I'VE MADE IT TO NEW HAMPSHIRE!!!

It's Labor Day, and I'm taking the day off.  I've come 1,731 miles from Springer Mountain in Georgia, and I'm about 442 miles from Mt. Katahdin in Maine.

I just want to mention some of the guys from Texas that I've been hiking with lately.   Bodhi from Greenville, Tx, Dred from Austin, Tx, and Rubberband Man from Corpus Christi, Tx.

When we finish the Trail, which we figure to be around the 5th or 6th of October, we are going to have a reunion of sorts in Hanover, NH (where I am today).  It is called "The Gathering" and it's a party for the Class of 2003 thru-hikers, sponsored by the ALDHA..  It will be October 10, 11, and 12.   I think that stands for the Appalachian Long Distance Hiker's Association.  Baltimore Jack will be a speaker.  Miss Janet is coming from Erwin, Tn.   After the "Gathering", I will ride back to Erwin, Tn. with her where my Mom and Pooh Bear will pick me up.

When we get to the last 100 miles at Monson, Maine, we will stop, camp, and wait for as many of our hiker friends as possible.  The last 100 miles is called the "100 Mile Wilderness".  Towns are far away from the trail, and each hiker is supposed to carry enough food to last for seven days, until Mt. Katahdin.  There are signs that warn the unprepared hiker to stay away.  However, if you have survived this far, you will not be intimidated.

Since we hike "loosely" - that is, some get a day or two behind and some get a day or two ahead - we are going to wait up and get as many of us that have traveled together for the last few months into one big group and all finish together.  Maybe we will have twenty of us all together.  If anyone out there has heard from Beekeeper or Hatteras, please let me know.  Also, I would like to know the whereabouts of Sleeping Beauty, Bam Bam, Flasher, and Lady Bug from my first group - Crazy Eight.

If Tripod or Radio Shack is checking in on my Website, please leave me a message on my guestbook.  I would like to know if you can also come to the Gathering.  It would be the greatest thing for ya'll to be there.   Maybe Tinman can be there.   You can tell I'm getting pretty excited about it.

Monday - You remember last week that I hiked a couple of days with Bearclaw, who was section hiking.  He is a student at Dartmouth College that is located here in Hanover.  He is also a member of the Sigma Nu Fraternity at Dartmouth and lives at the Frat House on campus.  He told me to go to the Frat House and tell them that he sent me and Graymatter; and that we could stay in the Frat House while we were in Hanover.
We hiked 17 miles today and got here late afternoon.
 
That was a good thing, not only because the guys in the House were so hospitable but because a thru-hiker named Fox had gotten into a fight with a college student and they were not allowing any hikers to stay on campus.  This happened before in 2001, and they were just beginning to accommodate hikers again.  I've heard that Jack is looking for Fox along with a bunch of other hikers.  He had better get way on down the trail if he knows what's good for him.              

Anyway, I looked all over town for Greenman and Feral, and there was no sign of them.   Greenman had left me a note in a couple of the Shelters that he would be here, waiting for me.  In small towns like this, you can leave a note posted on the bulletin board at the Post Office; or you can write a note, put it in a baggy (to keep it from getting wet), and thumbtack it on light poles or whatever poles you can find on the streets.  Or good old word of mouth works well, too.  You can almost always find a hiker that has news of someone you are trying to find.  But not today.

He also had said he would go to Robinson Hall on campus and leave a note for me there.
No note - no word - no Greenman - so, you are really in the dog house with me!  I lost him  back in North Adams, Mass., which was 146 miles ago.

I went to the Five Olde Bar, which I knew from Jack was a favorite hiker and local hangout.  They had not seen Greenman, but Jack had been there on Saturday and left word for me that he was leaving out on Sunday and would watch for me on the trail.

The Frat House is really nice.  All Frat houses and Sorority Houses are on the same street.  There is a huge, nice basement where they hold parties and dances, and the Frat guys live on the first floor.  On the second floor is a big room with a kitchen and a great soda fountain with Coke, Dr. Pepper, Pepsi, and Orange Crush.  There is a big TV and couches and chairs.  We stayed in the basement in our sleeping bags.

I hope when you travel through here on the Trail, the campus is open to hikers because the only other places to stay are the hotels, which are very expensive - $70 - $100.   Since the Trail passes through town, and it is a wonderful little town where you would like to spend a day and resupply and do your laundry, you would have to be able to stay on campus because as far as I could find out, there is no place to tent.  

Tuesday - One of the Frat guys, Egon, slackpacked us today - 17.6 miles up to Lyme Center.   He also went by the Post Office in Lyme Center and picked up the box my Mom had sent me.  Boy, was I glad to see this box!!!  It contained my winter sleeping bag, my thermals, my winter gloves and glove liners, my favorite long sleeved black fleece shirt, thick winter sox, ski caps for both me and Bohdi, my other pair of hiking shoes that I am giving to Greenman, another stake for my tent, and other items Mom thought I needed (such as a note saying "You are my sunshine").  She used to sing this to me when I was little.

Guess who I ran into while slackpacking - Greenman and Feral.  They have been hiking with a guy named Spitz.  So, the gang's all here once again.

I think I forgot to tell you last week that I fell again - tripped on a sharp rock and cut my right ankle open.  And my arches are hurting pretty bad and also the big toe on my left foot.   I really think I have done pretty well in the accident and sickness department.   Other than being sick with a virus for about a week in Erwin, Tn., and the usual blisters and sore feet, and the knee problems I had early on in Georgia, and now this cut right ankle, I consider myself very fortunate.  I don't think anyone ever hikes this far in such rugged country without a little (or lot) of pain, blisters, and feet problem.  Comes with the territory.   And you can always do as Jack does, take a lot of "VITAMIN I".  He takes Vitamin I for everything.   I think he probably carries around two big bottles of it.  If you are thinking "I've never heard of Vitamin I", well, it is nothing more than good old Ibuprofen. 

I started this trip back in Georgia with two pair of shoes - an expensive pair of Montrails that Mom gave me for Christmas (about $115) and a pair of Nevados that I picked up at the Bass Pro Shop in Dallas for $29.00 (they were on sale - originally $39.00).   After about a month, the expensive pair was too hot and too heavy so I sent them home and continued on with the $29 pair.  They were great shoes, especially for summer hiking and were really light on my feet, and lasted from Neel's Gap in Georgia to Waynesboro, Va.  I had duct taped them and glued them until they would glue no more, and I sent them home and told Mom not to throw them away.  I want to hang them in my room, if they don't smell too bad.  Anyway, I wore the tail off of them, even the lining inside the shoes had disappeared.  You could see inside the soles of the shoes.  I have been hiking with the pair I bought in Waynesboro for $84 up to now.    They are a pair of Merrell's and have not lasted as long as I think they should have.  I say this so you can see the wide range of prices out there for hiking shoes.  That $29 pair was as good as the $115 pair.

Well, there is no Outfitters here in Hanover so I got a ride into West Lebanon where the   EMS Outfitters if located.  I bought a new pair of shoes that I really like and a pair of hiking poles.  The White Mountains are coming up and also Mt. Moosilauke, where it would be very dangerous to climb without poles, and also with wornout shoes.  For some reason, Spitz wanted my worn-to-a-nub shoes, so I gave them to him.   This would be my third pair of shoes, if you don't count the shoes I only wore for a month and just gave to Greenman.    Mom was so worried about my shoes that she told me she would pay for a really good pair, and things are very expensive around here.  I did get a great deal on my poles ($60 for the pair), but I had to pay $115 for the shoes that felt the best on my feet and that I felt would serve me best in the White Mountains.  I will get reimbursed by Trek for my poles that snapped in half. 

This close to the finish, everyone helps everyone else as much as they can with equipment, food, clothes, and even money.  If someone gets this close and runs out of money, everybody pitches in to help everyone finish.  Mom sends big boxes of food that I can give out to anyone who needs it.  It could save someone $15 - $20 a week.

The White Mountains have miles of above-treeline travel and almost always have winter weather year round - sleet, snow and ice.  They say it is very dangerous climbing and that each year, carelessness ends in death for someone in the Whites.  Well, it ain't gonna be me!
 
Wednesday -  I got a late start today because I spent some time going through my bounce box, deciding what to keep with me and what to send on ahead.  And also reorganizing my pack with all my winter things.  Greenman, Graymatter, Spitz, and Feral went on ahead    I also packed a box to send home.  I am sending two tee shirts (I buy souvenirs along the way, mostly tee shirts with A.T. emblems), Pooh Bear's pillow, the summer sleeping bag liner that I had been using to sleep in, my emergency blanket, and four little plastic bottles of olive oil.  I have decided to start using butter again, since the weather is
colder.

I only did 5.8 miles, but I went from an elevation of 880 feet to 3,240 feet - a very steep hill.  Spent the night at the Fire Warden's Cabin.  My first night in my winter sleeping bag since Shenandoah National Park, and it felt so good.

Thursday - I really got with it today.  I hiked 20.1 miles to the Hiker's Welcome Hostel, owned in part by a 1994 thru-hiker called Packrat.  It is located at the foot of Mt. Moosilauke.  It has a hot shower, bathroom, and a washer and dryer in a shack out back.  I also caught  up to the gang (Greenman, Feral, Graymatter, Spitz) here, and also a guy called The Natural, who we have hiked with off and on.  He made it last year as far as New Jersey, and this year he is finishing - on to Katahdin.

I'm glad to have caught up because tomorrow we begin the White Mountains.  Because of the ever changing weather and dangerous conditions.  The White Mountains are one of the most impressive sections of the A.T.  I hear that there are magnificent views and miles of above treeline travel.  This late in the year there could be ice, sleet, snow - - really don't know what we will come across, but I am prepared to be extremely careful.

There have been 150 deaths - I guess, since they have been keeping such records - of people being careless in the White Mountains.  Mostly, skiers or hikers who were not prepared and died from hypothermia.  Also, the local trail name for the part of the A.T. that goes through here is Franconia Ridge Trail, so you may hear me refer to parts of the trail by this name but it is still the Whites.

Friday - It's our first day in the Whites.  It is a beautiful day, about 70 degrees.   We are slackpacking from the Hostel at an elevation of about 1,140 feet, going to an elevation of 4,800 feet over Mt. Moosilauke.  Well, the higher we went, the cooler it got.  Everybody but me had brought windbreakers, jackets, or at least wore a long sleeved shirt.  I had to borrow a jacket from Spitz who had on a long sleeved shirt and was kind enough to let me have his jacket.  It was about 50 degrees by the time we got above treeline - I had on shorts and a tee shirt. 

Also, it got very foggy  - almost like cobwebs where you wanted to reach out and push them aside.  I was told by more astute hikers that it was not fog but clouds!   The wind was blowing about 25 - 30 miles per hour.  I noticed one thing as I was hiking behind Feral - he was carrying two cans of beer instead of two bottles of water!

The trek down was the most dangerous I have encountered to date - big flat boulders and rocks down a very steep mountain.  There are some wooden blocks here and there for footing but if it were rainy or snowy, it would be incredibly slick.  Thank goodness it is good weather.  If you come this way, be sure and stay at the Hiker's Welcome Hostel so you can slackpack.  I would certainly not want to hike this Mountain with a big pack.

A man from the Hostel slackpacked us today so he picked us up when we got over the Mountain and took us back to the Hostel.  It is only about six miles over the Mountain so we had time to pick up our packs and head on out, doing another ten miles.   We stayed at Eliza Brook Shelter tonight.

Saturday - We got up early and hiked nine miles to the Lafayette Place Campground.   Feral's parents had come up from Massachusetts to spread a little "Trail Magic".  
They had set up an eight-man tent and cooked hamburgers and hot dogs for us and also had chips, cookies, and cokes.  What a treat!  THANKS, MOM & DAD FERAL.

Today on the trail, we ran into Sunkist, Peanut (her real first name is Patty), and Peach Monkey, so they shared some trail magic with us. 

Sunday - We did a good 13 miles today and arrived at Galehead Hut.  Next week I will go into detail about these "huts".  I've been rather long winded today in typing this week's Journal so I will save that for next week.

Anyway, it costs anywhere from $60 - $90 to stay in these "huts", but if you are fortunate enough to be among the first thru-hikers to arrive, you can work for food and shelter.  So Spitz and I scrubbed the floors in the bunk room.  You do this by standing on huge big spongelike pads and "dancing across the floor" after you have put soap and water on the floor.  Greenman can behind us with a mop, and Graymatter followed us with a "squeegee" to pick up excess water.

This next week should be very interesting as we get deeper into New Hampshire and the White Mountains.  I'm still looking for Baltimore Jack and hope he has slacked up some to wait for me. 

Pauline - Thanks for the Guestbook entry.  I really enjoyed your story and I have always said that one day I would hike in New Zealand.

Rusty - I have been looking for Orbit and Retro since Rocketman told me they were in this area.  I'll tell them you said hello.

Buddy Rick from Virginia - keep those cards and letters coming.  Ya'll are my lifeline.

Bgone - you can do this!

Everybody have a good week.  This journal should be published by Monday, September 8; and if I have a little luck, I will also get the next week (September 8 - 14) published by Thursday or Friday, September 18.  Then, I will try to keep as current as possible since we are getting so close to Maine and the "finish".

Talk to you soon.