Miles: 10.4
I woke up with a jolt today, realizing that today is a TOWN DAY!!! The best kind of day there is... which makes me wonder why my favorite part of hiking is the sitting down part. I'll ponder that later... while sitting down. When getting ready this morning, I realized that my feed were still sore from yesterday, but visions of soft beds and warm meals danced in my head, so I eagerly packed up and hit the Trail... the wrong direction.
The AT was so poorly marked in this area that we actually took an unmarked trail into the shelter (hell if we could tell the difference). We then headed out of the real AT this morning, going north, until I realized that we crossed a strikingly similar fallen tree yesterday. (It was my tree rocket that was supposed to fly me to the shelter. I guess it was out of fuel, 'cause it didn't work.) So, we turned around after burning 15 minutes and then hauled our patooties towards Monson until my knees went icky. I then quickly hobbled to the road after much Aspirin and several breaks. I kept on imagining that there was a magnet in my stomach that was pulling me to town. I didn't really have to imagine.
We finally got there!! The last 2 miles seemed like FOREVER because we could hear the cars on the highway - our path to freedom from the Trail - but we were still clambering over rock faces, over streams, etc. Oh, the torture. But it was sweet joy when we saw that black line of asphalt that lead us to a break.
After 15 minutes of trying to hitchhike, a truck stopped to pick up our smelly hiking selves, and we sure did appreciate it. He had attempted a thru himself, but seriously hurt his ankle, preventing him from finishing. That seems to be a common theme among hikers - start a thru and make it or die trying. I think it has more to do with peer pressure than with personal choice. My opinion is that everybody should hike their own hike, not somebody else's. If the miserable days outnumber the good ones, I hope I have the sense to leave to Trail. (OK - you're not allowed to start counting the number of times I've said I'm miserable now.)
We made it to Monson in time to pick up our packages and a large serving of Moose Tracks icecream - YUM! Amy and Klaus sent us a surprise gift - it was awesome!! And Mom put in a bottle of wine for July 4 while Debbie tucked in a motivational note - THANK YOU!! Those little bits of surprises kept a smile on my face all day... well, that combined with the fresh watermelon welcoming us to Shaw's and the AYCE steak dinner that Keith Shaw cooked for us. Oh, it was incredible. I certainly have a new appreciation for food.
Mike and Terry made it in also, which made for good company. Well, it's WAY past my bedtime (almost 11!), so I'm going to fall asleep now on this nice, soft bed.
-Spoiled Bobo, finally in Monson