Day 54, Off The Trail

September 6

600 miles down, 0 to go

Where are we? On an Amtrak train headed to Michigan. Off the trail.

I woke up this morning, freezing and numb from the cold. I packed my bag and ate a Pop-tart, crying in between bites.

In my mind, I've been done with the trail the last few days but haven't wanted to admit it, feeling like we'd done so much to get where we are. And nearly 600 miles in, over a quarter of the way. Since it started getting bitter cold, I realized that we didn't beat the cold, even though we were heading south. Fall and its change in weather was already upon us. With needing to buy winter gear very soon and gear being expensive, we wouldn't be able to finish the trail with the money we have. As much as I want to get to Springer Mountain in Georgia, I realize that we wouldn't be there for another 1,500 miles, or three months, enduring a lot of the miserable cold. As much as I want to finish, I don't want to put myself through misery just to get a picture on a mountain, or the feeling that "we did it." 

As the terrain passes outside, and we get further and further from the trail, I can't help but feel like I let Ethan down. He wanted so bad to continue on the trail and finish, but he would not accept being without me to be on the trail. I love him for that, but can't help but feel a little bummed. 

I am bummed, I admit. But I know that God will open the right doors for us and continue to provide in ways unimaginable! 

We have had some amazing times, unimaginable views and met wonderful people along the way. What we've learned in a few weeks is what some learn over the course of years. This experience has definitely drawn us closer, and has been the experience of a lifetime.

Right now, we are on a train to Toledo, with a connecting bus that will arrive in Detroit at 7 am. We met a wonderful trail friend from Michigan, in Rutland at the Yellow Deli Hostel, and again at Green Mountain, who had to get off the trail due to a kidney infection. She graciously offered us a ride to Ethan's parents house in Lake Ann.

We will probably spend some time in Michigan before heading back to Seattle to return to the hustle and bustle of school and work. We'd like to visit some friends in Chicago and in the south, enjoy our adventure. We've got Ethan's birthday in a few days and our first anniversary on the 15th.

If you would've told me a year ago, days before I was to marry my best friend, that within a years time I would quit my "dream" job, start hiking a 2,000+ mile long trail with a tiny savings account, only to quit six weeks in, I wouldn't believe you. Because who I was is not who I am.

Who's to say we won't finish the trail in the future, with the hardest part under our belt? God works in mysterious ways. We are so excited to see what doors He opens next, on our little adventure.

In Gorham, we stopped at Dunkin' Donuts when we felt like quitting. At the time, it worked!

The train

Scenery passing by, goodbye trail!

Day 53, Massachusetts

September 5

596ish down, 1589ish to go

Oh, September. Is it ever starting to feel like fall! Brrrr. Even when it is sunny, the air is still chilly, nights touching jnto the thirties. Leaves are starting to fall and are turning from a luscious green to a humbling shade of yellow. Has summer bid its adieu? Guess so...

We might need our winter clothes soon. Today has been a great hike, leaving Vermud, and crossing the state line into Massachusetts. Out fourth state! I had to pause at the border. Where we got service, and order NotYets birthday present. I'm not telling!

We pressed on, enjoying what Massachusetts has to offer. We picked a camp site right outside of North Adams, just feet from the river we'd followed down the trail. We could hear the train in the middle of the night. Beautiful. 

Our fourth state

Massachusetts border

Adjusting his shoes

Day 52, New Shoes and Frightening Near Death Experience at Taco Bell

September 4

578.2 down, 1607.7 to go

We got a later start today, but still made great time. We decided to book it in the afternoon to Bennington to buy new shoes for me. They had gotten to the point where the toe of the shoe was no longer attached to the sole and sticks would hitchhike with me for a few steps. We pitched our tent near a river and beautiful bridge right near the highway outside of Bennington and put out thumbs out for a ride on the side of the road. After 30 minutes with no luck, I was starting to get cold so I asked NotYet to go grab my pants from the camp. Who gave us a ride? The first car to pass by when he was out of sight...whatever works, I guess!

We got into Bennington, got me some new shoes, and booked it to Taco Bell. Let me pause for a second to ask you, have you ever eaten a Cheesy Gordita Crunch and swallowed to soon and the crispy tortilla was caught going down your throat in a piece too big? You paused, looking at the person across from you, your life flashing before or eyes...Was this it, am I really going to die in a Taco Bell in small town America? Had that ever happened to you? That's what happened to me. I took a swig of some water and somehow survived. My throat was really sore though.

We paid for a taxi and got a ride back to our cozy tent with enough time to read about the adventures of John Muir and Dan Brown. A great day in hiker town. 

Bridge near campsite 

My shoes on their last leg, pun intended. He he... Not pictured: the massive hole near the pinkie toe on the left shoe!

Day 51, Biggest Day

September 3

559.2 down, 1626.7

Woo! Our biggest day yet, 21.1 miles. Jeff at the hostel was awesome, the kitchen was equipped with all the fixens for a make your own breakfast. We left full and happy!

We left Green Mountain House early and were on the trail by 7:15. It was a great flat day with no big climbs until Stratton Mountain. Stratton was the summit where Benton MacKaye conceived the idea of the AT. It looked like it would rain, but it never did! A dry hiker is a happy hiker. 

When we got to Story Spring shelter, exhausted, we realized there were a ton of section and Long Trail hikers and that the shelter was full. We pitched our tent, hoping for a rain free night. 

I picked up a John Muir book at the hostel to read. He is so inspiring! The man lived in nature. And, go figure, NotYet picked up another Dan Brown novel to read. Back to the back burner I go. Haha.

Day 50, Green Mountain House

September 2
Zero Day

We are enjoying a much needed zero day at the Green Mountain House. We can finish the trail in Mid-November if we want to do twenties and mid-twenties everyday. But if we get to the shelter every night and are stressed out and not enjoying our experience on the trail, what's the point? Now that we know we will be able to finish in time and still enjoy a few days in town, we feel a lot better.
Bob made us breakfast this morning and we got on our way. It took a while to hitch a ride back into Manchester, but we finally got here. We enjoyed a couple hours at a local cafe. The coffee was as thick as mud...mmm!
Jeff from the Green Mountain House picked us up around noon. Can't wait to break into some ice cream and watch a movie!

Paradise...

The Green Mountain House, the perfect place to zero! So clean and cozy 

Day 49, Manchester

September 1
538.1 down, 1647.8 to go

We made the quick ten or so miles into Manchester by 1:00, giving us plenty of time to resupply and get Ben & Jerry's. The best hostel on the AT is supposedly the Green Mountain House, which is known for it's very clean atmosphere and what else in Vermont... a pint of Ben & Jerry's! After doing a lot of miles in the past week, we were feeling like a day off.

We didn't want to stay two nights at the hostel and spend a ton of money, so we found a couple on a list at EMS, who hosted hikers at their home for free, Bob and Marge. Bob was very kind, he gave us directions to their home and told us he'd probably be gone when we got there, but to make ourselves at home. He also warned us about their chocolate lab, Bromley, who would lick us to death. Sure enough, their home was open and unlocked. Bromley came around and welcomed us with a licking. We showered and did laundry and sat down in their living room. We learned that Marge used to be president of the Green Mountain Club, the club in charge of maintaining the part of the trail we were on -- cool! It felt like Goldilocks and the Three Bears! We hoped it was the right house! It was.

Ah, that's what we forgot to pack...

NotYet at a well

Nom...

We walked up on some hikers trying to get a ride. His tactic was showing some leg

Bromley, the aggressive licker

Day 48, Cairn City

August 31

528.0 down, 1657.9 to go

Woo hoo! Today was our biggest mileage day yet...almost 20...19.6. We stopped 3.6 miles into our day to do a quick resupply in Wallingford. A man stopped for us after we'd been waiting for a while. 

We went to the Country Store and picked up some stuff. We were just about to wait for a ride again, when the man came back from dropping his trash off and walking his dog and asked if we wanted a ride back...Um, yes!

We passed by a giant cairn field. Cairns are man made rocks piled on top of each other to mark the trail, often on summits or where there aren't a lot of trees that can be marked with blazes. We remembered Unitic talking a while ago about a place in Vermont that looked like gnomes had stacked a ton of rocks. It was a cool site.

The leaves are starting to slowly change colors...fall will be here soon!
Even with our hour and a half stop, we did the mileage we intended and made it to Peru Peak Shelter by 6:30. Getting an earlier start in the day really makes a difference. Our goal is to be out and back on the trail every morning by 7....Sometimes we're great about it. Other days, we're lucky if we're out by 8:30. We're getting better though! We figure we should start getting up earlier, because the days will be getting shorter soon.

Getting my dog fix while hitching a ride. 

Hiding in the cairns

NotYet building a cairn

The leaves are changing colors

Hiker legs 

A view - rare in Vermont!

Day 47, Meeting Fellow SoBos

August 30

508.4 down, 1677.5 to go

We started up Killington with decent trail. We stopped for lunch at the Governer Clemont Shelter, which had a fireplace. Cool! We were bummed we wouldn't be able to stay at that shelter tonight. But we've heard there are a lot more shelters along the trail with fireplaces in them.

We were belting out songs, when someone walked in. A SoBo we hadn't seen before, Chicory. She started on Katahdin a day before us, but stopped at Killington and headed up to Canada to do the Long Trail, which merges with the Appalachian Trail near Killington. So she will continue on the AT and LT and have finished both at the end of her hike. The Long Trail runs from Canada to Massachusetts. Her friend Kyle was with her for the weekend, so we hiked with them to the next shelter and enjoyed running conversations. 

We had a great pace with them. At one point, they stopped to let us go in front, we insisted they go in front. They told us our pace was a lot quicker than theirs. We told them we were going faster than usual to keep up with them. So we agreed to all slow down a bit. Ha! We passed the 500-mile mark at some point during our hike today, but missed it because of a trail detour, due to damages from Hurricane Irene. We made it to Minerva Shelter by 6:00.

Enjoying lunch at a cute shelter

Day 46, New Average

August 29

490.2 down, 1695.7 to go

We got a late start today. We did our work for stay from 9:00-11:00 am and had to wait for the bus, so didn't hit the trail until 2:00. NotYet enjoyed making beds with hospital corners. They seemed pretty impressed with his work! When we were packing up, the chef came up from the kitchen and knocked on our door. He had a fresh, hot loaf of sourdough raisin bread for us -- we welcomed the weight!
By the time we hit the trail, we were feeling pretty unmotivated so just did 5 miles to the nearest shelter. We calculated the amount of miles we will need to do a day to make it to Springer by December. When we first started, the average was 16. We calculated six zero days -- our anniversary, injuries, etc., and were surprised that our new average was around just 19 a day. Not bad, considering we will have some terrain soon where we will be able to do mid-twenties on flat ground. Awesome!

Enjoying a fire...oops, didn't see the No Fire sign!

Day 45, Twelve Tribes

August 28

485.0 down, 1700.9 to go

We got started making great time! The trail is so flat in Vermont compared to all the roots and rocks in Maine and New Hampshire.

We had lunch 10 miles or so into our day. Since starting the trail, we'd heard from NoBos that the Yellow Deli Hiker Hostel in Rutland was a must. We'd heard multiple things, including that the Twelve Tribes, the people who ran the place, was a cult. Fun! We weren't planning on stopping, but stopped at a shelter for lunch and some NoBos told us how easy it was to get there. Since the Yellow Deli did work for stay, we figured we'd push on and try to make it to the next road in time to catch the bus. We booked it with plenty of time to spare. We were near the side of the road figuring out the way to our bus stop, when a lady pulled over and offered us a ride. Life question: why is it that when you're not planning on hitching a ride, someone pulls over to ask if you need one...but when you've been standing on the side of the road for forty minutes with your thumb up, nobody stops? She drove us to EMS, where NotYet picked up some underwear...

We arrived at the Yellow Deli around 7:00. Bunks were full in both the male and female rooms. They told us to give them fifteen minutes, they'd figure something out. Turns out, they cleared out one of their private rooms upstairs for us! 

We enjoyed a late dinner in the deli and talking with Lev, about what they believed. Very interesting conversation.

Shortly after dinner, they gathered around in a circle around us and started chanting in a secret language and wafting incense in our faces. We drank of a communal cup of tea. Suddenly, we were enlightened and decided to stop hiking and become members of the Twelve Tribes...

Just kidding. We went to bed.

NotYet rocking some new underwear

Yellow Deli hostel

Sign on the room they cleared for us

Welcome basket

Day 44, Trail Magic and Cows

August 27

468.4 down, 1717.5

Betsy arranged for us to get a ride back to where we stopped yesterday from Kate, a trail angel. We made a pit stop about a mile in at the Full Belly Deli, where we split a breakfast burrito and coffee.... Ahhh, coffee! We met Blackhawk, who we had heard about from other NoBos. NotYet enjoyed chatting with him about being prior service and what else? Blackhawks. There are a lot of prior military out on the trail. 

A few miles into our day some NoBos told us about trail magic a few miles ahead, but we weren't sure if any would be left by the time we got there. We got to Cloudland Road and a cooler was sitting near a tree with gallons of ice water. We opened the cooler that had just been restocked. It had Pringles, string cheese, PB&J sammies, rice crispy treats, cookies and gum! We enjoyed stopping for a bit and chowing down! The fact that we'd just stopped an hour earlier for lunch was irrelevant. This was free food!

We were tired towards the evening, but pushed on three more miles to Winturri Shelter. Since we have been without a hard rain for about two weeks, a lot of little streams have dried up. The water source at this shelter was down to a trickle so it took a while to fill up, but it was great spring water.

Huge bee looking thing! It's stinger was so long

Trail magic

The cows wanted trail magic too

Inside a shelter...we were tempted