 |
| BC, Velvet, Navigator, Biscuit, Bumblebee |
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| BC, Hopeful (and Ally) on ground. Sweet Tea Guinness and Nate Dogg (?) standing. |
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| Bumblebee and I in Dalton, Mass. at Tom Levardi's house. |
Monday, August 22, 2011
The "bubble" of hikers I'm walking in now
Some of my friends on the Trail:
Vermont
Hello to all!
Before I write a bit about the beautiful state of Vermont, I'd like to add something that should have been included in my last blog: that we were able to see the NYC skyline from the top of nearby Bear Mountain in New York! I even saw the Empire State Building. Bear Mountain is less than 40 miles away in an area that is completely wooded and remote. You'd never guess one of the largest cities in the world is right at your feet. And Abbey, I wish we could have met up but the timing was not right and my funds are nearing non-existence. :( I promise we'll see each other soon...
So after a bumpy but scenic stroll through Connecticut and Massachusetts, we were suddenly in Vermont. The mountains and weather changed almost immediately on the border line... a cool front moved in, bringing with it some intense rain. One night near the VT border I was lying in my tent reading when I heard an airplane or semi-truck moving quickly towards the mountaintop. It sounded like a large plane crashing in slow motion over the trees- a low roar and a rushing wind. I soon realized that it was just an immense downpour moving steadily my way, and the roar was the huge droplets hitting the forest canopy. I heard it come my way and prepared for the beating my tent would soon receive. Of course, I assumed BC had also heard the rain coming and was sleeping with his rain fly on over his tent. Whoops. You can see where this went: BC wakes up in the middle of the storm of the century with rain flooding the inside of his tent. He said he literally had to bail himself out by scooping rain from his tent with his cooking pot. He was afloat on his blowup mattress... so he said. ;) I felt bad for the boy, but he should have been prepared.
The Appalachian Trail followed the famous Long Trail of Vermont for half of its way through the state, some 150 miles or so, through the lower half of the gorgeous Green Mountains. In the Greens, the forest is not so much a place as it is a thing: you can sense it all around you, as if it has intelligence and is watching you. I found myself looking behind my back, or all around me, as I hiked. It wasn't a scary feeling- it was just that there was so much going on in each square foot of the forest, so many different plants and creatures that the whole place seemed alive. I think the Green Mountains are probably the most beautiful forest we've walked in so far.
On our second day in Vermont, BC and I were talking about moose. Just as we did with the bears, we bet on when we'd see our first moose. "September third" I said confidently. "September fourth" he replied competitively. What a surprise, then, that later that same day, nearly a month before we thought we'd see one, I hear BC exclaim "Is that a freaking moose?!" Sure enough, I looked downhill into the twilit forest and saw a dewlap and velveteen antlers. Then it trotted gracefully away from the trail and turned to look at us. It was a young bull, but still huge! Like seeing a horse in the woods. We cautiously stood and watched it a bit, then moved off quietly as to not intimidate it. I hope we see another.
I have also seen my first beaver and beaver pond! They're everywhere. Then, just two or three days ago BC and I sat by a lake and watched/listened to loons. I love that sound. I then heard up in the trees a breathy, rapid laughter coming from what sounded like a very large bird. Sure enough, a second later we saw our first bald eagle soaring above the lake. I had guessed there was one nearby from the call, which I told myself I would remember when we saw a captive one at the Bear Mountain Zoo in NY. It swooped for several minutes above the lake before retiring back to the forest canopy.
I am now in Hanover, New Hampshire, arriving a few days later than I'd wanted due to some intense storms we had over the last week. My fellow hiker Bumblebee is a graduate of Dartmouth's graduate school and so got us a sweet hook-up in some of the nicest accommodations we've had yet on the Trail. We're staying in what is essentially Dartmouth's Business school's "hotel" where they let executives stay while at campus seminars and conferences. Wonderful! Velvet, Navigator, Biscuit and BC are also here with Bumblebee and I. Many other hikers are also in town... probably 20 or so that we've been seeing for the past several months on the Trail. However, our little "bubble" (Bumblebee, BC, Navigator, Velvet, and Biscuit, along with the not-present Guinness [and her dog Ally] and Hopeful) are who I've been mostly hiking with over the last several weeks. This is the group I'm closest to on the Trail... and I've been hoping that we'll stick together and end up summiting Katahdin together as well. That's still a long way off, however... (about 450 or so miles).
So this will be my last stop in town before we hit the infamous/famous White Mountains of NH. Most would say that the Whites and the subsequent western Maine portion of the Trail is the most difficult. I think I'm finally ready. I've been grilling all the southbounders I've seen about the Whites and I think I've finally pumped myself up enough that I'm not afraid anymore! There's only one way to find out, I guess. Why am I afraid? Most of the Whites (the peaks, essentially) are above tree-line, making you vulnerable in the case of bad weather. Also, the climbs are INTENSE- basically all rock scrambles up and down the mountains, which are themselves very tall. Also, if we don't plan correctly or if bad weather picks up quickly, we will find ourselves shelling out upwards of $85 a night to sleep in the stone huts (as opposed to the mostly free shelters or campsites) which the local Trail maintenance group runs for weekend vacationers.
All I can do is take a deep breath and go for it, I guess. I mean, I've walked 1700+ miles so far, you think I'd be used to climbing mountains by now. Geez.... ;)
And so I bid you adieu for a while... maybe until Maine. We're shooting for an October first summit of Katahdin so that we may be able to see some nice fall colors while in Maine. Plans may change, but keep your fingers crossed for me around that time.
Thinking of you all!
Tara
Before I write a bit about the beautiful state of Vermont, I'd like to add something that should have been included in my last blog: that we were able to see the NYC skyline from the top of nearby Bear Mountain in New York! I even saw the Empire State Building. Bear Mountain is less than 40 miles away in an area that is completely wooded and remote. You'd never guess one of the largest cities in the world is right at your feet. And Abbey, I wish we could have met up but the timing was not right and my funds are nearing non-existence. :( I promise we'll see each other soon...
So after a bumpy but scenic stroll through Connecticut and Massachusetts, we were suddenly in Vermont. The mountains and weather changed almost immediately on the border line... a cool front moved in, bringing with it some intense rain. One night near the VT border I was lying in my tent reading when I heard an airplane or semi-truck moving quickly towards the mountaintop. It sounded like a large plane crashing in slow motion over the trees- a low roar and a rushing wind. I soon realized that it was just an immense downpour moving steadily my way, and the roar was the huge droplets hitting the forest canopy. I heard it come my way and prepared for the beating my tent would soon receive. Of course, I assumed BC had also heard the rain coming and was sleeping with his rain fly on over his tent. Whoops. You can see where this went: BC wakes up in the middle of the storm of the century with rain flooding the inside of his tent. He said he literally had to bail himself out by scooping rain from his tent with his cooking pot. He was afloat on his blowup mattress... so he said. ;) I felt bad for the boy, but he should have been prepared.
The Appalachian Trail followed the famous Long Trail of Vermont for half of its way through the state, some 150 miles or so, through the lower half of the gorgeous Green Mountains. In the Greens, the forest is not so much a place as it is a thing: you can sense it all around you, as if it has intelligence and is watching you. I found myself looking behind my back, or all around me, as I hiked. It wasn't a scary feeling- it was just that there was so much going on in each square foot of the forest, so many different plants and creatures that the whole place seemed alive. I think the Green Mountains are probably the most beautiful forest we've walked in so far.
On our second day in Vermont, BC and I were talking about moose. Just as we did with the bears, we bet on when we'd see our first moose. "September third" I said confidently. "September fourth" he replied competitively. What a surprise, then, that later that same day, nearly a month before we thought we'd see one, I hear BC exclaim "Is that a freaking moose?!" Sure enough, I looked downhill into the twilit forest and saw a dewlap and velveteen antlers. Then it trotted gracefully away from the trail and turned to look at us. It was a young bull, but still huge! Like seeing a horse in the woods. We cautiously stood and watched it a bit, then moved off quietly as to not intimidate it. I hope we see another.
I have also seen my first beaver and beaver pond! They're everywhere. Then, just two or three days ago BC and I sat by a lake and watched/listened to loons. I love that sound. I then heard up in the trees a breathy, rapid laughter coming from what sounded like a very large bird. Sure enough, a second later we saw our first bald eagle soaring above the lake. I had guessed there was one nearby from the call, which I told myself I would remember when we saw a captive one at the Bear Mountain Zoo in NY. It swooped for several minutes above the lake before retiring back to the forest canopy.
I am now in Hanover, New Hampshire, arriving a few days later than I'd wanted due to some intense storms we had over the last week. My fellow hiker Bumblebee is a graduate of Dartmouth's graduate school and so got us a sweet hook-up in some of the nicest accommodations we've had yet on the Trail. We're staying in what is essentially Dartmouth's Business school's "hotel" where they let executives stay while at campus seminars and conferences. Wonderful! Velvet, Navigator, Biscuit and BC are also here with Bumblebee and I. Many other hikers are also in town... probably 20 or so that we've been seeing for the past several months on the Trail. However, our little "bubble" (Bumblebee, BC, Navigator, Velvet, and Biscuit, along with the not-present Guinness [and her dog Ally] and Hopeful) are who I've been mostly hiking with over the last several weeks. This is the group I'm closest to on the Trail... and I've been hoping that we'll stick together and end up summiting Katahdin together as well. That's still a long way off, however... (about 450 or so miles).
So this will be my last stop in town before we hit the infamous/famous White Mountains of NH. Most would say that the Whites and the subsequent western Maine portion of the Trail is the most difficult. I think I'm finally ready. I've been grilling all the southbounders I've seen about the Whites and I think I've finally pumped myself up enough that I'm not afraid anymore! There's only one way to find out, I guess. Why am I afraid? Most of the Whites (the peaks, essentially) are above tree-line, making you vulnerable in the case of bad weather. Also, the climbs are INTENSE- basically all rock scrambles up and down the mountains, which are themselves very tall. Also, if we don't plan correctly or if bad weather picks up quickly, we will find ourselves shelling out upwards of $85 a night to sleep in the stone huts (as opposed to the mostly free shelters or campsites) which the local Trail maintenance group runs for weekend vacationers.
All I can do is take a deep breath and go for it, I guess. I mean, I've walked 1700+ miles so far, you think I'd be used to climbing mountains by now. Geez.... ;)
And so I bid you adieu for a while... maybe until Maine. We're shooting for an October first summit of Katahdin so that we may be able to see some nice fall colors while in Maine. Plans may change, but keep your fingers crossed for me around that time.
Thinking of you all!
Tara
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
NY, NY, and lower New England
Hello everyone! I am 4 miles from the Vermont border, sitting in the Williamstown, Mass. public library. Williamstown is the home of Williams College, a pretty liberal arts school that kinda takes me back to my days at Miami U in Oxford. Of course, (as I always brag) Miami is still more beautiful...
I somehow seemed to have survived the Dog Days of summer. Barely. As I told a few of you already, I was on top of a mountain the day that NY/NJ hit record temperature highs. Struggling across the rocks, with no tree cover to protect from the sun and having recently drank the last of my water, for 30 or so minutes I honestly wondered if I was going to die. Ha! Sounds quite dramatic, but I assure you I wasn't being overly so. My eyeballs felt swollen, as did my brain, giving me a massive headache. I began stumbling and panicking. I felt my body temperature rise and there was not a thing I could do about it as town (and water) were still at least 2 miles away, thousands of feet down in the valley, nestled against a lake I could (achingly) see off to my right. Alone, as BC was hiking ahead of me, I very seriously wondered if I would make it to town. What an odd feeling... for only the second time in my life I really felt as though I might actually die (the first being when a plane I was in hit "clear air turbulence" over the Gulf and "nearly crashed" as I like to say). At last I found the side trail off the AT that would take me into town, and almost an entire mile passed before I heard a trickle of water to my left: a small spring flowing from the rocks with just enough room for me to cup a hand under and bring water to my mouth. I literally collapsed to my knees and began throwing water on my face, into my mouth. My head cooled instantly... and I knew I would be okay. How different it is to pass a summer heatwave in a home or air-conditioned building, while there are some of us lapping groundwater from our dirty hands just to stay alive! When I finally made it to the bottom of the mountain I saw BC in the distance near a ball field with a garden hose. Needless to say, we both took turns running through the hose water before finally deciding to spend the next couple of days cooped up in air-conditioned bliss in a hotel. I heard afterwards that a West Point cadet died that same day of heat-related causes not far from where we were.
So, that was really the only bad thing about the last few weeks on the Trail. New England has been nice, in general. The people are great and really helpful to hikers. The towns and homes are gorgeous, and many of them date to the late 1600s/early 1700s. The terrain has steadily been intensifying, much to our collective chagrin, but we need to slowly ease ourselves back into the mountains as the Whites are only a few weeks away and consideredy by many to be the hardest part of the Trail. :( I hope I do well...
I'd sadly like to state that camera #2 is broken (I know, I know... i have the WORST luck with point-and-shoots) and that camera #3 was ordered and recieved last week... so I will continue taking pictures that I'll hopefully have time to finally post once this whole walk is over. Again, all apologies for not being able to do it now but there is just NOT enough time in the day.
BC and I have been traveling as of late with a lot of people we met early on in Georgia and North Carolina. There's Velvet, Bumblebee, Guinness and her dog Ally, Swamp Dawg, etc. It's nice to have old friends back again. I've been thinking a lot of the end of the trip (which doesn't seem so far away now) and summiting Katahdin. I wonder who will be with me on that day... I hope it is some of the friends I'm hiking around now.
The colder weather has started since we've been heading north, and I asked Dad and Becky to send my winter gear back to me. I finally have my sleeping bag back after a few months without it! This means no more sleepless cold nights. Both BC and I are wishing for cold days again, as we do so much better when it's chilly.
I can't believe we really have less than 2 months left. BC and I are guessing October 1st or so for our last day. We will have to take our time in the Whites (of New Hampshire) and western Maine, so that may slow us down more than we'd like... but we see no reason right now that we will not make it to Katahdin by the first week of October. Hence, much of our daily conversations have revolved around what we're going to do when we get off the Trail. As for him, he's leaning towards going to college... which I highly support. I think I will probably move back to Ohio for a while, work near my parents' home in Wilmington, and save money while I send out resumes to various state parks across the country, hoping that one of them will eventually want to hire me!
We've been seeing southbounders on a daily basis lately. Most of them left Maine in June or July. They still have soooo much further to go! We're glad we're nearer the end than they are. Also, they smell really bad! HAHA! I don't know what it is, but us northbounders NEVER smelled like that...
I'm nearly out of time on this computer, though I had more to say. I should be taking another day off somehwere in Vermont next week, so hopefully will have prepared a more interesting, fact-filled blog update by then.
Thanks for reading, and until next time...
I somehow seemed to have survived the Dog Days of summer. Barely. As I told a few of you already, I was on top of a mountain the day that NY/NJ hit record temperature highs. Struggling across the rocks, with no tree cover to protect from the sun and having recently drank the last of my water, for 30 or so minutes I honestly wondered if I was going to die. Ha! Sounds quite dramatic, but I assure you I wasn't being overly so. My eyeballs felt swollen, as did my brain, giving me a massive headache. I began stumbling and panicking. I felt my body temperature rise and there was not a thing I could do about it as town (and water) were still at least 2 miles away, thousands of feet down in the valley, nestled against a lake I could (achingly) see off to my right. Alone, as BC was hiking ahead of me, I very seriously wondered if I would make it to town. What an odd feeling... for only the second time in my life I really felt as though I might actually die (the first being when a plane I was in hit "clear air turbulence" over the Gulf and "nearly crashed" as I like to say). At last I found the side trail off the AT that would take me into town, and almost an entire mile passed before I heard a trickle of water to my left: a small spring flowing from the rocks with just enough room for me to cup a hand under and bring water to my mouth. I literally collapsed to my knees and began throwing water on my face, into my mouth. My head cooled instantly... and I knew I would be okay. How different it is to pass a summer heatwave in a home or air-conditioned building, while there are some of us lapping groundwater from our dirty hands just to stay alive! When I finally made it to the bottom of the mountain I saw BC in the distance near a ball field with a garden hose. Needless to say, we both took turns running through the hose water before finally deciding to spend the next couple of days cooped up in air-conditioned bliss in a hotel. I heard afterwards that a West Point cadet died that same day of heat-related causes not far from where we were.
So, that was really the only bad thing about the last few weeks on the Trail. New England has been nice, in general. The people are great and really helpful to hikers. The towns and homes are gorgeous, and many of them date to the late 1600s/early 1700s. The terrain has steadily been intensifying, much to our collective chagrin, but we need to slowly ease ourselves back into the mountains as the Whites are only a few weeks away and consideredy by many to be the hardest part of the Trail. :( I hope I do well...
I'd sadly like to state that camera #2 is broken (I know, I know... i have the WORST luck with point-and-shoots) and that camera #3 was ordered and recieved last week... so I will continue taking pictures that I'll hopefully have time to finally post once this whole walk is over. Again, all apologies for not being able to do it now but there is just NOT enough time in the day.
BC and I have been traveling as of late with a lot of people we met early on in Georgia and North Carolina. There's Velvet, Bumblebee, Guinness and her dog Ally, Swamp Dawg, etc. It's nice to have old friends back again. I've been thinking a lot of the end of the trip (which doesn't seem so far away now) and summiting Katahdin. I wonder who will be with me on that day... I hope it is some of the friends I'm hiking around now.
The colder weather has started since we've been heading north, and I asked Dad and Becky to send my winter gear back to me. I finally have my sleeping bag back after a few months without it! This means no more sleepless cold nights. Both BC and I are wishing for cold days again, as we do so much better when it's chilly.
I can't believe we really have less than 2 months left. BC and I are guessing October 1st or so for our last day. We will have to take our time in the Whites (of New Hampshire) and western Maine, so that may slow us down more than we'd like... but we see no reason right now that we will not make it to Katahdin by the first week of October. Hence, much of our daily conversations have revolved around what we're going to do when we get off the Trail. As for him, he's leaning towards going to college... which I highly support. I think I will probably move back to Ohio for a while, work near my parents' home in Wilmington, and save money while I send out resumes to various state parks across the country, hoping that one of them will eventually want to hire me!
We've been seeing southbounders on a daily basis lately. Most of them left Maine in June or July. They still have soooo much further to go! We're glad we're nearer the end than they are. Also, they smell really bad! HAHA! I don't know what it is, but us northbounders NEVER smelled like that...
I'm nearly out of time on this computer, though I had more to say. I should be taking another day off somehwere in Vermont next week, so hopefully will have prepared a more interesting, fact-filled blog update by then.
Thanks for reading, and until next time...
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