Start: Sherman Brook Campsite (AT mi 1597.2). Stop: Congdon Shelter (AT mi 1609.6). Today’s miles: 12.4 miles. Total AT mileage: 584.9 miles
I slept until 7:30 this morning.. and I really slept! It was that good, deep sleep that I’ve been missing like crazy. I almost rolled over the other way, but the birds were chirping and I decided to go ahead and get the day started.
I packed most things, and then ate breakfast with FarOut and Sauce. While I was sitting on the ground, eating my breakfast bar, I checked my phone. Towelie (I’ve been spelling it wrong this whole time) sent a text to our tramily group chat. He ended up going to the hospital last night, had a fever of 102.5, and got put on antibiotics for Lyme’s Disease. After he said it, it made sense with how awful he’s been feeling.. fatigued and slap worn out. I can’t believe he’s been hiking and climbing Graylock Mountain while feeling that bad. Poor guy. But hopefully he’ll be on the mend soon, and back out here on trail. Do me a favor and say some prayers for a quick recovery. He’s staying at a hotel for a few days until he feels well enough to carry on.
I started hiking sometime after 8:30.. and once again, the miles were slow ones. The first couple miles were through an area that had very recently burned. I’m not sure if it was a wild brush fire or a controlled burn, but I hated every second of it. I’d be walking uphill and wanted to take deep breaths, but because of the smell of the charred wood, I wouldn’t let myself. Most of you know this, but for those that don’t, our house burned down when I was a child, with my mom, my brother, and I inside. We lost my brother because of that fire. Sometimes the slightest smell can trigger flashbacks, and sometimes it doesn’t bother me a bit. This morning, those few miles, those bothered me a whole lot. But once I was out of the burn area, I was back to breathing normal and feeling ok.
It was almost like Massachusetts had something to say about us getting close to leaving, because the last 2 miles in that state included climbs and lots of boulder hopping .. one section had been lovingly named “rock garden.” Rude, Massachusetts, real rude. It was pretty though, on top of that rock Mountain.
Once I crossed into Vermont, it felt like an instant change of scenery. While I’m sure it was more gradual than I realized, it felt instantaneous. The vibrant greens were back and everything looked luscious and alive. The ground was also full of a whole lot more mud. They don’t call it “Vermud” for nothing, I guess. I stopped and ate my lunch at a shelter, and then on my way back to the trail, Sauce and FarOut caught up to me. They felt like the miles were passing slow today, too. We can’t really explain why it feels like we’re dragging so much.
They hiked ahead and we caught up to each other off and on for the rest of the day. The terrain was cushy and mushy and green, with beaver ponds thrown in here and there for pretty scenery. I’m not sure if the mosquitos are just better here or if I’m getting more used to them, but I swear they’ve been better since getting into Vermont. I’m sure they’ll be back swarming soon enough, although I so very wish they wouldn’t.
We made it to camp and set up, then bathed in the creek, taking extra time to check for ticks and going through the whole routine for my stupid, still here, not any better rash. Lord, I may be only cut out for winter and “cooler weather” hiking. Haha I’ll need to remember that if I do any other trails.
We ate dinner together and then while sitting on a log and couple rocks eating, Wizard and Killer showed up. Then came Sweeps and Lilo. We briefly chatted, then hung our food bags and packed in for the night. There’s a few more people that have shown up since I’ve been in my tent.. but I’m not feeling very social, honestly. I’m ready to tuck in and get some more of that good sleep like last night. I didn’t have enough service last night or today to get my pictures to upload, and I have zero service now.. hopefully I can get these last 2 entries uploaded tomorrow. Fingers crossed. Sweet dreams, y’all.
Start: Congdon Shelter (AT mi 1609.6). Stop: Glastenbury Mountain Firetower (AT mi 1624.3). Today’s miles: 14.7 miles. Total AT mileage: 599.6 miles
I slept in again today. I didn’t get up until after 7am and it felt so amazing. I love that I’m sleeping better, it truly is a game changer.
I packed and ate breakfast like every other morning, and left camp before FarOut and Sauce. The miles went slowly for the first half of the day. At 10 am I was starving and on top of a “hill” so I decided to sit down, enjoy a snack, and update the blog. Having service up there was perfect for getting the pictures to upload. It really does take forever sometimes.
Sauce and FarOut caught up to me while I was sitting there. They stopped for a little snack too, and then carried on. I didn’t see them again until I made it to camp. The climbs were tough, but I seemed to be handling them better. There was one steep downhill that jarred my knees pretty bad, but that’s nothing new. Once I got to the bottom, I crossed the street and a man, Steve, gave me a Gatorade. He is a shuttle driver for hikers, and offers trail magic when he has it. The couple he was dropping off was some folks I hadn’t met before, but she told me she just came from urgent care and they told her she had scabies. Welp. I’m quite thankful my stupid thigh sweat rash isn’t scabies. I’ll quit complaining now. Lol
I thanked Steve profusely for the drink, and talked to him a bit while I chugged it. He had a sticker on his car that said “Hawk Support Crew.” He’s one of the many followers of Hawk and happens to set up trail magic when he’s around.. how dang cool is that?!
When I left Steve and couple, the trail went over a pretty creek on a bridge, and then right up the next mountain. It was smoother than the downhill across the street though, and I didn’t stop nearly as much as I have been on climbs before now. Once at the top, the trail meandered down and around before doing the same thing again. It went like this for quite some time. Up, down, up, over and around, up.. but it was enjoyable. Even with the muggy overcast day.
I ate lunch at a shelter and quickly left afterwards. There was a dude hanging out with his dog, which looked very skinny, and the dude was sleeping in the shelter in his sleeping bag-it was high 70s today and so muggy that I could wring out my bandana from all the sweat it was absorbing. I’m sure the guy was fine, but I felt uncomfortable, so I didn’t stick around. Once I left, it was back to the same ol thing. The trail reminded me of a jungle today, and the wind kept whipping through the trees.. making me think a storm was brewing. So far, still no rain. I’ll call it a success.
I got to the shelter we were aiming for and filtered water and collected another 2L to take with me up the mountain a bit further. FarOut had messaged me when they got there that the tent sites were crap and they were heading north to the firetower to camp. When I was filtering my water, Lilo and Sweeps said that’s what they and Wizard and Killer were doing, too.
I hauled myself up the rest of the mountain (a whole 0.3 miles, but with an added 8 pounds in water weight, it wasn’t a quick 0.3..) and spotted the firetower! I was expecting a bald, exposed mountaintop, but to my surprise it’s covered with pines.. I ended up setting my tent up right under the tower, as it was the flattest spot not directly on top of Sauce and FarOut lol.
After setting up and cussing the massive amount of bugs (gnats, flies, mosquitos), I climbed the 7 fights of stairs of the firetower. Holy cow was it gorgeous up there!? Mountain views were seen at every single turn, a full 360 of stunning. Plus the wind was still nuts so there were no bugs! An added bonus.
I came down and cooked my dinner and filtered my other 2L of water for tomorrow. The bugs were driving me so insane that I ended up carrying my bowl of pasta sides half way back up the firetower.. just to have some room to breathe and attempt to eat. We made our plan for the next couple of days, including a big mile day tomorrow to be able to get into town early-ish on Monday. I’m not sure why I’m so excited about the idea of a hotel, since I’ve been sleeping well.. I think it’s more of the guarantee of closed doors without bugs maybe?
Either way, I’m ready to get this hard day out of the way so I can take it easy on Monday. Oh, also: update on Towelie-he’s starting to feel some better and is going to zero again tomorrow and then attempt some miles. I appreciate y’all for the prayers, I know he does, too.
With that, I’m rolling over and planning to sleep to the sounds of the wind howling and pretend it’s killing off all the bugs for tomorrow 🙂 goodnight!
Start: Glastenbury Mountain Firetower (AT mi 1624.3). Stop: Stratton Pond Shelter (AT mi 1643.4). Today’s miles: 19.1 miles. Total AT mileage: 618.7 miles
Today.. well I’ll be honest, today sucked. It was a mentally tough day and mix that with long miles and 2 falls, you get a real pissed off me. Let’s just start from the beginning..
I woke up off and on all night to loud popping noises on my tent. When I got up at 11:30pm to pee-I realized it was rain. The firetower didn’t help prevent any rain falling on my tent, it actually made the cumulated drops that much bigger to splat all over the place. While I was up, I moved my pack to where it would stay dry, and then went back to sleep. I woke up again around 3am to realize I must have not covered my ground tarp completely, since beads of water were coming through the floor of my tent and my stuff was getting wet. Awesome.
I put electronics on top of other things, and did my best to keep my sleeping bag dry, then tried to sleep again. I woke up a little after 5 am to my watch alarm, we were supposed to be getting up to watch the sunrise from the tower, but it was pouring rain, so I turned it off and fell back to sleep. I thought I’d hear people up and moving, but I didn’t, until around 6:45, I roll over and see FarOut’s shoes at my tent. It wasn’t until then that I realized she was talking to me! Lol I guess I got my good sleep from 5-6:45.
Sauce and her stuff got soaked this morning too, they were all packed and heading out. Knowing that, I got my butt in gear and was packed and leaving a little after 7:15. I felt off though. Maybe still stuck in a sleepy fog or something. Sometime around 9:30, Wizard, Killer, Lilo, and Sweeps passed me. I thought they had already left this morning because their food bags were gone, but apparently I beat them out of camp.
We leapfrogged each other all day. The trail started down Glastenbury Mountain, which was painful on stiff feet. I was completely starved by 11:30 and searching for the next shelter so I could eat my lunch and lay out my tent to dry. I was less than a quarter mile from it when I slipped on a rock and fell all the way to the ground.
Surprisingly, I hit my right knee instead of the same spot I keep torturing on my left knee. Now, I need you to picture this. The trail is dark brown, almost black mud, with big rocks thrown in for fun. To my left is a beaver bog. Bugs are absolutely everywhere, including burrowing into my hair and trying to get into my ears. And it’s muggy as hell, so sticky humid that my actual legs were dripping with sweat, along with every inch of the rest of my body. And down I go, into murky, mushy, mud. And you know what? I sat there a minute and contemplated life- even the bugs thought I was a disaster, because while I was splayed out, attempting to brush off the mud from my legs, hips, arms.. none of them were swarming me. Hell, I’ll just stay down here, then.
I had gotten back in front of Wizard and them, so I just knew they’d come walking up on me while laid out.. but to my benefit, they didn’t. I got up, cussed a bit because the bugs were back, and carried on. A whole 6 minutes later, I was at the shelter, laying out my tent, getting water, and eating lunch.. while I was grabbing the water, Wizard and crew appeared and ate lunch with me. I really did just barely get by without witnesses to my fall and then meltdown. Cool.
I stayed almost an hour at the shelter. Killer gave me a little pep talk before they left (they all left before I did, I just wasn’t mentally ready for the climb we were in, or the next one either for that matter). It was helpful, and I’m grateful to her for her motivation. I put on some music, Bruno Mars Radio on Pandora, and jammed out. Granted, it was still sticky, hot, and miserable.. but I was in a better headspace.
I passed them again while they were getting water, I still had a liter from lunch so I was good. Sweeps said a sweet little, “you can still take a break if you need one, even if you don’t need water..” which was so kind, but I knew if I stopped so would my momentum and motivation, and I had almost 9 more miles to go, 5 of which were up Stratton Mountain, an 1800ft change in elevation from where I was standing. I had to keep moving!
That climb was nice starting out, and if I really think about it, the whole thing actually wasn’t bad, but I was plum miserable because of the bugs and heat. I tried like hell to make myself stay positive, but there’s only so many times you can smack yourself in the head trying to get a fly out of your hair before you’re angry at everything. The climb started to get tough, so I decided to multitask to keep my motivation up. I would upload a picture to the blog, while it was loading I’d hike up hill, when it would “save” I would pause for a breather and to upload the next one. I did that until I uploaded all the pictures for yesterday’s post, and then I sat on a rock and set up the actual post. I won’t lie, when it said “published!” I was sad because I knew it was time to get moving and I had nothing else to distract me besides Bruno.
Back to climbing I went. 2 miles from the top, I chugged the rest of my water. My app said there were at least 3 streams to get water from between the top and the shelter I was hiking to. One of the streams was only 0.2 down from the top! Perfect! So, up, up, up I went. I saw the tower on top of the mountain, and I walked right passed it because I was so thirsty, all I could think about was going that 0.2 downhill to water.
I went 0.2 down.. and saw a mosquito infested trickle. There was a trail to the side that went back UP. That was apparently where the good water was coming out. But the bugs were so thick, I frustratingly kept walking downhill. I checked my app: next stream is 1.4 miles away. Fine. Down, down, painfully down I go.. swatting at bugs and swearing that when I get to town I’ll do like Wendy said and find a bug-net for my head, claustrophobia be damned. I get to where the stream is supposed to be, I walk over the rocks that it’s supposed to be pouring over, under, and around. Not one single drop. Seriously?! The words that came out of my mouth would have made Samuel L Jackson blush. I was pissed. And really freaking thirsty.
I look at my app, next stream: 1.2 miles. Jesus. I kept hiking. My feet were throbbing, my knees were aching, and I was all around over this whole day. I don’t care how pretty the views were or how badass it was to complete what I have. I was done. As I was angrily stomping along, I was quickly humbled by a root I didn’t see, that I proceeded to trip over and come down hard on my left knee, scraping the crap out of my shin. You know, the one that’s recovering from shin splints.
Y’all. I rolled onto my butt and just sat there. Bugs swarming, tears swelling in my eyes but not dropping, chin starting to shake. I really think I would have had a full blown cry session if I wasn’t so damn dehydrated. I then got mad that my tears wouldn’t even fall. I looked at my phone. That stream was now only 0.4 miles away, and the shelter was only 0.8 from where I sat.
I took a deep breath, collected myself and got up. I slowly walked to the water like the most pitiful thing you’ve ever seen. Like I had been jumped and my dog was stolen. Each pole was hanging by my side, my pack wasn’t even fastened all the way. I just trudged along watching every step like a hawk. When I got to the bridge with the creek rambling under it, I squealed I was so thrilled to finally have water! I dropped my pack and poles, got my bag, and filtered a liter, then drank half of it immediately.
I put my pack back on and walked the 0.4 to the shelter. Sauce was cooking dinner, and I was so happy to see him that the tears came back.. lol.. they still didn’t fall, but I knew I was one “aww buddy” away from completely losing it. Emotions just take over sometimes. I collapsed on the shelter floor, and he told me they had a tough time today, too. Then FarOut walked up, she had just swam at the pond down the trail a bit, and said she felt much better.
She could see in my face that I had a hard day, she confided in me that she did, too. And then, she kindly helped me put up my tent in the last flat spot while we commiserated. Man, these two really are solid in the friend department. It’s so difficult to adequately explain this adventure we’re on, so that you fully understand it.
Sometimes I don’t even understand why I have this pull to do it, because it is so absolutely hard at times. I’m beyond grateful that I have found people on this journey. I can’t imagine being solo and then having a day like today.. and not having someone who understands and just went through the exact same shit as I did.. I don’t know that I’d have it in me to continue. I am stubborn, so maybe I don’t give my mental strength enough credit.. but you get my point. I’m so very grateful for my tramily.
Anyway. I went down to the pond with Kat, a nurse doing a section hike that got in roughly the same time I did. I got my water bag full, then got down to my undies and hopped in. She probably thought I was nuts, with my rashy thighs out for anyone to see.. but I definitely didn’t care one bit. I swam out until I couldn’t touch, I scrubbed what I could of my body with my sponge (my shin stung in the water like crazy), I let the water “wash” my hair. It was the best part of my whole day, and I’m so glad I got in!
I got out and put on my dry sleep clothes, not caring that I had to get naked to do so. And then we walked back up to the shelter. I filtered my water, ate some ramen, and quickly put my bag in the bear box, went to the bathroom, and headed to my tent. FarOut and Sauce had stopped by while I was eating to confirm our game plan for tomorrow. All three of us pretty much instantly agreed that we need a zero. So, tomorrow, we’ll hike 10.7 miles to a road, hitch to town, stay in the EconoLodge, and if it looks decent enough when we get there, we’ll book another night.
It’s kind of perfect, because that zero will give Lizard, Derby, and Curmudgeon time to catch up to us! Even if we don’t get to hike out of town together (they will probably want a zero after all this crap, too), at least we’ll get to see each other! I really hope so anyway. I miss our big group. I’m laying in my tent now, completely sore and very tired. I wish I could teleport to that EconoLodge. Goodnight, y’all.
