Week 8 - 2024

Great Barrington, MA to Dalton, MA - 48 miles

MILESTONES THIS WEEK:

We’re still hiking and speaking to each other!  That’s huge!

WHAT WE LEARNED THIS WEEK:

We’re heroes.  We met “Bearball” this week who was a young man attempting to thru-hike the entire trail and finish by August. He was very enjoyable to listen to as he seemed to be learning a lot about life within the 1500 miles he’s walked so far.   He assumed we were just day hikers and asked if we would ever consider hiking the whole Appalachian Trail.  Nope, never crossed our minds.   His expression changed when we told him as of this point, we’ve walked as many miles as he has.  We then started talking “trail” with him.  (Seems to be the story of our lives out here!)  We told him about our high cliff climb in Pennsylvania that we did in the pouring rain and he was in total shock and awe. “You two are my heroes, there is absolutely no way I would have done that in the rain. I would have taken the bypass.”   Hah! “We’re not heroes, we just didn’t know there was a bypass! We would have surely taken it if we had known!”  But it was nice to be told we were his heroes and that we should be proud that we can say we did it!  I say he is our hero, we know he will finish his thru-hike, all 2190 miles in less than 5 months.   It’s a hard trail and to do it all at once, now THAT is hero status!

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Linus isn’t the only one that carries a security blanket.  I hear a loud crash behind me as I turn and see that FROG has fallen head first into the weeds.  Mind you, this is a flat path with no rocks and as far as we can tell nothing that would have made him fall.  I noticed he was carrying his trekking poles and not using them so I asked why he wasn’t using them. He replied that he thought it made him walk faster if he didn’t use them. I asked how that was working for him as I helped him up.   We’ve learned to depend on and feel more secure with 4 legs than we do on 2. If you see us after the hike, still carrying our trekking poles, it’s because we’re in training, trying to wean off from our poles and re-learn how to walk on 2 legs again. Until then, for our safety and feeling more secure, I think we should stick with 4 legs.

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It’s all the buzz:  I couldn’t wait all week to stop by and partake of a 40 year tradition on the Appalachian Trail that was started by Marilyn (Roy) Wiley, affectionately known as “The Cookie Lady”, and after her passing was taken over by Ruth (Michael) Sangree, who is now known as “The Cookie Lady 2.0.” - free cookies and hibiscus drink to all AT hikers if they stop by. And if you asked permission ahead of time you could stay on their property either tenting or stay in their hippie minibus. Oh yeah! Sign me up for the minibus!  We asked, it was available, it was ours for the night!  Now I really couldn’t wait!  It was a really hot day so arriving to ice cold drinks and cookies was a real treat!  Ruth was so nice and hospitable, inviting us to make ourselves at home on her front deck after a long days hike to get there.   I kept eyeing the minibus until I couldn’t stand it any longer and made my way to the back door of the bus. When I opened the door, I was pleasantly surprised at how cute it was and immediately made myself right at home. It was hot and stuffy in there so leaving the back door open and windows open that had a screen allowed a nice breeze to come through.  We were enjoying our little piece of heaven, it was all I had hoped it would be until …. buzz, buzz, buzz!  We knew enough to shut the back door when it got dark but we failed to completely latch the door so it was open a crack. We let mosquitoes in and it became a combat zone!  FROG is going spastic trying to kill mosquitoes as was I.  It ended up being a horrible night, all our fault, of course.  We only got about 3-4 hours of sleep and that was because we finally curled up under a blanket and covered our face and body from the attacks. We lost, the mosquitoes won.

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Still looking. Every year we are told that we’ll find our “trail legs” and every year we look for them and wait patiently for them to show up so that we can hike long miles daily. We just can’t find them. Maybe it’s like geocaching, I need the coordinates to locate them.  Anyone know them so we can find this hidden treasure we so badly need?

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A NOTE FROM “FROG” TO Y’ALL:

Getting older or getting wiser? We have hiked/backpacked the southern half of the Appalachian Trail from Duncannon, PA to Springer Mountain in Georgia. This is approximately 1,100 miles. We have camped much of that time and slackpacked some of those miles. I know time does erase some memories but it does seem like those miles came easier.

We are in the process of backpacking north from Duncannon, PA to the Vermont/New Hampshire border. That is approximately 600 miles. We have hiked a little over 400 of those miles to date.

Here is what I have observed and in the process of concluding. The miles in the first 1,100 just seemed to come a little easier. Maybe it is because these miles are in the past and I just don’t remember how tough the climbs were or how many rocks I had to climb over or walk around.

It is so much easier to remember the tough days or the hard climbs when they just happened, like yesterday or last week. We have a tendency to slowly forget the past. Therefore the difficult climb that I had yesterday is so much more difficult than the climb that I had last year. The actual truth is that climb from last year may have been much more difficult than the hike yesterday. We just forget the past and remember the present.

So what is the truth? I am not sure. The present hike from PA to the VT/NH border is difficult: rocks, elevation, sore feet, etc. I am older and a 10 mile day is okay. I don’t need to do more miles in a day. The southern half of the hike got into elevations over 6,000 feet and the northern half so far might get close to 3,000 feet.

The truth is the most difficult miles are the ones that you are doing today! And yes, at age 72, the miles are a little more difficult. But the beauty that you see and the accomplishment of the hike will outweigh the difficulty of the hike!

Therefore slackpacking has become a great option. We will take a few more opportunities to hike without our full packs and not setting up a tent. This seems like a great option.

A NOTE FROM “FAITH” IN RESPONSE TO FROG’S NOTE:

When FROG announced his decision to me wanting to slackpack more, with less camping and more nights in a comfy bed with indoor plumbing, I stomped my feet in protest, whined and cried and carried on like a baby not getting my way!  Hah! Hardly!  My response was, “You think I’m going to argue with that decision?!”  He was so relieved.  It was music to my ears!

It really doesn’t matter how we finish it as long as we do the miles and finish it. The saying around here is HIKE YOUR OWN HIKE.  We have currently revised our schedule now to include more hostels/motels and less nights in a tent.   Which leads me to say:  if all goes as we hope next year - we have plans to have our very own “dropper offer and picker upper” so that we can finish the hike by slackpacking as much as we can.  We have someone who has offered to help us and after we work out all the logistics we will fill you in with details. Praying it all works out and we become slackers and not packers.  Hah! I just made that term up! 

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Note to self: When making hotel reservations for two days off trail it’s a good idea to make sure the hotel is not in no-man’s-land away from civilization. Sure, we like to walk, but not on 95 degree days and miles from town.  One of the biggest changes we’ve experienced this time, we have developed “hiker hunger.”  We are hungry all the time and eat lots of food when we can.  This is a huge problem when you have no mode of transportation and no nearby restaurants!  So very thankful for delivery options!  But the real question, why in the world would you put a hotel this far out away from conveniences anyway? If you’re going to do that, at least include a restaurant in your hotel, we’re hungry!!

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We’re so ticked!  It’s happened again! Not just once either, twice! To both of us!  Nightly body checks has resulted in finding a tick that has decided we are tasty enough to engorge itself into our bodies for a full out feast.  Guess we’re not the only ones out here with hunger issues! 

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Special recognition to our trail angels this week:

*You know about the Cookie Lady, we are so thankful Ruth took over the tradition and offered cookies and drink to us hikers (and even gave us a second drink when we asked even though she doesn’t normally do that, shhh, it’s our secret.).

*Then there was the family that had the “AT Stand” in front of their house offering drinks, candy, ice cream, chips, etc. Prices were reasonable and on the honor system. We thoroughly enjoyed cold drink and an ice cream sandwich.  We found out they started this stand because a hiker several years ago was walking by the house looking for town to get a soda. There isn’t a town close by so they offered him a drink from their house, and the idea took off from there.  It became a little business for his kids.  A great opportunity for them and for us!  *Thank you to our friend, Bethie (back home) who wired us more money so we could continue to stop at AT stands and divulge in their goodies!

*And another shoutout to our friend, Robin (from New Jersey) for letting us borrow her Monster pack (a light backpack we use for slackpacking). It’s been a blessing to use and so light to carry. So thoughtful of you!

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Hike naked day is Friday, June 21.  We took two days off trail due to the high temps and of course the day for our return to the trail is on this big day event (I was hoping we’d miss it, so it wasn’t in my plan to return on that day, but I can’t speak for FROG … ).  For those wondering, we do not participate in this event but we do have our bathing suits so maybe we’ll opt to wear those instead of our birthday suits .  But y’all, we need your prayers that we’ll keep our eyeballs glued to their faces and not let them wander off to those normally unseen places, if you know what I mean! Oh God, help us.

We’ll disclothes (disclose) and expose details next week … stay abreast of the news (lol, sorry! )