Section hiker!!

I am just beginning to realize how much I trash-talked section hikers when I still considered myself a thru hiker. I am officially now a section hiker. I injured my knee near Front Royal, Virginia, and now I am off the trail and am about 90% sure I will not be going back this year. My aunt Karen picked me up from the nearest road I could hobble to and brought me to stay with her in Arlington. I am currently recouperating and exploring my options as far as what to do with my life, up here in DC. I apparently have some severe tendinitis in my left knee. It is starting to feel better but I still can't walk very far without getting a stiff and burning pain sensation and you can forget about inclines, descents, and stairs.

I might write some sort of final post for this blog but I don't want to be too sentimental or belabor the point or anything, and also I don't want to write a final post as if this is the last of my backpacking. I love backpacking and I intend to attempt another thru hike, maybe the AT, maybe another trail. PCT, or Continental Divide.


I hope you have enjoyed reading. Expect to hear more from me in 2012 :)

Manassas Gap shelter

I feel about 100 percent better today :) I walked 23 miles, and my knee hurts a little bit, but I feel like I am already getting back into the groove of the trail. Tomorrow we will resupply in Front Royal and then enter Shenandoah National Park, where every ten miles or something you can stop and get a soda or something. It was a beautiful day today, breezy and perfect. Skittles and Hit Man will be joining us in the shelter tonight and the shelter also has a fabulous water source which may not sound particularly exciting to you but it is for us:)

Just wanted to let you all know, after my Debbie Downer post of despair...

Bears den hostel, VA

Wow talk about a morale low. I was ready to quit the trail today. It was really really sucking. It was hot. There was one viewpoint and it was crappy and plagued with attack bugs. My shoulders are hurting because they are not used to the weight of my pack anymore, and my trail legs are basically gone (though I am still luckily faster than the weekenders). Oh and in case anyone was wondering, if you continue to eat trail food like pop tarts and cream cheese on graham crackers and pbjs as though you are on the trail but you're not, well, you're going to get a little bit FAT. Which naturally is UBER bad for morale.  

 I felt like a failure and now that I am in VA I have lots of family who would probably come and pick me up if I called them crying or something, thus it is logistically now possible for me to quit (no one would have picked me up in Maine or Massachusetts or anything that far north). 

Hit Man, a cool new Sobo I met this evening, said I should call all my family members and tell them that no matter what I say in the future they should not help me quit. Take that option off the table. 

It's true. I need to take the quitting option off of my mind's table. Then I will be content with what I am doing. Only then can I be happy. 

The trail feels lonely now. It is about a tenth as pretty and majestic as the northern section I left (and about a one hundredth as majestic as the mountains out west).  

We really had it good at first, Flora and I. Chip, Walker, and Brookie were some seriously good trail family members.

Well I'm tired of complaining. Goodnight.   

Staunton VA

I am going back to the trail on Friday, in Harpers Ferry. I am very very excited about this. Harpers Ferry is where the Appalachian Trail Conservancy is headquartered and is near the halfway point and thus is considered a psychological halfway point and so basically I have half the trail ahead of me. This is good for me, as far as morale goes. Whatever shenanigans I pulled during the northern half, I will still be able to say I have hiked the southern half of the AT all in one go.

Statistics: 
Hiked 741 miles
Skipped 425 miles
Miles to Georgia:  1,013

I love my Virginia family and I wish I could see them all more often.

I might go back and do the 425 skipped miles next year before June 17th, then it would still be considered a thru hike. I missed some stuff, most notably the half gallon challenge, in Boiling Springs PA, where you eat a half gallon of ice cream in under 30 minutes. I am a Hammond and thus I am genetically predisposed to being able to knock that challenge out of the water, and I was really looking forward to it. Also I missed the lowest elevation on the trail, in a zoo in NY. Also missed the Hudson Bridge. And I'll never know exactly how bad the rocks are in PA. 

I have so much to look forward to!!  

Yes I will be going back..

I just realized that I failed to mention that I will indeed be returning to the Trail, meeting back up with Connor wherever she is and hiking home. Flights back east are cheap on September 11, naturally, so I will be flying to my Aunt Karen's in DC on that day, and she has graciously offered to drive me to where Connor is. I am having a great time out here, but I am also excited to get back to finish the trail!

Yellowstone National Park

I guess I have a fair bit of stuff to write about! 

So NYC was nice, we were able to see Chip and Brookie came to see us also, and the four of us had a nice day/evening galavanting around the city- we went on a ferry to see the statue of liberty, saw the world trade tower site, had some good food, walked around Central Park, and saw Chip's studio and his amazing artwork :) 

Connor and I went shopping with Jessy so we had some normal clothes to wear around. Oh jeans, I missed you:)

Then... I made a (rash) decision to help Brookie drive to Montana. Well, first Wyoming, then Montana. He's moving to Montana from Maine. But first, he was stopping in the Grand Tetons for a much- anticipated climb up Mt. Moran, which is over 12600 feet high, with some AMC friends (former caretakers in the White mountains). 

So, in short, so far on my side trip:

We drove 36 hours straight, between Brookie and I, to Grand Teton National Park. 
I slept by myself in a campground the first night in the park, my first night ever sleeping alone in the woods. Was too tired to be afraid of grizzlies or crazy people. (I was invited to go up to high camp on Moran with the boys, but I was afraid I didn't have warm enough clothes)
Went on a beautiful hike through Cascade Canyon- diappointing to not be hiking on the Tetons (rather just viewing them) but the weather was too bad to go up higher (snow and hail). The hike was still awesome! Saw a moose, ate some raspberries, looked up into the horrible weather at the mountain Brookie and his friends were climbing, Moran, and wondered if they were alive. 

I met back up with the boys, who unfortunately did not make it all the way to the summit. They made it to a high col at about 11,800 feet (humorously) called Drizzlepuss, named by some Germans who first summitted it (in the rain). The weather was too bad to go on safely:/ 

We left the park, and went to stay with some friends of Brookie's in Rawlins, Wyoming, near Split Rock, where I had lots and lots of fun bouldering. I got some impressive battle wounds on one leg from sliding down a rock. I love climbing! I am getting better and better at it.

Now I am in Yellowstone park, sightseeing, hiking, camping, and backpacking. Wherever the wind blows us:) We just watched Old Faithful geyser blow of, among the masses of people eating ice cream:)         

NYC!!!

This morning I was hiking through pouring rain in the middle of nowhere, soaking wet and dirty, eating cookies out of a Tupperware on the side of the trail. Right now I am clean and dry, having eaten tasty Mexican food and ice cream and having watched a romantic comedy, in an apartment two blocks from Time Square. Or is it Times Square? Small world.

Right now I am feeling bombarded with advertisement and I am just getting over the motion sickness I got from the train ride and taxi rides. I know city life is not for me anymore... It is so good to see Jessy though!!

At the moment I am in a motel room with Flora and Skittles, compliments of the Timpones. Flora's Spot unit (gps locator) was acting up, and her parents wanted her to stay in town to call the Spot company and work it out. 

Those of you who are on my Spot list might think my Spot unit is acting up, but don't worry. I am just too forgetful and lazy to dutifully press the button every night. I have six years of age on Flora- I can tell because no one calls me if I don't send a Spot, but if Floras doesn't go through it is the end of the world.

 I do like having the Spot, despite it seeming heavier and heavier every time I pick it up, for its peace of mind value (thanks Dad!). It will signal emergency services to my location in the event that I am alone, about to die for some reason, incapacitated but not incapacitated enough that I can't dig around in my pack and get the spot out, and don't have cell service. Can you envision such a scenario? Can you tell that I have way too much time to think out here? :)

Mostly the Spot serves as a reference point for where to stick the next push pin on the AT map, for those few people keeping track on their office walls:)

So anyway today we will cross into New York! And tomorrow take a train into NYC to stay with Jessy! And the next day have dinner with Chip:) not to mention a bonus visit from Brookie, we will see him one last time on his way across the country:) 

Thank you Meredith for the care package!! Folks let me tell you, she did it well:) four types of homemade cookies, some Walker shortbread, starbursts, earplugs, homemade rice crispy treats:)    

Mike McShane's cabin

So much has happened in the last few days! Right now Flora, Skittles, Butter and I are sitting in the living room of Mike McShane, a 77-year old man we met in McDonalds of Great Barrington, Massachusettes. He invited us all to his cabin (he usually lives in NYC) for showers, laundry, dinner, bed, and breakfast! We are watching the 1996 Braves/Yankees world series game. Mr. McShane is cooking and has welcomed us to his two refrigerators full of beer. 

A few days ago we stayed at a pick- your- own blueberry farm for an afternoon full of blueberry eating and a night out under the meteor shower ( I think I have seen my fair share of shooting stars now having watched them three nights!). While we were there two nobos came up to the farm. One of them looked really familiar and it turned out to be Griz, the guy who helped me figure out some gear choices earlier this year when I hiked up and down Blood Mountain with Mom and then went to Walasi Yi, an outfitter in Neels Gap. I was totally not expecting to see him and he even remembered me so that was random and cool! 

Anyway now I should explain a trail term called pink blazing. Pink blazing (as opposed to white blazing, following the trail as normal) is when a hiker decides to forego his normal hiking schedule in order to follow a girl. Griz and his friend Ice decided to turn around and go south for a day with us, a pretty blatant pink blazing. 

So! We four hiked to Upper Goose Pond cabin, where the caretakers make you pancakes for breakfast for free! We met a lot of people there including some nobo Toast, who we've heard rumors about including that he robbed someone at knife point, and some weekenders, including one guy Joey who humored me with a couple of games of cribbage and some welcome non-trail talk about his acrobatic flying adventures. 

At some point in the evening Griz got drunk and started acting completely inappropriately, which was disappointing but anyway. It was still good to see him. 

In the morning we said goodbye to Griz and Ice and headed south with Skittles and Butter. We came to a rope swing off a tree into Upper Goose Pond. It was super scary but we all did it twice (except Skittles, he only went once). Flora was super elegant, she remained tucked until the perfect point and dropped into the water gracefully with a tiny cute splash. I did not remain tucked and basically faceplanted into the pond, getting water in every orifice of my head, skidding across the water in the rope swing version of a belly flop. Twice I did this. On video. Someday you all will see this hilarity. 

Last night at the lean-to were two young section hikers, one of whom we trail-named Dinner Bell, because he wears a bear bell on his pack. He doesn't have to listen to it because he listens to his iPod. We ran ahead of him in the morning and took super-short breaks because wow those things are annoying. It is not Christmastime! I do not want to hear Santa's sleigh skidding along behind me! 

Skittles, Butter, Flora and I hitched into Great Barrington to resupply. It is difficult to get a hitch for four people. A guy in a car stopped for us but he had his son with him and could only take two, so Skittles and Butter rode with him, valiantly leaving us behind ("you girls get hitches easily, right? See you at the grocery store"). Well we got another ride and met them in town, ate some McDonalds, and met Mr. McShane.

Which brings me to tonight. Mr. McShane is so awesome, he has lots of cool stories. And I am clean:) and my clothes are about to be clean:) and we will be in a new state tomorrow:) and this baseball game is from back when McGriff was on first, Chipper Jones was still cute, and Javy Lopez was still catcher :) 

Meteor shower

Tonight we went to get dinner and then Wolverine and I took the bikes of the house to a monument in town. It was dark, so my perception of the monument's grandeur may be a little exaggerated, but whoa it was huge! I was expecting some dinky little statue of a person on a horse or something, but it looked like the Washington Monument.

There was a big lawn there too and it is a clear night, and Mom had tipped me off about the Perseids meteor shower this week, so we sat on the lawn and watched for shooting stars. I saw several, more than ten. A couple of them were really great, they left visible trails in the sky for a second. How fantastic. We came back and naturally everyone else is sleeping. I am beginning to find that doing things out of the ordinary, even if you miss out on some sleep or something, always pays off.

Bennington hippie house zero day

I am sitting in a chair in the yard of the hippie house with a distinctly specific urge to drink a cider or two and have a bike ride around town. Mayhap, may hap not! 
Dave Matthews is playing on the cd player that we ran all night last night in order to keep skunks from coming into the shed we slept in. I didn't sleep much last night but what could we do? We didn't want to be the first group of thru hikers to be sprayed by the alleged multitude of skunks in the area because we didn't leave the radio running all night to scare them away. You might think this is a joke; I did for awhile last night. But alas no. Well we did not get sprayed by any skunks.
I was awake most of the night having discarded my earplugs weeks ago, and finally at 5:30 got up and went inside to find Arla, the woman of the house, making coffee, and I offered to walk Molly the dog. We went on a nice long walk, but not too long, because I do enough walking thanks, around Bennington and up to a cemetery. It was nice, and made me miss Millie.  
Today I went to a tanning bed (please hold your hems and haws) and also got a haircut, and these things in conjunction with my new purple shirt make me feel like a new person on the outside.
Then we all did a bit of work around the house; I cleaned the bathroom and helped clean out a closet of junk. Then we played Apples to Apples for awhile over some ice cream. I guess this is sort of a typical zero day. Flora and I didn't intend to take a zero but we found out that we can slackpack on Friday and still get to Dalton Massachusettes on Friday night, as originally scheduled even with a zero.
I talked to Jessy Rosa (childhood best friend, still one of my best friends) today, and Connor and I are planning to stay with her in Hoboken New Jersey, right across the river from New York City, in only about ten days or so! The miles are flying by. We will also visit Chip, who lives in the city. Shoutout to Chip! We miss you!    

Bennington Vt

Today we are making an impromptu stop at a house in Bennington. It was so random. Flora and I and Charlie Day and Wolverine had initially planned to stay at the shelter before the road to town and then come to town tomorrow, resupply, and leave the same day. But then we had some extra energy and someone said the words "Bennington Pizza House" and we decided to hike extra, hitch into town, and then hitch back to the trail and camp near the road.

Well we hitched in to the pizza place and then changed our minds about going back to the trail and started calling around to hotels, intending to split a room four ways. Flora found us a pretty good deal while she was chatting with the pizza lady and the owner or something overheard the conversation, so we started walking toward that motel. But then on our way we passed some guy sitting on his porch and he yelled at us to go to the house across the street, motioning that we should go around the back of this really hippie- dippie house. Hikers always go there he said. So we did. And what did we find but a barn with a pool table behind a house where the owners just let you shower and stay for free and use the kitchen and stuff. What luck! And we even found Cant Stop, icing his ankle on a couch. The owners are so nice! The house has all kinds of art and musical instrumets and there is even a nobo from Adelaide, Australia, with whom Wolverine can share stories from home.

It is amazing how things work out sometimes. :)

Story spring shelter

It's a crowded spot tonight. Flora and I, Charlie, Wolverine, about four nobos, a Canadian long trail couple, some random guy, and Skittles the Great just showed up with a friend from home. We saw Skittles on top of Stratton Mountain earlier today and he was previously with his guy friend and also a girl and a Weimaraner. They left the girl and dog at a campsite a few miles back, jerks. She couldn't keep up with them.  
Anyway we didn't hit the trail til 10 am today and still did 21 miles including Stratton. Vermont is rather easy hiking still. I have climbed all of the fire towers on top of the mountains and today's was certainly the sketchiest one yet. Lots of creaking noise, strong winds, rustiness, like I thought my weight would throw the thing off balance, but I made it up alright :) and down alright too. From the top I could see Killington, among other mountains.

Green Mountain Hostel

Well the alpine slide was a bust because it turned out to not be free and also involved more extra hiking than we thought. Still don't know what it was exactly.
Anyway now I am in the cleanest best hostel yet. I have actually been walking around in here barefoot. The ice cream was delicious. I got to relax on an extra clean armchair and watch some Family Guy and also a video some guy made while hiking the PCT, pacific crest trail. There are a lot of cool people here; it is nice to meet so many new people every day.
I shouldn't brag about the weather because I know it is like 95 degrees where most of my readership lives, but WOW. Here in the mountains of Vermont it is sunny, breezy, maybe 75 or 80. Couldn't get any better. Consequently though at night it is cooler than I expected and my 45 degree sleeping bag didn't cut it last night so I got very little sleep, same as a few other nights this week. Today in town I got a liner for it so I should be good now.

Lost pond shelter

I see why they called it Lost Pond- there is no pond to be found here. Last night we stayed in Woodstock VT with the parents of Castle, a thru hiker the Timpones picked up last year at the end of her sobo hike. It was awesome, Mrs Macdonald cooked a fantastic dinner for us and we had reeces puffs and coffee and fruit salad for breakfast and even our own bedrooms. Then she made us sandwiches and cheese blocks and packed us also some dried hommus and then drove us to the Long Trail festival in Rutland which wasn't too exciting and then she drove us and also Charlie Day (it's a trail name) back to our trail head. 

She even took us shopping at TJ Max because I was desperately sick of my blue shirt. They had quite the selection of appropriate shirts and boy did I have a hard time picking out the one I will wear for the next seven weeks or more. I finally decided on an organic-purple one. I mean, not actually organic because it's synthetic, but the color is non-garish. Outfit change!! Woo hoo. If I get the chance I will also buy a new skirt because I have tree sap on the back of mine that I have been dealing with for a few weeks now since I sat on a sappy log one day. 

So today we hiked with Charlie, which is fun because I feel like I am in Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia. He attempted to make a fire but it was unfortunately weak sauce. Connor made pudding tonight, a special treat :) 

Today in Rutland we said goodbye to Chip, who is leaving the trail :( He misses his art and is just tired of trail life, he said. We will really miss him. Chip is such a kind, introspective person, very observant. We will visit him in New York City when we get there. 

Tomorrow on the docket is an alpine slide from the top of Bromley Mountain. I don't know what it is exactly but we are going to do it. Then into Manchester Center to stay at the hostel where you get free Ben & Jerrys.

Tucker

Tonight we are staying in a shelter half a mile off the AT, on the Long Trail. So far the Long Trail is pretty classy, the shelter has bunk beds and a couple of LT hikers staying here with us offered us boxed wine. 
Today I hiked the 20 miles almost entirely by myself, which I wanted. However Flora and I had a bit of miscommunication whereby I ended up eating ice cream and soda at a state park picnic table a little bit off the trail for two hours, waiting for her to show up, and she skipped the park and powered on to this shelter because she figured I was already here, then arrived here and was confused. Luckily we both had cell service and touched base around 7 pm, and although I was more in the mood to stay at the state park than to hike three miles uphill to the shelter at almost dark, I do fear the wrath of one Mrs Andrea Timpone and powered up to the shelter, iPod running. I think that was the best decision I made today, tied with buying a second ice cream cookie sandwich at the state park. 
It was a cool and breezy beautiful hike, and I think late afternoon and evening is my favorite time to hike, especially hiking solo. I get to relax and be at peace with the day. Plus this shelter is cool.
The rest of the people we have been hiking with lately stayed a few miles back at a lodge. Looks like it will be just Flora and I for a couple days!    

Vermont :)

Today we crossed over into Vermont after spending two zero days in Hanover. What do I like about Vermont so far? 1) ten miles at an easy pace in about four hours. 2) rolling hills with no rocks, carpeted in pine straw. 3) three separate incidences of trail magic today : cookies in front of someones house, watermelon in front of another house, and coldish soda cans next to the trail. 4) a surprise sighting of Walker, who is slackpacking north today. 5) some guy lets hikers stay in his big shed and his yard has practice golf holes and a waterfall( we are staying here tonight). 6) new hiking buddies today: Daytripper, Furnace, and Little Big Wind, a funny crowd. 7) I am lounging in some grass right now.
Even the nobos here have few complaints:)
Hanover was nice, it is where Dartmouth is located and was pretty yuppie but our hosts were very hospitable and also I got a new watch from LL Bean that is nice and simple and Does Not beep every hour on the hour, reminding me to stop enjoying myself and get moving, as my previous watch did.
In Hanover there was a Gap store and I sort of fantasized about just putting on a real outfit, just for a minute. But I might not have been able to take it off. So I thought maybe I could just buy an outfit to wear for the day and pretend I was a preppy college kid in jeans and a tank top, not a dirty thru hiker in thermals and crocs, and mail the outfit home or mail it in the bounce box to pretend the same thing in the next town when we pick up the bounce box. But luckily I resisted the temptation. Then today someone mentioned a bath robe while we were hiking and I remembered my bath robe back home and thought about it for awhile, about how comfy it is. How nice it would be to curl up in it with clean hair and a book and my favorite mug full of peppermint tea. Ahhhhh. I'm going to appreciate stuff more when I am done.
On the other hand it is amazing to be happy without any comforts like that. Maybe... Happier without them?

Trail angels in Hanover

So right now I am about to go to sleep on a futon with Connor In a condo belonging to a friend of this guy Jaffe, who we met in Lincoln. Jaffe and Keith picked us up from the trailhead, we all went grocery shopping, and they made us some absolutely fantastic pizza and salad. Why? No reason. Wow it is really nice to have had some healthy food.
I got stung by a wasp on the trail today. Boo hiss.
Tomorrow we will probably take a zero because we have lots of logistics to settle out and because this is a cool town and we are invited to stay another night here. Oh and guess what? We hiked almost 24 miles today, our highest :)

Firewardens Cabin shelter

Well I have had a bit of a morale low today, hiking 21 miles of rather boring terrain, really. Also there are a lot lot of negative Nancy northbounders around. They have perfected the art of complaining about things they are voluntarily doing. 
It is like a whole new trail, this flat stuff. Well it's not exactly flat of course but flatter and with fewer good above- treeline views. My knees are cool with this change but I miss the old trail. Ah, transitions. We definitely still have the mud and the bog bridges that remind me of a Nintendo game or a circus elephant. I have gotten really really good at slip recovery- that is, I can stay up even after losing my balance on a rock or a slippery log or root. Sometimes I bet it looks like a clown circus stunt, when I slip and dance around until stabilized again.
I should tell the story of Mt Washington. Flora, Brookie, and I all made it up safely to see the foggy views and eat pizza and ice cream and other things at the store at the top, and it began to storm while we were up there so we spent about four hours at the top inside wondering what to do. In that time we came across Cant Stop, Black Eagle, Chipmunk, and Crazy Talk, who had the same dilemma as us, which was that we really didn't want to hike in a thunderstorm on top of the highest mountain in the northeast. Well we couldn't stay at the visitors center. Brookie discussed the radar with a ranger and told us we had an hour window of lighter storminess in which we could book it down the mountain to the Lakes of the Clouds hut, so we all snapped into action, threw our cold rain gear on, and set out as a parade of seven. It was pretty fun I must say. We were getting pelted with rain and for the last ten or fifteen minutes it was really sketchy what with the lightning and all but we made it! All safe and sound, and the volunteer croo at the hut welcomed us with gusto and let us all do work for stay. We were well fed, I played some cribbage, and we slept on the dining room tables. Well I didn't sleep much because there were like fifty teenage girls there that went to the bathroom in giggly groups of five well into the night but anyway. 
In the morning we all did stuff like dishes and blanket folding and sweeping and we really took our time because we could see people outside struggling to walk through the wind and rain. We could hear their pack covers and rain pants flapping violently from inside, it was pretty ridiculous. We did eventually leave, parade style again, and those kinds of days are the ones you remember. The days when your pack straps whip you in the face, it is so windy. The days when you contemplate how bad the weather has to be before you toss your trekking poles aka lightning rods far away and crouch on your pack. 
That day Brookie was leading and I was second. He nimbly hopped over a giant deep puddle and looked back to see me completely perplexed because there was no way to go around or through and he picked up a rock and put it in the puddle so I and the rest of us shorties could make it. Do you see why I might miss Brookie? Not to mention he was always very generous with his peanut butter m&m and reeces pieces mixed bag. Want to make a friend on the trail? Offer someone some food.

Past the Whites

We are at the first shelter after Moosilauke, the last mountain of the whites, Flora, Cant Stop, Black Eagle, and I and also an annoying middle aged section hiker and a nobo. Today after the mountain there were some verdant fields in which we frolicked with delight. Flatness. We could hardly believe it. We did cartwheels and log rolls through the grass. 
I will miss the Whites but my knees sure won't! Flora and I miss Brookie, this was our first day hiking without him in a few weeks :( The Whites were awesome, wow. Now trail life is going to be different- more fast walking, less views, I don't know what else. 

Mt Kinsman

I am on top of Mt Kinsman and wow it is a beautiful day and view. I just polished off a meager snack of four pop tarts and some starbursts ( screw the northbounders, I'm eating some). The Whites are going fantastically well. I love bouldering, the huts feed us well, I get to scoff at the weekend warriors, I am among great trail friends. Last night there was a full moon and no chance of rain so I slept on a dock by the lake at Lonesome Lake Hut. It was chilly and wonderful. Life is good. Also I am wearing clean socks today, so YOU KNOW it's a good day:)
The night before last we stayed at a shelter and the head caretaker gave me an orange. Heck yes. And then a girl in the shelter offered us BEERS. She had packed up a whole 12- pack of Blue Moon cans. She took everyone by surprise. I was happy but disappointed that I had already scarfed down the orange. Warm Blue Moon in a can never tasted so good:)
I cooked a broccoli Alfredo pasta side and accidentally let it boil over and now my stuff smells like rotten broccoli. Big mistake!
I guess I should stop lolly-gagging on this mountaintop- ten ish miles left to go today:) I just can't help myself when things are this beautiful:)

Mad

Tonight we are sleeping comfortably on dining room tables of Madison Hut. We are full of spaghetti- lasagna, green beans, and salad and also chocolate- the leftovers from the hut dinner. Someone in the bunk room is snoring like a freight train and also there is a gaggle of flatlander teenagers making fart jokes so I figured I would write until I can fall asleep.  
Today we summitted our first Prezzie, Mount Madison. It is so beautiful up here. Everything is above treeline. Lots of rock scrambling. We had a tense hour or so during our summit and then descent to the hut when a huge storm came rolling in, but it eventually passed by and so we watched a beautiful sunset from the hut. Then sort of for our work-for-stay we thru hikers gave a question and answer session to the flatlanders during which I started to realize how unpleasant a  Massachusetts accent is. I guess they can't help it.
Being around non- thru hikers in the hut, hearing them talk about their lives and smelling their deodorant, seeing them walking around in their cotton clothing, well, I guess I just know I'm a different person than I was a month and three days ago. In a very good way :)

Pinkham Notch

Flora, Brookie, Chip and I are sitting on the deck of the Pinkham Notch visitor center with coffee, contemplating where to stay the night because we decided not to summit Mt Madison today in the thunderstorms- too difficult, too dangerous, not worth the 4000 foot climb to not have any views and to end up drenched and freezing while stealth camping. 
I am eating because I was overzealous at WalMart and bought about five days' worth of food for our three day stretch of the Presidentials (aka the Prezzies) and my pack is insanely huge and heavy (34 lbs). 

Walker decided to go about five miles and camp in the rain. Before he left he serenaded us on the porch with his recorder- some Bach.

Yesterday, after our night in the Carter hut shed, we hiked up Carter mountain and the Wildcats and at the top we were faced with making a decision more challenging than our usual decisions which are:
1) two oatmeal packets or three for breakfast
2) shirt or just sports bra
3) wear the dirty socks or break out a clean pair
4) hat or bandanna
5) whether or not to eat the whole sleeve of ritz/Graham crackers/triscuits/ etc in one sitting
6) whether to go over, under, or around the downed tree
7) step in the mud or rock-hop
8) which dinner to make if it's not the last day out
9) one Aleve or two

So not too many decisions. Yesterday however we had to decide whether to hike straight down Wildcat, which is known far and wide as the hugest pain in the a** on the trail because it is a two mile descent for southbounders (the northbounders have it easier going up) straight down slippery boulders and uneven rock steps and rock faces that takes all afternoon... Or... We could take a gondola down the mountain. The place is a ski slope in the winter, and in the summer they take the chairs off the ski lift and replace them with enclosed little gondolas that zip tourists right up and down Wildcat. We debated for DAYS whether to take the gondola. On one hand, we have been trail purists and have passed every single white blaze so far. On the other hand it's a GONDOLA for crying out loud. A once-in-a-thru-hike opportunity. 
Well we took the gondola. And I don't want to hear any hemming or hawing from anyone about it! We will be purists the rest of the way!!
I am pretty excited because at walmart I got a package of starbursts. I got them to give to northbounders I pass on the trail, who are becoming more and more frequent and who are usually so trail- hardened at this point that they don't want to stop and talk- they just want to get to Katahdin. So whenever I see a skinny guy with a beard I will ask "Nobo?" which means northbound thru hiker. If he replies in the affirmative I will say "I'm Fauna- have a starburst". Also I will offer to pack out the wrapper because though most thru hikers are good about not littering, I don't want to inadvertently leave a trail of starburst wrappers in my wake. I thought this would be a nice idea because although I don't want to have an in- depth conversation with every nobo I cross, I don't want to just ignore them either.   

Carter Notch Hut shed

Connor and I are sleeping in a small shed tonight, the shed that is next to the hut, where all of the first-class citizens are sleeping. The hut system is strange and sucky so far! 
Well that's not entirely true I guess. The hut people gave us some cold leftover chicken and some hot fantastic tomato lentil soup. 
I am not really the type to 1) accept handouts from strangers, and definitely 2) ask for favors/handouts from strangers. But that is how the White Mountains work apparently. Lo and behold, Superguide was at the hut before us and got one of the two work for stay things, so they could only take one of us, and we stick together so neither of us took it. they then fed us and some other hikers some leftovers and the others went to stealth camp (which I would much prefer but we don't have our tent/hammock bc we are semi slackpacking) and the hut people let us sleep in their shed thing. It only locks from the outside so it is not locked and it is chock full of bulk supply foods like canned goods so I hope a bear doesn't eat me. Goodnight. 

One Month-aversary !!

Today we have begun the White Mountains! It is a beautiful day :) We gained a crap ton of elevation this morning and it is cool and breezy up here.

We are having lunch at a shelter and then we have 8 more miles to get to Carter Notch Hut, where we will try to do a work-for-stay because otherwise staying at huts in the Whites costs an astounding $100 per night. We are pretty likely to be able to do this because we are girls, most people say. Brookie and Chip will be stealth camping half a mile away or so but we can't because we didn't bring our hammock and tents. The Whites are complicated and difficult mostly because they are crowded and expensive and places you can stay are limited. But so far they are also unbelievably beautiful. Weather could be an issue. Get after it!

I guess I should explain the "Dont look, Chip" title of the last post. We were in the Mahoosuc Notch, scrambling over and under and around boulders, and Chip was behind Flora and I, watching our different methods of getting through stuff then picking the preferable way for himself.
I hike in a skirt which is absolutely awesome in every way EXCEPT when scooting down rocks or climbing up things in front of a boy. I am usually very ladylike with my skirt, Flora says. However, in the Notch, I had a particularly daunting boulder to climb and I ended up on almost the top of it, on my stomach, my pack crushing me holding me to the rock, with nowhere to go and as far as the skirt goes, I was in a very compromising position. I yelped in agony because I thought I was going to fall off, but then realized the full extent of the disaster I'd made and yelled, "don't look, Chip!!" which cracked Flora up and Chip as well. I glanced at him while floundering around and he was dutifully averting his eyes.

"don't look, Chip!!"

I am currently relaxing by a pool at our hostel in Gorham, New Hampshire, which is our stepping off point for the White Mountains, which we've heard are extremely challenging. I don't have a swim suit technically so I am wearing underwear and a sports bra, in case you were wondering. People must think I have been abused, because my legs look like I have been pushed down some sharp stairs several times.
There is a lot of deep deep mud in NH so far. I am disappointed a little that so far NH is exactly as hard as Maine was, with less helpful signage. About the mud- we are all carrying trekking poles except Brookie, and they make for excellent mud feelers. Like for example say you are walking on a plank that a trail crew carefully placed into a mud hole such that one end is exposed but it slowly disappears into the mud. A pole will help you determine where the plank ends and where you should probably jump in order to avoid a muddy boot casualty. Like I mentioned, Brookie does not carry poles because he is a native Mainer and has joints of steel. Yesterday he came up on Flora and I eating , looking all disgruntled, because a plank had ended unexpectedly and he had plunged one foot into the mud up to his knee.

Last night in Maine

Tonight is our last night in Maine... Tomorrow we cross into New Hampshire. It is a lovely night after a hard day. I am at a shelter with Flora, walker, Brookie, and Chip- our trail family:)
Today we did the Mahoosuc Notch, a mile- long stretch of bouldering between two mountains. It was pretty fun. I got ALL scratched up and also very dirty today but what else is new?
I am dealing with some extra pack weight because I have winter gear in preparation for the White Mtns now, and also I overdid a mail drop and am carrying too much food. The weight in conjunction with the UBER rough terrain has thrown my balance and caused a couple of hilarious falls. One was where I was stepping down a giant rock and slipped on a root or something and landed backwards with my pack wedged into some rocks. I flailed around like an overturned beetle for a minute helplessly until Brookie yanked me up by an arm, kindly refraining from laughing until after the ordeal was over.

We have stopped in town for the last time in Maine! By this time next week we will be in New Hampshire. I am already feeling nostalgic about leaving Maine- we've had a blast these last several miles ( with the exception of yesterday when the trail down Moody Mountain was talking smack - it was rerouted and what we were hiking on, straight down, could hardly be called a trail- more like a slip n slide of dirt including some giant rock faces and downed trees, one branch of which I almost impaled my eye on because I was too busy looking at my feet, and the deer flies we call HO's for Head Orbiters were especially tenacious and did laps buzzing around my head for hours and hours but anyway ).

In case anyone is interested, I weighed myself today at the hostel after lunch which consisted of a ten inch pizza and a container of ben and jerrys cherry Garcia and a soda. I had lost five pounds. I don't know how much the food weighed but I'm guessing at least three pounds. It seems like on the trail I am always hungry, and the more I eat, the skinnier I get! And you should see my arm and leg muscles. I feel like a machine.  

I hitchhiked!
This week has been pretty much great. We knew there were lots of serious mountains coming up so we planned to take it slow. You know, only one or two high mileage days. Well it has paid off.
We have been hiking with our friends Chip and Brookie. I have been feeling spontaneous and have been doing things out of the ordinary... Like one night we watched the sun set from Saddleback Mountain and then hiked the four miles down the mountain to the shelter in the dark, stopping to exlore a random cave because what better time to go caving than when you already have your headlamp on? So what if it  is midnight. 
Yesterday we lunched by a lake that had a couple of abandoned canoes so we had a nice paddle. Last night I went swimming in a pond with minimal leeches and watched another sunset and by the time I was done the shelter was full so I cooked and slept out under the stars. Over breakfast of oatmeal-using-the-packet-as-a-bowl I saw a moose sneakily walking up the privy trail not more than thirty feet away. 
Today Connor and I decided to bite the bullet and give hitchhiking a shot because we crossed the road to Oquossac at about lunchtime and we had time to spare. Connor clipped her knife to her waist band and put on a giant smile and hailed the second truck that went by. We had a fabulous lunch at the general store during which someone offered to drive us back to the trail. Overall it was not bad. Not bad at all. We even saw another moose on the way to town. 
Now I am laying on my air mattress trying to stretch out my shoulder which I twisted while falling up a slippery rock today. Contemplating eating the second giant cheesecake brownie I hauled up the mountain from town because it is looking at me saying " you should eat me, I am heavy and there are tons of mountains tomorrow " but I don't think I can eat it!! 
Connor's alarm is set for 3 am because weather permitting we may try to hike up Bemis Mountain in the morning to watch the sunrise. The sun rises here at about 4:30. We shall see!  

This week we stopped to resupply in Stratton, ME. Hostels that cater to hikers generally have a selection of old clothing you can wear while you are doing laundry, which is handy. This time the timing of showering and laundry was such that we wore our hostel clothing into the very touristy town of Rangely to do our shopping for groceries etc. I absolutely could not wear the XXXL teal scrubs that were my hostel pants into town, mostly because I could not guarantee they would stay up. So I wore my black hiking thermal pants, the brown hostel shirt, and my navy crocs. I had only used the pants to sleep in this week, so they did not smell too dirty, but I also can't say they smelled clean. Connor and the rest of our group were also wearing various forms of "hiker chic" fashions and while we were shopping around at the grocery store and at a "mountain outfitter" that was stuffed with rich 4th of July tourists buying glass animals and boxers with moose on them etc., I experienced a new feeling. We looked like a band of homeless people. At least I had showered so my hair was clean! 
Anyway the shopping trip was a success. Also at the hostel I found out that Brookie plays cribbage! So we played a few games.
This week we have some serious mountains coming up, it will be a challenge! Next Wednesday or so we will be in New Hampshire! Time is flying by.  

"Switchbacks are for pack animals"

This week we experienced a lot of boggy mud and also some mountains without switchbacks so what else is new? A Maine AT club told us switchbacks are for pack animals and our friend Mother Goose said well, what do you think we are?

We have made a few really nice friends that we are more or less traveling with. One is Mother Goose. I don't know how old she is but it's pretty old. She's hiked the AT five times and was the first woman to do a yo- yo which is where you hike GA to ME then immediately turn around and hike back to GA. Then there is Walker. He is always in a good mood ( except once when it started hailing 30 mins before he reached the lean- to) and he sings songs that he's inserted his own trail lyrics into. Also one day he made and shared some cherry cornbread with us, that was tasty. He even put butter on it. Then there is Brookie, who is the rain fire starter and who named us Flora and Fauna. He is faster than us but he also stops several times a day to fish with a retractable fishing pole.

First 114.5 miles Continued...

About the trail legs. I have learned to read mud. Like, that mud looks really deep, but THAT mud is probably less than shin- deep. It is the little things. I am certainly not completely trail- seasoned yet, though. For example a couple of days ago I totally wiped out on a slippery log and fell flat on my tailbone (it would have been on my back if my pack weren't there) and to add insult to injury, my feet landed in the bog under the log, getting them completely drenched again. And they had Just begun to feel dry after the two days of rain we got. Also I occasionally hit myself in the face while trying to shoo flies away from my eyes. Flies are not only annoying, they are dangerous.

Anyway there have been good days- like one 21-miler we did- and bad days (like the day after the 21-miler). One interesting day of note follows.

We were feeling pretty good. It was raining, but our boots were not yet drenched. We successfully climbed a mountain and made it to the first lean-to at 2 or 3, and a combination of things made us want to continue to the next shelter ten mountainous miles away: we felt good, and a guy we don't like had already set up camp in the shelter. So we ate lunch and headed out. The rain continued. Our boots and clothing became soaked. It was getting darker and darker. The mountains were slippery and slow going and you can forget about switchbacks in Maine. I was getting worried and I could tell Connor was too because she was talking a mile a minute about random stuff. Then we scrambled over some rocks and saw our final climb of the day: Chairback Mountain. It looked like a smaller version of Katahdin. A giant pile of giant sharp wet boulders with random little white blazes as far as the eye could look up in the rapidly dimming rainy light. An expletive slipped out of my mouth.

I don't remember much of that climb except that I was in a complete panic and Connor was still talking. We made it to the top and began our tree- rooty slip-n-slide down the other side, wondering where the hell the lean-to was.

Then suddenly- We heard voices!! And we saw smoke!! We arrived at the shelter to find five boys including one who had somehow started a fire in the rain. That was one of the happiest moments of my life. One of the boys set up his hammock in the rain and the rest of the boys made a spot for us to sleep in the middle. Holy crap it was amazing. That was an 18-mile day. We made dinner and passed out.

Well anyway. I couldn't possibly describe every detail of our trip. I must mention that Maine is beautiful and full of gorgeous crystal clear lakes. Also I have discovered how much it sucks when it rains for an extended period of time. One rainy day, and I believe it was the sixth day of not having talked to my loved ones, I pretty much felt like crying all day. And I had not packed enough toilet paper for this situation. That day we finally did get cell phone service and when I was talking to Andrew I had to say, "excuse me a moment, I have to blow my nose on a leaf" but as soon as it was sunny I felt one hundred percent better. I think we hikers suffer from a disorder similar to SADD ( you know, seasonal affective something disorder, it's advertiised on tv) but Connor and I agree that we have Weather Affective Disorder, code name WAD.

Speaking of code names, we were throwing around the idea of our trail names being Ginger(Connor ) and Daywalker(me) but it never really stuck, despite being an ingenious South Park reference. But yesterday at the hostel, Shaw House, our hiker friend Brookie who happened to be the one who started the fire at the Chairback lean-to, named us Flora and Fauna.

So this is Fauna, signing off for now. Wish me luck! Over 150 miles of Maine to go!!

First 114.5 Miles

Well we made it up and down Katahdin and through the 100 Mile Wilderness. I have had a shower now so I can admit that before my shower, I was hairier and greasier than I had ever been previosly in my life. If I positioned my hair in some shape, it would hold its shape. My shins were continuous hairy bruises. I still have a festering blister on one heel. I could go on about my general filth but anyway, I am clean now. So are my clothes.

Katahdin was HARD!!! That's what she said. But really, Connor and I had brought our trekking poles but we eventually strapped them to her pack because my day pack didn't have proper straps (you take a day pack up because it is so challenging) and the poles were no help on the mountain. It was almost all technical climbing. Hand over hand over foot. It was raining and cold on the way up ( it took us ten hours to go up and come down which I must note is less than average) and when we turned around to look down the dropoffs we had just climbed, we were nervous about coming back down the slipperiness.

We got to the top and the sky began to clear and it was amazing. But also very cold. We got pictures and sent Spot messages and headed down after spending only about ten minutes with the infamous northern terminus sign and a handful of other day hikers and south bounders. Luckily on the way down the rocks dried and that made the going less nerve wracking.

The next day we headed out to begin our real hiking with our real packs. It was Connor, her dad Bill, and I. Then for a bit it was just Connor and I. Then Bill met us for the last couple of days in the wilderness.

It was difficult at times. Hiking was particularly difficult because Maine is basically an obstacle course. If it is not a slippery rock outcrop it is a giant unbridged bog or patch after patch of slippery roots. And the BUGS! I have never before encountered so many different kinds of flies. Someone asked me recently if Id gotten my trail legs and

About to leave...

The Timpone's are running a little bit late, so I have time for a few words before we begin our 3-day drive to Baxter State Park, Maine. Three days to get there, five-six months to get home.

I am nervous but also very excited about the life change I am making right now. This is the longest I will have ever been away from my family and friends. This seems like a bigger deal than going to college, study abroad, etc.

I don't really have any really beautiful, introspective, words of wisdom; my main thought pattern right now is, You absolutely cannot drop out any time soon. There will be about three opportunities to leave the trail in the next couple of weeks, when the Timpone's are still in Maine. Those three times, I could just give up. I would have a ride home. It would be easy.

After that, Connor and I are pretty much stuck, short of booking a flight home.

Again, I am nervous but also very excited. This is the opportunity of a lifetime, something I didn't think I would be able to do until very much later in life.

In fact I don't feel like everything has set in yet. It probably will in about four days, when I feel like I am about to die, hiking up Katahdin. Or, more optimistically, when I feel like I'm on top of the world, at the start of the Appalachian Trail.

Hammocking

Success!!