob on the other hand had nothing.  He hadn't used more than one garbage bag to store his things and all his clothes were already wet, he didn't bother to use his tarp to wrap in either.  Instead, Skittles gave him his trash bag that he was using to keep his clothes dry.  Jacob sort of turned it into a shirt, added some layers of wet clothes and we headed off across Saddleback in insane winds.  We could hardly walk straight, there were parts where I turned to face the wind, braced against my walking sticks and walked sideways to keep on the trail.  The trail was sloped slippery rock.  When we got to the first peak Skittles stopped and asked if we should go on, the other option was to return to the lean-to.  "Well," I said, "If I was was by myself I would go across.  There'd be no one to tell me how crazy it was." I was most worried about someone falling and getting seriously hurt.  As long as we kept moving everything was fine but an injury to one person would do us all in.  I did my constant praying. Jacob always makes me nervous, it's like he's trying to run on clown shoes.  He did fall several times but he always got up and kept going. 
 
We made it to the shelter, all in one piece.  It was a great relief and the shelter only had one other person.  I don't remember his name but he was so nice and sympathetic.  He let us use his stove to heat up some soup, handed out grapes and energy bars.  Greatly appreciated.  We had hiked 9 miles without stopping.  I changed into cozy dry clothes but Jacob had nothing.  When Skittles took out his things he found he had no dry clothes either, that garbage bag had been thier protection.  Jacob doesn't keep his sleeping bag in a plastic bag either, so that was wet and Skittle's sleeping bag got wet from the night before when we had to sleep outside.  I was the only one with all dry gear.  We did some trading around, I gave my last pair of clean socks to Skittles and let him use my sleeping bag while I used his wet sleeping bag with a plastic bag.  He set up his tent in the shelter for him and Jacob, we drank a bunch of hot chocolate, and we kept a stove and water out for emergency warm-up at night.  Fortunately the night was warm and we were all cozy.   It was definately an adventure. 
 
So, the next day was the walk into Rangley where my travel plans would be finalized.  We washed and dried our wet things, Skittles treated Jacob and I to hamburgers. Why is he so nice?  And I made phone calls only to find that public transportation from Gorham refused to be cheap.  It was just bizarre, I couldn't get 7 day advances purchase, the trains and buses didn't line up, nothing worked out.  My best bet would be hitch hiking to another town, 2 hrs away and paying over $100 for a train ticket.  That might not be so bad.  Still. 
 
Jacob and I hiked out of Rangely, Skittles spent a night at the hostel and Jacob and I kept the Sabbath at Sabbath Day Pond Shelter, how perfect is that?  We had a miserable slow night hike to get there and the next morning we met a cool hiker named Dude, he's been a bartender for the last 15 yrs.  That's a great way to describe him too. He can get anybody to talk and he's just easygoing and would be easy to unload porblems on.  Sabbath was wonderful.  The sun was out, we had a pond to sit by, Jacob had brought out wine and cheese and some thin mint cookies, it was a bunch of treats.  I wrote and read and really appreciated being outdoors.  Skittles arrived around 4:00 and Baltimore Jack and One-Leg came in as well.  It was neat to see them again.  They are hardcore.  Baltimore had whiskey and non-filtered camels while One Leg had Marlboro Reds.  They sat and told amputee jokes and hacked and coughed.  It was great, sort of refreshing after all these lean hiking machines are always striding through and passing you.  Millipede was there, he's one of the machines.  He passed us in the 100 mile wilderness, got off for a week and caught up to us at Sabbath Day, it was a fun crowd. 
 
Sun was such a fun day.  It was warm and beautiful and I was busy thinking about my wonderful day by the pond, the people I had reunited with,  and the problems I had had with travel arrangements for my surprise return home.  I talked to Skittles some more about his plans and if he would have room for a tag-along.  He made me feel plenty welcome.  I was also thinking about the 12 Tribes people.   Did I mention them?  I can't remember.  It was one of the first things that Welsh Nomad told me about when I arrived at her place.  A religous group that is freindly and open and seems to share similar beliefs.  I had read all I could about them on the web, I got a contact that wrote to me and told me more about the life and they also sent a bunch of literature to my house.  I am extremely curious to know more about them and they seemed like the sort that I would be able to socialize with and perhaps keep the Feast with.  They are so close to the trail as well.  I just don't want to keep the Feast alone.  Andover was our next stop.  I decided to try to make some arrangements with the 12 Tribes from there.  I told Skittles about this too. If it worked out with them I would stay near the trail and hopefully be able to meet up with Skittles after the Feast. 
 
We all slept on top of Blue Mountain, another beautiful night and from there things just seemed to fall into place.  To begin with, we headed on towards Andover.  There's actually 3 roads that will get you off the trail and to the town.  The first one we crossed would take out 3 major climbs and save you a mile of walking besides.  Jacob saw this as the best route to take, Skittles and I on the other hand wanted to stay to the AT, the trail has much to offer.  So, Jacob headed in to town to meet us at The Cabin in the evening.  That Monday I got to see EVERYBODY.  It was such an awesome day, there was nearly 20 northbounders that we ran into and so many of them I knew.  The highlight was seeing Coyote and Sunshine.  Coyote is so cool.  And the wierd thing is that Sunshine was friends with Half Full from back home, Skittles hiked with Half Full and I was her hiking partner.  We all had this connection.  We all miss you Half Full!  I had been coming across lots of hikers that I had met down south.  I had also learned that I had missed a bunch just because I didn't recognize them.  So I also began asking every hiker thier trail name.  The last hiker I ran into before Andover was Pacemaker.  I asked him about Kip for you Welsh, he said that Kip was 2 days behind him.  That's all he said. 
 
The day went incredibly slow, the climbs were straight up and straight down and in between we were talking to people for 10 min at a time, Skittles and I finally arrived at the road around 6:30.  It was a silent road with the echo of crickets chirping all around.  "This doesn't look good,"  we said to each other, and we sat down to wait for some sort of vehicle.  There wasn't one for nearly 10 min. but it stopped and the couple drove us right to the door of the cabin. 
 
The cabin was surreal, we unloaded our packs and just as we dropped them there was Bear coming to give us a big hug, then he grabbed my hand, Bramble took Skittles' and they led us around back and up some stairs, "Hurry now, you're going to be late."  The sliding door was opened to a long table full of hikers, there were balloons and streamers hanging all around the room and everyone cheered and clapped thier hands when Bear announced our arrival.  It was like I had stepped into a surprise party just for us.  We had actually interupted a jam session.  There was a hiker on keyboard, Chef, and Alabama on guitar and vocals, trading off with Ski Bum.  And Gordy was there!!!!  I love Gordy!  All that remained of the meal was spaghetti sauce but Bear went to the fridge and pulled out leftover buscuits.  It wasn't a whole lot but it was good.  Besides, it didn't matter because we filled up on the brownies and Cookies n' Cream ice cream.  All you could eat!  The only thing we couldn't figure out was that there was no sign of Jacob.  Skittles had seen his pack though. 
 
The Cabin is legendary.  I met Honey and Bear at Trail Days in Damascus.  They had already heard of me and my art and had told me to come up to thier place and trade with it.  I remembered this but I wasn't sure if Bear would so I set to work that night and did 2 illustrations of the cabin. It took me all night.  Bear got up at 3:00 to start preparing for breakfast.  I helped a little and the moment of quiet allowed us to talk business.  It was amazing.  I said I was hoping for 3 nights, 1 slack and breakfasts and suppers and I could illustrate whatever he wanted.  He said no problem, then gave me $50 for the 2 drawings I had just done.  Great!  That meant that he expected more paintings or he would give me the cash for the paintings I did and I would pay him with that once I left.  I don't like to see money leave my hands though.
 
We finally found out what had happened to Jacob, Jacob made Bear uncomfortable so he had paid for him to stay a night at another hostel.  Funny.  I can understand though.  Bear is this amazing vibrant outgoing guy. So fun, so enthusiastic and he's always looking out for people.  He just wouldn't be able to comprehend Jacob's silence.  But the thing is, if we had all 3 arrived at the same time he wouldn't have been able to do that.  Bear later told us that he would have turned all 3 of us away.  He was extremely full already.   The next morning we did an easy 10 mile slack, we ran into Jacob at the trailhead.  He had gotten a shuttle to the spot and was about to head out looking for us.  We were able to tell him our plans.  See, another feast day was coming up, another required zero day.  Jacob keeps these days as well.  So he decided he would hitch to Gorham and meet us there since that is where Skittles and I would be heading anyways.  I think it was good for Jacob.  I don't see how he can enjoy hiking.  Our slackpack was awesome.  I don't know what it was but I flew.  I could just run up the hills and leave Skittles.  It was bizarre actually because I haven't been able to repeat that surge of energy.  It was a beautiful amazing day and by now I knew I didn't want hiking to end.  We would be in Gorham by Sunday, that was 4 days away.  I had more hiking to do and The Cabin is the reason to continue.  Wonderful people, wonderul experiance.  I saw Regular Brian as well, I hiked with him just before I got off the trail. It was great to see him.  Tues night was another great social time.  I met Gaia, she knows Thai Massage and taught me some new stuff.  I worked on another illustration but got distracted and socialized instead. 
 
Wed. was Feast of Trumpets.  I was awake for another fantastic breakfast.  Breakfast is a standard of bacon, potatoes, create your own omelet, blueberry pancake, biscuits, gravy, orange juice, and coffee. And it's all as much as you can eat.  The first morning I had 2 biscuits, 2 eggs, 2 pancakes, potatoes, and numerous cups of coffee. I had lkowed down after that.  Wed.  the crowd left and there were only 4 hikers around.  I spent the entire day on the phone.  I finally called 12 Tribes and had an amazing conversation with them.  I had so many questions and so much to talk about, they were so patient and friendly.  The number I called was the only number I had, it was to thier restaraunt.  So I had to get off the phone when the lunch rush came in.  I called home as well and then I called 12 Tribes again.  I got up the courage to ask about visiting for the Feast.  Could I come and stay with them for a time? To keep the feast and fellowship with people who are also seeking to do God's will?  But I didn't have the money and told them that.  I was hoping to just be a temporary member of thier community.  Kesher, the one I was talking to, accepted immediately, almost before I could get my whole question out.  I could not believe how welcome they made me feel.  I can't really describe it, it's almost like going to visit a relative, like they were surprised I even brought up the word money.  "Just come!"  Rutland is a few hours away but Kesher told me of a community 25 miles from Gorham.  All I would have to do is get there and they would most likely have someone headed to Rutland soon.  Awesome.  Not only that but Skittles took a look at his written out itinerary and he had himself arriving in Rutland on the 7th, the Feast ends on the 6th.  Just like that. 
 
Guess what else fell into place?  Guess what I found in the hiker box,  glasses.  Glasses that are my perscription, I think they're slightly weeker but they don't strain my eyes at all and they fit my face perfectly.  They're that bookish style or whatever, dark frames.  And why is this SO great?  Because I've left out a few other things about my travels.  Fishing was bad and could easily be depressing and there are a few stories to make it worse and I really didn't feel like sharing at the time, such as losing my glasses overboard.  My wonderful, expensive glasses that Mom was so kind enough to buy for me!  So, I've been hiking without up until Andover and to have these is just amazing, wait till you see, you'll understand.  Free glasses, just like that.  I've been telling everyone the amazing story.  How I lost my glasses is a stupid story and I don't wish to share that.  It does involve someone's ear getting bit, though.  I guess that's sort of interesting. 
 
So, Wed, night I stayed up all night again and worked on the last of the illustrations.  I finished 3.  I was once again up for breakfast with only about an hour of sleep but it was so wonderful to hear people talking about my work.  Bear has big plans.  He wants to get pictures published and to sell prints.  It's really neat to see someone so excited about my work.  I had a great moment of indulgence.  I layed my pictures out after breakfast and the hikers got to see them.  I was busy getting ready to head out on the trail but I would stop near the doorway to eavesdrop and listen to the people talking about my art. What an ego booster.  It did give me some ideas though, someone said I should work for a newspaper.  Hmmm. . . Foley has a local paper.  I might know where I'll be applying when I get back home.  In the end Bear let me keep the $50 and he kept the 5 paintings and called it even. I couldn't believe it.  Life was complete.  I had my plans till Thanksgiving lined up, a hiking partner, a ride home, I had new glasses, I had money in my pocket, art traded, a hike ahead of me, everything was wonderful and perfect.  Things just keep getting better, we met up with Dude again, right away too.  He's a south bounder.  I was glad Skittles got to meet him.  He's so fun.  The shelter we wanted to stay at was a rare one that charges.  It was supposed to rain though so we wanted to be covered.  I was in a wonderful mood though.  I could take on the world!  I could prevent us from having to pay for the shelter as well.  So as soon as we arrived I set about to painting the shelter and the scenery around it.  I found the caretaker reading on her tent platform, told her my story and then asked if she would be willing to trade the picture to pay for our little hiking group, a $24 value.  "Ah. . " she said, "you got me at my sentimental moment, I have to leave  this place on Sun.  and I really don't want to,"  And she traded!  That was so fun!  To come down to the shelter with another page missing from my journal and being able to say to the guys, "It's all taken care of, none of us have to pay!"  They were pretty happy about that.  $8 for a shelter!  Bah. 
 
Fri was "the big day", or, that's what I have in my journal.  Mahousic Notch, the infamous part of the trail.  1 mile of rock scrambles and crazy little tunnels to go through. Bah.  It was great,  the worst part was the climb down to it.  Crazy steep.  Mahousic Notch wasn't steep, it was just a boulder field.  We made it through in an hour and a half, took lots of pictures, had a great time.  Luckily it was a basic short day.  We were zeroing at another shelter.  Now that Skittles knows that we will be hiking together he has had to sort of make arrangements for the holy days.  So far it has been pretty easy.  Like, he realised that if he hung out and took it easy he would be in Gorham on Mon when the Vikings played.  A bizarre thing though was that Jacob was at the shelter as well.  Basically he had hitched to Gorham, kept Trumpets, and then walked 17 miles back up the trail to meet us.  I don't get it, but there he was. 
 
Sat it rained nearly all day, Dude decided to zero as well and  a lot of the people left the shelter late.  Skittles and i did crossword puzzles. We are terrible for that. One night we did one with our headlamps on.  Silly.  I also spent the day telling Skittles about the story.  This is the story that got me into illustrating, the one that Charity and I are always illustrating, the farfetched mushy fairytale where all my childhood girlfriends and I are sisters.  Whatever, it was fun to remanisce.
 
Sun everything cleared up and was beautiful.  Sun. was a monumental day in a lot of ways.  First, we crossed the Maine/ New Hampshire border, that was 280 miles.  In 3.5 miles later I crossed my 1000 mile mark.  Skittles made me my own little twig sign which I walked right over.  And then we got to run into a bunch of trail friends again.  So many people, lots of talking and getting nowhere.  The best was as I stopped and met Gorbachav (how do you spell that?) and London and as I stood and politely talked to them I heard other people down the trail.  I was feeling a bit bummed because I had been informed earlier that day that Mr. T had somehow slipped passed and I had missed her.  Well, I heard a shriek from down below, someone had been talking to Skittles.  Mr. T?  That had to be Mr. T.  I yelled an "excuse me" to the other two hikers and ran down the trail to find Mr. T running up to me.  It was so cool!  Mr. T!  We stood and talked forever.  I miss her so much.  It was funny later to hear Skittles' version.  He said he was down asking hikers thier trail names and stuff when he found himself talking to Mr. T and Flint. "Oh, I know someone who is going to be happy to see you!" He said.
"Who?"
"Roadster"
"Roadster?!  Where is she?" 
"Right back there," he said.  Then she threw up her hands screaming and ran up the hill leaving Skittles all by himself.  Well, he was standing with Flint.  Flint, I like him, he's funny, that sort of sarcastic funny like he's hoping someone will beat him up.  "You don't have to feel like mince meat," said Flint, "I'll talk to you."  So they did but not as long as Mr. T and I talked.  We pretty much had to be drug apart.  I'll have to e-mail and say hi.  I think she was getting these e-amils, I don't know. 
 
Dude left us in the dust, it was back to the original group of 3.  We took a retro blaze.  That's what Skittles and I have decided to call it.  There arr blue blazes that were once the AT and if we don't agree with the updated version we take the old one.  That was the case to get into Gorham.  See, the new trail is 2 miles longer and drops you 3 miles out of town, or maybe it's the same length, I don't remember.  All I know is that we took a differant route, had to night hike and the trail ended at a closed off dam.  No way to cross the river.  Local teens out for a night cruise ended up helping us out.  I thought of Casey and his friends and missed him.  We got to our destination.  Skittles paid for my night's stay since I really didn't have the time to negotiate a painting and this was one of those pay in advance sort of places.  Thankyou, Skittles.  The lady at the desk told us that our friend was looking for us and that he had just gone to Burger King.  She did some phone calling and was able to interupt Dude as he ate so that we could have him bring us Burger King to go.  It was great.  He bought me 2 cheeseburgers as a thankyou for not having to pay that night at the shelter, score. 
 
So, now I am in Gorham and it is pretty much over for hiking.  I was planning on that but we found out from NOBOs about the slackpacking that is possible out of Gorham.  I have actually gotten to hike 35 miles of the Whites now, that's almost half.  Awesome.  Another really cool thing is that I had to try to find a place to trade for art.  I tried the next day at the Hiker's Paradise but that was a no-go.  So I had to walk across town to the Barn.  As I walked I was giddy and excited, everything was wonderful and I was about to go out and hope to earn a place to stay.  I prayed about it as I went, asking to be taken care of.  I'm His sparrow, then I laughed because His sparrow is promised a barn to sleep in, what a coincedance with the hiker hostel being called The Barn, it had to be a sign.  When I got to the post office I ran into Baltimore Jack again.  He told me that the owner of the Barn wouldn't be up for a trade.  He was too focused on money, not only that but he had gone out for the day.  I walked away from the post office a little disappointed but then I thought, hey, Baltimore Jack isn't God, what does he know?  So I continued right on my way.  I came to a street corner where a landscaper was trying to hang a sign by himself and wasn't being very successful, you know, like those real estate signs.  I came over and offered to help.   He started to talk to me, asked if I was a hiker, he was really nice and friendly and I told him all about my plan to find the barn and hope to trade with a picture.  He got all interested asking about rates and size, I finally took a look at the sign and I saw that it was a bed and breakfast.  Then I was excited.  Here, it turned out to be the Barn and this was the owner.  He agreed to 2 nights stay with hardly even seeing my other art.  I got right to work and in the following days we did our slackpacking. 
 
Yesterday I did my last miles for awhile.  14.  I summited Mt. Washington and then Skittles and I went our seperate ways.  He'll be continueing through the Whites, hopefully he'll meet up with Dude, and I hiked out to the lean-to nearest town.  It's 2 miles from the road.  From there I will be going to Lancaster, 25 m. away where there is another 12 Tribes community and I've been told I would be able to find a ride to Rutland from there.  Awesome.  I also see that tomorrow night a church is putting on a harvest feast.  I think I'll go and be a part of that.  I'm hoping there won't be a fee but I'm sure there is.  The next time you hear from me I will probably be in Rutland, VT.  So I'll talk to you then.  Have fun.  I need a shower.
 
Love,
Roadster





September 1 - out of the 100 mile wilderness

Just like the subject says, I'm out!  I'm out!  Oh, my goodness!!!  What way to get kicked back into the trail.  I still want to use exclamation points.  Deep breath.  Well, really it wasn't that bad except for the very last half hour before we came into town.  That's why I am a bit flustered and all that.  So, let's start from my last e-mail, same ol', same ol'. 

 
I think the last I wrote I told you I was headed out to pick up Welsh Nomad and all that.  We did that.  Camped out.  Then as a welcome back sort of kick in the butt it rained the entire day on Sat.  A cold miserable lonely rain.  I pretty much sheltered myself outdoors and watched the bleak sky wondering why I wasn't at home in Minnesota.  Stupid raind, stupid trail.  We went to a canoe show.  Some really cool wood canoes.   A sort of sidetrack from the coming hike up Katahdin the following day. 
 
Being back on the trail was just lonely. There was me and there was Jacob.  Jacob had no clue what he was getting into and he's not one for conversation.  I wasn't either.  I wanted to mope and mope I did.  Woe is me and the trail, woe is me and no money, the weather, central heating.  I didn't even have a sleeping bag.  How was I going to survive 100 miles without civilization?  Mom wasn't a big help on the phone, being all mom-worried and stuff.  But the sun set and we slept and when morning came it was a new day.  A bright, sunny, wonderful new day.  Up Katahdin we went.  Is it like 4,000 ft or something?  The warnings just about Katahdin weren't encouraging either, all about high winds and hypothermia.  I was going to die on the first 5 miles of my trip back!  Well, I didn't.  I didn't even fall.  I did forget my bent walking stick in Pennsylvania though.  The hike up Katahdin wasn't as bad as I thought.  Well, it's about what I thought.  It was just another mountain.  What was wonderful though was that the weather was absolutely perfect.  No clouds, slight breeze, we could see for miles.  I sat up there a good while moping again that this wasn't my finish.  To rub it in I saw a thru-hiker making his last steps.  It was so neat to see him approaching, you knew he was a thru-hiker, all tattered and grungy with a beard and wirey and he was tearing up those last steps like he had just stepped off a sidewalk and was trotting up to a building entrance.  It was quite emotional watching him hold onto that sign and kneel at that finish line for a few minutes.  You sort of had to ignore the 20 other tourists with thier fannypacks and L.L. Bean gear munching on sandwhiches and looking on at this odd fellow.  It was neat though because the Katahdin sign has the mileage printed right on it where this guy had just walked from, Georgia. 2,174 miles.
 
Yadda, yadda, we got to talking and guess where this thru-hiker is from. . . MINNESOTA.  Of all the places, on top of a mountain in Maine.  New Ulm.  Hey, Welsh, it was Shepherd.  I told him that I always run into Minnasotans in the most random places.  Kathmandu would be another example.  Anyways, he said I needed to go back down the mountain with him and find him the eldery couple that was heading back to MN.  He needed a ride.  Well, Jacob and I descended and headed on our way.  We blue blazed it out of the park so that we could get into the free camping areas.  It was $8 to sleep in a shelter!  Bah! 
 
Shepherd told me that Abol Bridge campground was free to hikers.  Cool.  We arrived after dark.  Everthing was closed up and so we made friends with a couple that had a fire, cooked our meal and went to bed.  In the morning I found out that I had completely misunderstood Shepherd.  Of course a campground wouldn't be free.  This was a private campground.  I felt like a complete idiot and a sneak.  The lady was really nice though, as nice as someone can be when they discover squatters on thier land.  She understood that we were tight on money and let us go.  I did save her address though.  Oneday I hope to repay her.  It was the same place that I had camped with Welsh Nomad.  So, we put in 14 miles for our fisrt day back on the trail.
 
Next morning, Day 1 of the Wilderness.  We get to the first sign and Jacob points to the farthest mileage, mount something or other- 25.1 miles.  "We should aim for there,"  Ha.  How cute is that.  Newbies are funny.  So we hiked on out.  I really wish I knew what Jacob's pack weighs.  He wiehed it today now that it's empty of food and he didn't have his sleeping gear with it.  It was 50 lbs.  I think the scale is off.  I think he was close to 60 lbs. though.  Anyways, the first thing he does is lose a pin.  NOT a minor thing.  This is the pin that holds his shoulder strap to the frame of the backpack so he was walking lopsided most of the day.  This was not the first incident though, Sat. night before even hiking Katahdin Jacob spilled his entire alcohol supply into his backpack.  I had hoped he would figure out before something like that happened that a sqeeze top on a bottle was not going to be a realiable seal.  I guess he didn't.  We were now going to hope to make it on my supply.  Also, I found out that his hip belt is brokern and it's too short for his frame anyways.  Jacob is going to be in major pain soon.  I was not in a hiking mood.  I pouted through the first day, stopping for any excuse, take off a layer, retyie shoes, stone in my boot, hiking slow.  We did another 15 miles though so I didn't feel bad.  Another thing that helped to cheer me up was that I saw another SOBO in the register.  Skittles.  I don't personally know Skittles but it happens that he had hiked with my former partner Half Full for a few days.  Cool.  And he was only a day ahead, I might catch up to him. 
 
Day 2 I woke to visit a bit with some other hikers.  Not very encouraging, all they were talking about was how close they were.  I was trying to make ammends for our late night arrival and scuttling about.  I also found out that the quiet guy in the corner had been Skittles!  Aha!  Isn't that so cool, Half Full?? The days were absolutely beautiful.  So much for hypothermia warnings and all that.  I was getting into the swing of things a bit.  I actually led.  Jacob on the other hand was sacked.  Big miles, heavy stuff, bad pack.  The miles went by good and fast.  That night when we were searching for our campsite we came across Skittles all set up in his tent.  We all talked and visited for awhile, and guess where Skittles is from, NEW ULM.  Not only that but the day that Shepher had needed a ride back to NEW ULM Skittles parents had just dropped him off and were driving back to NEW ULM.  Shepherd missed the perfect coincedence by only a couple hours!  We talked about that, set up camp and we've all 3 been hiking together ever since.
 
One thing that has been encouraging is that I have actually run into a few people that I was hiking with earlier.  First, it was Oxymoron and Mainedish that I had last seen in the Smokies.  They only had 3 days before they were fininshed.  Oneday we were sitting having a rest, a hiker walked by.  He didn't look familiar but I took a second look just to double check, he paused and did the same thing.  "Rachael?" "Bandicoot?"  Ha!  We met back at Neil's Gap and saw each other in Damascus and here he was.  Two days from fininshing.  It was so cool to see him.  After that it has been Nana K and Mosey.  I'm so glad to see they are still going at it and Nana K helped out so much.  She has an external frame backpack and had replacement pins for it and she gave her last one to Jacob.  That was greatly appreciated. 
 
Wed.  was sort of a stop into civilization.  It's a cabin across the lake that you can resupply, have your packages sent to, stay, whatever.  The nice thing was that Welsh Nomad had sent a mail drop to herself there but now that she wasn't going to be hiking there was an unclaimed package.  She said I could pick it up, save carrying 10 days worth of food.  The only thing is that it was $5 to pick up a package.  Then I found out it was $10 if you didn't actually spend a night there. Ouch.  Well, I decided to attempt my artistic skills for a trade.  I could at least trade to have a package handed over to me.  Guess I was wrong.  Sheesh.  No need to go into details but it doesn't take a whole lot of intuition to realize someone isn't on the same sort of wave length as you.  I decided to write it off as northern gruffness but I was pretty peeved about the whole thing.  "You don't have the money?  It's $15.  We have to drive 2 hrs to town to pick up the mail. . . blah, blah,blah."  $15??!  Sheesh.  This was as the wife was unloading the SUV of all the groceries, supplies and 3 other mail drops she had just picked up in town.  Skittles quietly offered to pay for the drop if I really needed it but by then my attitude was turning pretty sour towards the people anyways.  I don't want them to have 15 bucks for a box of food, my money or Skittle's.  They can keep the gorp and rice, I'll keep all my paintings and when I am a famous aritst I'll be sure to let them remember how they passed up an original watercolor from moi for a lousy box of food which would have been greatly appretciated 2 days later in the wilderness when I ran out of my supply.  That was my first time on this trail that someone hasn't wanted to trade for my art.  I will say though that I was having an off day and I didn't produce the greatest work.  But still.  All right, I guess I didn't get over it completely, lets move on.
 
About half an hour after returning to the trail I remembered that that was the spot that I was supposed to send a postcard to Mom and tell her I had survived thus far.  I love the trail connection because I simply hiked on until we came across a northbound couple who would be staying at Whitehouse Landing that night and handed the postcard to them.  Mom says she got it too. 
 
The hiking began to get tougher and then we stopped for Sabbath at a lean-to that had a big bag of food some inexperianced hiker had finally gotten sick of and dumped.  I was serious when I say I ran out of food.  It wasn't like I had totally relied on that package.  I had also seen that Jacob had packed way too much food.  Once we split that up we were able to eek by for the last few days. 
 
With the beautiful weather Maine was beautiful and easy.  We realised this Mon. when we woke to wet ground.  There had been a raging thunderstorm the previous night.  And speaking of night,  I have not been sleeping on the trail and every night I have had bizarre dreams with about every friend I can think of.  Wierd.  So, Sun was terrifying.  Sloping rocks like slides on top of mountains dropping straight down and I mean straight down and then far below you you see a white blaze and realize that the sheer drop is the trail and you are expected to climb down using the wet angled rocks and wet tree roots.  It was SLOW going.  I only fell numerous times instead of constantly.  I concentrated my landings on one knee.  You know, have a focused pain spot.  How do they think this is a trail?  How could you do this in the rain?  We found out the next day that you do it about the same.  It rained a lot.  I don't really know how to describe the terrain.  I really want to make it sound scary.  Little rock niches, I don't know.  One little nose thumbing though, I am making my way across this stuff,  we are on a rare flat spot and a group of northbounders come along and bringing up the rear is this old guy.  I mean old, like small shrunken and withered, like his wheel chair should be somewhere in the vicinity and he has on these huge thick glasses, whispy white hair, he's hunched over and his striding along the top of this rocky mountain.  I'm shaking in my boots anticipating the climb down that he has just climbed up.  Can't I have some substantally based fear? 
 
Mon. was good timing, we arrived at the lean-to trail just as the monsoon hit us so we were dripping when we ducked under the shelter but my boots were still dry.  There was about 5 other hikers huddled in as well.  We all stayed like that till the rain died down and people went to set up tents.  That's one thing that has been really neat about the 100 miles.  the experiance is so varied.  People that were finishing on Katahdin talked about waist deep river crossings, paths that were streams, boots that were wet for the entire 2 weeks, and all that.  We on the other hand have strolled along.  Every stream we have rock hopped and the one river crossing was this shallow little thing, not even over my knees.  I walked it barefoot.  And then Mon. night we were absolutely dumped on.  Lightening, thunder, the works.  We had 3 stream crossings and 15 miles to cover on Tues. We got up Tues morning to a whole new wilderness.  Our first srteam crossing was in about 4 miles and for about 1 mile we got to follow this "stream" and look on what we would be willfully walking into.  It was a raging white and muddy foaming torrent.  No signs of rocks to scramble onto, just out and out  crazy river rafting sort of rapids.   And where were we supposed to cross this?  According to Skittle's map this was a knee deep river.  It never even said anything about it being a difficult crossing at high water like the following rivers warned.  We finally came to a bank and across the roaring churning we could see the loathsome white blaze.  Right.  Well, the AT must know which place is the best to cross.  Time to get our boots wet.  I stepped in, or down and I was immediately over my waist, I wasn't even into the current yet, I wasn't even away from the shore!  We finally had the excitement.  We took our packs off and started moving along up and down the shore trying to find a place to cross.  In a bit there were hikers on the other side also trying to cross.  No talking was done unless you were within 5 ft of someone, that was shouting distance.  Skittles found the way across.  Hero of the day.  A spot were the water was to a man's mid-thigh.  Where is the water going to be on me?!  Not only do you have to simply get across but you have your 40 lb pack as well.  Mine was probably at 30 lbs.  Good.  I said my prayer and started the slow fight across, and fight it was.  Every single step the water pulled and dragged.  I could hardly stab through it with my hiking stick to get it to wedge in the bottom.  This was about 5 ft from shore.  I was already wavering, and imagining my washing-machine-style death.  Do I have to tell you that I made it?  I did.  Didn't get swept down stream or anything.  Adrenaline is a kick.  We were ready to skip the other streams by then.  The road into town was mostly a knee deep river that we walked through.  I think we walked maybe 4 or 5 miles.  No biggy.  Sun. we had done a little extra 5 mile loop.  An EXTRA 5 miles?  I kept thinking to myself.  It's 5 m. from my house to Gilman and I have never walked that.  What happens to hikers' brains? Well, about 5 m. is what we hiked  before we got onto a real road and got a ride into town.  The shop keeper tells us that 3 in. of rain had fallen that evening before and there was no way we would have crossed those other rivers.  Ha.  So I am about to head out.   I am selling at least one painting today as well.  Time to earn my keep.  I have a few towns planned out.  I will try to get the addresses for those if anyone would like to send mail.  I got some awesome e-mails and I really wanted to respond but it's library time limit sort of stuff.  I wanted to mentiont that e-mail was the frist thing I came and did yesterday after our outdoorsy adventures.  I was sitting at the table waiting to use the computer and I could still feel the water on my legs.  It felt if I didn't keep my feet resting on the ground I was going to get washed away.  We talk about having land sickness when you get off the boat on the weekend in Ak but this was very differant feeling. Welsh Nomad,  I meant to tell you a bunch of this stuff in that post card.  I was distracted though when I got evicted from that campsite.  Oh, and you got a message in a register,  Trunks says ,"Thanks for the bed upgrade at the Trail Magic Hostel,"  I think that was at the Rainbow Stream Shelter.  He was about to finish.  All right all.  Addresses.  Let me see if I can get those.  I would love some letters.  I think I'm good for food for awhile so you don't have to think I am looking for hand outs.  I just added nearly 20 lbs to my pack.  That's food and a heavy sleeping bag.  Crap.  Oh well, I guess I need the workout after sitting on a fishing boat for 2 months.  Talk to you later. 
 
Love,
Roadster





August 19 - hittin' the trail

Well, I am sitting here att Welsh Nomad's house.  We have an early day tomorrow. 5 am wake up call.  Back to the wilderness, can you belive it?  I'm finally getting excited, I am also feeling fat.  I think I've really begun to gain back some wieght.  Not like I was caring since I knew I would be hiking and losing wieght again but what am I going to do when I'm off the trail?  Anyways, I did some calculations and trying to be optimistic.  It looks like if I work hard and hike decently and consistantly I will get another 700 miles in before Thanksgiving which will leave me with 600 miles to go! Man!  Well, those 600 miles are supposed to be the easy miles.  The thing is that IF I could get back to them I could finish the trail this year.  Hey, they say if you hike the trail within a calendar year it's a thru-hike.  Maybe I could come back in. . . Feb.?  Nah.  Well, I have a few months to figure out what my priorities are.  Does it really matter that I hike the whole trail?  My thing is not really.  All I really care about is to be able to SAY that: "yep, I hiked the AT."  Not just "on"  the AT but "THE" AT.  That's what those 600 miles mean.  Well, that's all later, with my pace I might not even get that far.  I just don't have motivation I guess to push.  I hear thru-hikers talk though about how they didn't really see and enjoy the trail.  I don't even consider not enjoying it.  I guess that's my problem, I'm more concerned with having fun and observing things than making time.  Oh well, I can live with that. 

 
All right, enough yabbering.  These are the thoughts running through my head, that and how it's time I did some personal growing.  That's my own thing though.  Lot's to work on, just the sort of thing for a long hike.  I had a great time traveling.  I hitched from Homer.  It WAS going to be no big deal because I thought I had Jacob to go with me but he left without a word the day before.  He's not much for communicating.  I don't get him at all.  Anyways, I started out on my own.  One ride was someone I know, the next took me about 10 miles but he was going to Anchorage and just needed to run a couple errands first.  I was arranging my pack along the road when another ride stopped and it was a guy driving along picking up hitchikers, he had another hith hiker in the car already and when he dropped us off I suddenly had a hiking partner, he was also headed to Anchorage.  He wasn't too thrilled about pairing up but I told him of this other ride that was supposed to be coming along shortly so he agreed to stick around for about 45 min.  If this ride didn't come and we didn't get a ride together we would split up.  Well, a pick-up with a US flag and eagle decal covering the back window stopped for us.  He was heading to Anchorage as well and as we climbed in that other possible ride drove on by and gave us a honk. 
 
Brad was our driver and he was great fun.  Partway through the trip I finally decided that he reminded me of Chuck Norris in a very small way.  He just started up a charter boat business and offered me a job as deckhand when he heard about our crummy year.  Hmm.  Deckhand.  That's $100 a day plus tips and sometimes tips can equal the pay.  Hmmhmmhmm.  Well, next year is supposed to be a good season.  It was so much fun.  You know how some people are just really fun and easy to talk to?  That's how Joey and Brad were.  Once we arrived in Anchorage we still had about 7 hrs before our flights so Joey and I took the bus downtown and just hung out.  This meant that I missed out on stopping in at Old Navy and Value Village but we still had fun looking at outdoor stores and stuff.  From there flying had no hitches, oh, except I left my multi-tool in my carry-on and had to run around and get that mailed home then return through the security line and get searched again.  My main complaints were that they make you take off your shoes, mine reek, and I have metal bangles that don't come off so I have to get frisked by the metal-detector-wand, so I had to do that twice.  Darn.  Jacob and I were on strange flights.  I flew from Anchorage to Seattle where I got on a plane that stopped in Pheonix before continueing on to Philadelphia.  Jacob boarded my plane in Pheonix and we continued on together to our destination:  Philadelphia.  Andrew found us right away, I got to talk to Welsh Nomad and tomorrow we head up to Maine to pick her up.  Unfortunately, she twisted her knee and won't be hiking till this fall.  Bummer.  It'll be Me and Jacob through the 100 mile wilderness.  He has loaded himself up too.  I think his pack is at about 55 lbs.  He was going to bring a sword too but they confiscated that at the airport.  Hey, I was pretty good at guessing his pack weight, when I lifted it I said 62 lbs.  It probably would have been with that sword. 
 
So, I have reorganized my pack, it is now my hiking pack.  Things are in pockets, plastice bags, wrapped, loaded, compressed.  I am ready for those streams.  All I have heard about is flooded streams up to a tall man's chest.  All I'm hoping for is that in the week it takes me to get to them they will go down in that time.  We'll see.  I have been heavily advised to have a hiking partner.  It looks like Jacob and I will be getting to know each other very well, he's a Sabbath keeper as well.  Interesting, the bummer is that I am not very excited about the arrangement and Jacob knows that too.  Well, let's see what happens.  Talk to you all later.
 
Love,
Roadster (back too that)