When I got back on the trail it was just north of the Hudson. I got to cross the Bear Mtn Bridge and then climb Bear Mtn which is a super-touristy mountain in that it has mostly stone steps up and down each side, and also the paths on the top are such fine packed gravel that we can safely call them 'practically paved.'
From there I went Northwest. Not my decision. I just followed the 2x6 inch white 'blazes' that I have been trained to follow, and that's where the trail took me: along the NY/NJ boarder. When I cut back into NY, briefly, before I was supposed to cross NJ for reeelz, I entered Unionville, NY. Just to be clear, this is day 4 of me being out on my own and lemme tell ya... boy is it lonely to suddenly be, well... alone.
...But I digress...
As I was entering Unionville every day-hiker that I encountered, when I told 'em I was through-hiking, warned me about hurricane Sandy and said I should find a place to 'hole up' for a couple of days.
{sidenote: lots of people hiking the AT last year had to skip entire states (though usually just Vermont) 'cause hurricane Irene made so many of the trails impassable.}
So my options were to hike out of town, or find other means of transportation (even people passing me on the street, not in conversation, would see my backpack and say things like, "You don't want to be out there this weekend" or, "Best get on out of town now." --When I read it back, that one sounds more threatening than it was meant. You see, there are no places to rent a room in Unionville. The night I was there I set up my tent outside the local bar. It was kind of nice actually... no worries about driving home. No lost keys to contend with... just stumble on out to the tent and you're good: a service more bars should offer :))
So I made the decision to skip a bit of trail (Lindsay: keep your eyes peeled for a picture of me on that Segway ;)). While it's disappointing to me that my adventure has changed it's track, I'm also still totally excited that I'm getting to do this at all! Most of the other southbounders are a good 200 miles south of me already, so that's a big factor. Also I've been hiking in damp/overcast weather for four days now and am getting 'diaper rash' on the inside of my arms because my t-shirt never dries. So the idea of hiking out of Unionville in the HOPES that I stumble across a hiker-hostel soon (where I can wait out the storm) seemed like a long shot.
So I started to look into buses/trains which, apparently. If I'm trying to get 150 miles south on the AT (well into Pennsylvania) I'll have to go through New York City, where I have friends I can stay with.
... So I did.
I holed up in NYC for the duration of the hurricane, trying to fatten up while also trying to respect the generosity of my hosts and not eat them out of house and home. We were so fortunate! We never lost power, we ate well every night, and it was like an extended weekend for the people who live here (but a weekend on hurricane-watch house arrest is, I'm sure, no exciting ride for someone who LIVES in the city) so we just watched movies all day and played Bananagrams and crosses between Telephone and Pictionary. My new favorite way to make chocolate milk is half milk, half heavy cream (try it, it's lovely), and I've eaten a pint of ice cream two nights in a row (though I'm sure I'll be back to 'constantly hungry' within a few days of being on the trail). As I sit here typing it's Wednesday night. Holloween!! I got to walk around in NYC today and see a boatload of costumes. The friends who are so generously letting me occupy / stink up their space went for a walk this evening with one of their dogs dressed like a shark :)
Tomorrow morning I'll take a subway to Penn station to catch a bus at 9:00am to Philadelphia, to take another train to Harisburg, PA. Then I have to figure out how to get to Duncannon, where I'll pick up the trail. AAAND where I"ll get the package my lovely sister sent to me! I didn't get to open it (they wouldn't have let me 'bounce' it forward for free if I had opened it), and I can't wait to see what I'll be snacking on for the next few days :)
I'm distracted right now, so this is the end of this post :)
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Andrew's "Journal": Day 82
Hey Friends and Fam!
These days I'm so exhausted at the end of each day that I've all but stopped writing in my daily journal, thus the quotations in the title. So now I'll try my best to give coherent anecdotes about the last week or two:
Almost through Vermont!! We've discovered unpasteurized apple cider during apple season in VT: Ambrosia, people, look it up. We've learned that the A.T. is MUCH easier south of New Hampshire (despite what Northbounders have told us)!! We've cranked up the mileage and learned to overeat (a staple of the N. American skill set). And we've hiked over 1/4 of the entire trail!!! Every day my list of things to be grateful for grows by at least one, so the official subtitle of this post is: Grattitude: +1
We walked into Bennington, VT shortly after my air mattress had started to come apart, ballooning up on one end. It started out like one of those floating lounge-chair things that you might use in the pool, with a nice built in pillow. But the bubble grew beyond pillow size and the whole thing became unsleepable.
So I got a new one shipped to Bennington. +1
I did this from the top of a mountain (because I have a magical box that can show pictures of bubbly mattresses to people in Seattle, send my voice along with the pictures, and find addresses in Vermont... from the top of a mtn! Some people call it a 'phone'... I call it magic to be grateful for). +1
After I had it sent, I noticed (in our little travelers' companion book) that the place I had the package shipped would accept packages 'for guests.' And the next two days were spent worrying that they would see my name on a box, check the guest register, and send it back, via FedEx, to Seattle :( BUT when we walked out of the woods and onto VT-9 (5 miles east of Bennington) hungry, cold, and tired, Lysandra's cousin picked us up in a larger magical box (+1) that held heat inside it's glass walls (+1), and carried our delicate human bodies faster than they were ever designed to travel (+1)... on a strip of oil (+1)... fueled by oil... (+1)
When we arrived at the Autumn Motel it was still morning. I was still hungry and tired, and saw three possibilities:
Moving on: There's SO MUCH TO WRITE!!!
We've had our first really long stretch of rain on the trail. After three days of hiking in the rain, you're feelin' pretty good if your boots are dry. After 7 days your boots have no chance, and dry socks (+1) lose their special something (-1). You're so excited to put them on your feet in the morning, then you stick your feet in your boots and wonder, 'What was all that warm fuzzy business, about 10 seconds ago?' You get the point.
So the weather is harsher: the last two mornings it's been raining cats and dogs (or 'frogs' if you're french) and the temperature has been close to freezing.
BUT The terrain is WONDERFUL!! (+1)
The Vermonters are GENIUS!!! ... they've done this thing (some kind of fancy new trail maintenance perhaps?) where they've taken dirt and filled in all the cracks between roots and rocks! They call it: Topsoil. If the word feels foreign on your tongue, check quick! ...odds are good you live in Maine. Some of my more geologically savvy friends and family might already know what I have only recently learned: Glaciers ripped off all the topsoil from Maine! It's true! Like a thief in the night (or maybe like an unnamed backpacker behind the front desk of a small motel in rural Vermont?) glaciers took all the dirt from Maine, straight down to the bedrock, to the coast.
These days I'm so exhausted at the end of each day that I've all but stopped writing in my daily journal, thus the quotations in the title. So now I'll try my best to give coherent anecdotes about the last week or two:
Almost through Vermont!! We've discovered unpasteurized apple cider during apple season in VT: Ambrosia, people, look it up. We've learned that the A.T. is MUCH easier south of New Hampshire (despite what Northbounders have told us)!! We've cranked up the mileage and learned to overeat (a staple of the N. American skill set). And we've hiked over 1/4 of the entire trail!!! Every day my list of things to be grateful for grows by at least one, so the official subtitle of this post is: Grattitude: +1
We walked into Bennington, VT shortly after my air mattress had started to come apart, ballooning up on one end. It started out like one of those floating lounge-chair things that you might use in the pool, with a nice built in pillow. But the bubble grew beyond pillow size and the whole thing became unsleepable.
So I got a new one shipped to Bennington. +1
I did this from the top of a mountain (because I have a magical box that can show pictures of bubbly mattresses to people in Seattle, send my voice along with the pictures, and find addresses in Vermont... from the top of a mtn! Some people call it a 'phone'... I call it magic to be grateful for). +1
After I had it sent, I noticed (in our little travelers' companion book) that the place I had the package shipped would accept packages 'for guests.' And the next two days were spent worrying that they would see my name on a box, check the guest register, and send it back, via FedEx, to Seattle :( BUT when we walked out of the woods and onto VT-9 (5 miles east of Bennington) hungry, cold, and tired, Lysandra's cousin picked us up in a larger magical box (+1) that held heat inside it's glass walls (+1), and carried our delicate human bodies faster than they were ever designed to travel (+1)... on a strip of oil (+1)... fueled by oil... (+1)
When we arrived at the Autumn Motel it was still morning. I was still hungry and tired, and saw three possibilities:
- Maybe they denied the package.
- Maybe they'll charge me a 'handling fee' of ten bucks or so.
- Maybe they'll refuse to give me the package unless I get a room for sixty bucks.
Moving on: There's SO MUCH TO WRITE!!!
We've had our first really long stretch of rain on the trail. After three days of hiking in the rain, you're feelin' pretty good if your boots are dry. After 7 days your boots have no chance, and dry socks (+1) lose their special something (-1). You're so excited to put them on your feet in the morning, then you stick your feet in your boots and wonder, 'What was all that warm fuzzy business, about 10 seconds ago?' You get the point.
So the weather is harsher: the last two mornings it's been raining cats and dogs (or 'frogs' if you're french) and the temperature has been close to freezing.
BUT The terrain is WONDERFUL!! (+1)
The Vermonters are GENIUS!!! ... they've done this thing (some kind of fancy new trail maintenance perhaps?) where they've taken dirt and filled in all the cracks between roots and rocks! They call it: Topsoil. If the word feels foreign on your tongue, check quick! ...odds are good you live in Maine. Some of my more geologically savvy friends and family might already know what I have only recently learned: Glaciers ripped off all the topsoil from Maine! It's true! Like a thief in the night (or maybe like an unnamed backpacker behind the front desk of a small motel in rural Vermont?) glaciers took all the dirt from Maine, straight down to the bedrock, to the coast.
{Sidenote: If you live in Cape Cod: The dirt you live on was stolen from Maine, please give it back.*}
So the rain is rain. And it's challenging and uncomfortable, and all that you might expect. To sweat in rain gear or walk in the rain? But Fall is absolutely gorgeous and we have things like hot chocolate, and fires, and views, and foliage to make it all worthwhile. Walking through the woods for 10 hours a day gives you so much time to think about things, and with all the distractions of life, that can be a precious thing. Time to think! Without the constant barrage of marketing, good intentioned but misled advice givers, temptations and distractions. Granted, too much time alone can result in false conclusions and unibomber-esque self editing loops. But too much time alone is hardly the rarer of the two commodities... at least in my experience of the world.
Anyway. I'm done rambling. Here are a couple cool things I found that I'm sharing:
An interactive map of the Appalachian Trail (basically this should be the 'scenic route' that comes up if you choose 'walking' as your mode of transportation between Georgia and Maine): AT interactive map
And here's a cool comic I found that probably took an astounding amount of drawing time at a computer: Click and Drag (this XKCD comic)
Anyway. I'm done rambling. Here are a couple cool things I found that I'm sharing:
An interactive map of the Appalachian Trail (basically this should be the 'scenic route' that comes up if you choose 'walking' as your mode of transportation between Georgia and Maine): AT interactive map
And here's a cool comic I found that probably took an astounding amount of drawing time at a computer: Click and Drag (this XKCD comic)
{*...unless, like a certain (still unnamed) backpacker, you feel a bit like that 'stolen' thing is yours, you know, kind of, in a way, and well, possession being 9/10 of the law and everything... let's just let bygones be bygones.}
Hiking Solo
Well friends, It's been an amazing time here in New York City. I've seen not one, but TWO Broadway shows! I've eaten not one, but TWO New York City hotdogs! I've written a list of not one, not two, but THREE things I've done since coming to NYC!
But the trail is calling... and NYC is expensive. So although I'm having a blast. I'm out.
Alone :(
Lysandra has thought long and hard and decided to cut her losses and get off the trail. She's been an amazing trail partner and I'm going to miss the hell out of her. Now, when we started, I knew full well that she had NO IDEA what she was getting herself into. But she said she'd go, so I didn't ask questions :) One of the reasons I decided to do the Appalachian Trail NOW was because I had someone willing to try it with me! It was just a bonus that I was sweet on her *<3* And now I'm going to have a hell of a time figuring out how to turn all of our two-person routines (she usually cooks while I set up 'camp,' etc...) into a one man act.
Wish me luck, friends. I'll be lonely out there.
*more on the differences of hiking alone after... well, after I've experienced distance hiking, alone, with winter fast approaching.
But the trail is calling... and NYC is expensive. So although I'm having a blast. I'm out.
Alone :(
Lysandra has thought long and hard and decided to cut her losses and get off the trail. She's been an amazing trail partner and I'm going to miss the hell out of her. Now, when we started, I knew full well that she had NO IDEA what she was getting herself into. But she said she'd go, so I didn't ask questions :) One of the reasons I decided to do the Appalachian Trail NOW was because I had someone willing to try it with me! It was just a bonus that I was sweet on her *<3* And now I'm going to have a hell of a time figuring out how to turn all of our two-person routines (she usually cooks while I set up 'camp,' etc...) into a one man act.
Wish me luck, friends. I'll be lonely out there.
*more on the differences of hiking alone after... well, after I've experienced distance hiking, alone, with winter fast approaching.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
NYC!!
So Lyss and I rolled in to New York City yesterday! (the trail doesn't pass straight through the city, but we took a bus in b/c Lysandra has WONDERFUL friends who live here :)
So far I've been relaxing in an antihistamine-induced drowsy haze, but tomorrow will be a day around the city. Already I can tell you that going from the woods to a concrete jungle is HARD! People are EVERYWHERE! and they don't give a CRAP about you!
Just getting ON the bus to come to new york, while stooping to throw our packs under the bus (a practiced motion, moving a pack) the bus driver goes, "Hurry it, you're holdin' me up. I got a lotta stops to make."
Slept on a rooftop last night b/c my allergies were a nightmare with two dogs in the apartment. The wonderful Lysandra slept up there with me to keep me company <3, even though I'm sure she's ready to have a bed to sleep in. Today has been lazy, but tomorrow will be adventurous. We're going to a Broadway show!! (much as I wish I could spend a couple hundred bucks to go see Book of Mormon, I'll be settling for the free ticket 'friend connection'). We're going to see Cyrano about Cyrano de Bergerac.
The trail lately has been ROUGH, but also awesome!! It's continued to rain and be cold. A few days ago we woke up to snow flurries! When you wake up and it's still dark and freezing, a hot drink is a lifesaver, so tea has been seriously integrated into our routine. Lots of tea. Which means we carry honey, naturally (how could you NOT), which means when we stop for snacks sometime we get Honey Shots!!
All in all the trail is still lovely, even though we may have been robbed of peak fall colors by the weather.
Lysandra has lots to tell, and tends to be a bit more loquacious than me, so check out her update soon.
So far I've been relaxing in an antihistamine-induced drowsy haze, but tomorrow will be a day around the city. Already I can tell you that going from the woods to a concrete jungle is HARD! People are EVERYWHERE! and they don't give a CRAP about you!
Just getting ON the bus to come to new york, while stooping to throw our packs under the bus (a practiced motion, moving a pack) the bus driver goes, "Hurry it, you're holdin' me up. I got a lotta stops to make."
Slept on a rooftop last night b/c my allergies were a nightmare with two dogs in the apartment. The wonderful Lysandra slept up there with me to keep me company <3, even though I'm sure she's ready to have a bed to sleep in. Today has been lazy, but tomorrow will be adventurous. We're going to a Broadway show!! (much as I wish I could spend a couple hundred bucks to go see Book of Mormon, I'll be settling for the free ticket 'friend connection'). We're going to see Cyrano about Cyrano de Bergerac.
The trail lately has been ROUGH, but also awesome!! It's continued to rain and be cold. A few days ago we woke up to snow flurries! When you wake up and it's still dark and freezing, a hot drink is a lifesaver, so tea has been seriously integrated into our routine. Lots of tea. Which means we carry honey, naturally (how could you NOT), which means when we stop for snacks sometime we get Honey Shots!!
All in all the trail is still lovely, even though we may have been robbed of peak fall colors by the weather.
Lysandra has lots to tell, and tends to be a bit more loquacious than me, so check out her update soon.
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Quick update!
Hello all!
Lysandra and I have just crossed the boarder... of Vermont. thanks so much to her wonderful cousin, Dorothy, who she hadn't seen in some 15 years, and who was gracious and hospitable while we dominated her computer and kitchen :)
The last few days on the trail have been VERY rainy and juuust above freezing every morning (perfect hypothermia weather!) So Lyss and I have been drinking lots of tea and stopping for quick snack breaks now involves much layering and unlayering.
Also thanks to my wonderful roomie and mommy! Both of whom sent me stuff in the mail. It's so wonderful to get treats, especially the unexpected (i.e. the random drawing of a 'cat zombie') and it always lifts my spirits.
Anybody who wants to cram a small flat rate box with Pro Bars, I can tell you where to send it!
Okay before I end this quick update I should tell you that Lyss has a trail name!!! Lyss is now EDI. Pronounced as if it's short for Edith, it actually stands for Easy Does It, and is a nod to her cautious nature.
Love you all,
Take care,
Fungi and Edi
Lysandra and I have just crossed the boarder... of Vermont. thanks so much to her wonderful cousin, Dorothy, who she hadn't seen in some 15 years, and who was gracious and hospitable while we dominated her computer and kitchen :)
The last few days on the trail have been VERY rainy and juuust above freezing every morning (perfect hypothermia weather!) So Lyss and I have been drinking lots of tea and stopping for quick snack breaks now involves much layering and unlayering.
Also thanks to my wonderful roomie and mommy! Both of whom sent me stuff in the mail. It's so wonderful to get treats, especially the unexpected (i.e. the random drawing of a 'cat zombie') and it always lifts my spirits.
Anybody who wants to cram a small flat rate box with Pro Bars, I can tell you where to send it!
Okay before I end this quick update I should tell you that Lyss has a trail name!!! Lyss is now EDI. Pronounced as if it's short for Edith, it actually stands for Easy Does It, and is a nod to her cautious nature.
Love you all,
Take care,
Fungi and Edi
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