Not a good place to step
Seth Warner Shelter to Melville Nauheim Shelter: 14 Miles
I got up late, as usual, which leads me to think that since it’s usual than I guess it’s not late. If I got up at the time when everyone else gets up I should probably say I got up early. Acceptance is the key my man. Normal reveille for me is about 9AM and that’s when I got up, stomach growling and hungry for Pop-Tarts and coffee. It was going to be a great day I could tell. The weather was perfect. Me and Indy got all packed up at roughly the same time and headed out around 10:30 or so. Most people I know have already done 10 miles by 10:30. Not me, I get my hiking stride around 4 or 5PM I really wish I could hike all night but I don’t have a good night-hiking headlamp. Night hiking is a little sketchy too with all the slippery rocks and the faint blazes. I could wind up in Kentucky or something. I figured I’d be down at Vermont Route 9 by about 2PM and maybe that would give Truckstop enough time to call me back. I wasn’t counting on it though. Besides it would be better if I got in some bigger miles today. The climbs were reasonable and although my pack is very heavy, probably 60lbs at least, I don’t even really feel it anymore. It has more or less become a part of my body. I passed Sucker Pond and some guy sitting there painting or rather Charcoaling it and I asked him a few questions and all I got were gestures so I figure he must have taken a vow of silence or something. He looked like a Thru-hiker though. I’ve never seen him so he’s probably SOBO (southbound) although, if he’s sitting around at every pond charcoaling and stuff, I’m probably going much faster than him and he could be a NOBO (Northbounder). Regardless, he didn’t say a word and I noticed it; pompous, vow-of-silence bastard that he was. Maybe I was interrupting him… ONWARD! I managed the climb down to VT9 without a knee-splitting incident even though I was harangued my Vermont Deer Flies constantly. There is always this low-grade buzz around your head and you know he’s just waiting to land on your hat and bite right through it. At least the Mosquitoes haven’t been a problem here. I met this guy Scottie who is a SOBO and he was saying that he discovered that the mosquitoes go about 2 miles an hour and if you go just faster than that you can outrun them. I informed him that he was traveling into 5 MPH Mosquito country and I hope his legs were ready for that. My brother’s Friend Eve called me to say that she and her boyfriend could meet me up the trail. They were very generous and were talking about driving several hours to come and meet up; but, I think that’s too far. I wouldn’t ask them to do that, maybe I’ll meet up witht hem when the trail gets much closer. Truckstop still hadn’t gotten my message by the time I hit VT9 so I pressed on to tackle the uphill to the next shelter. Later I got her message saying she was laid up at her parents in New Hampshire due to a rather gruesome sounding fall into an ocean somewhere or something like that. Maybe we’ll do Karaoke in NH.
The last time I did Karaoke was in Gatlinburg with Mad Mtn. Mike and Cubit and MacGuyver. I could stand a night of caterwauling at the drunks. I really miss that. Then climb up the hill from VT9 had me pausing a few times to Ahem, check out stuff while my heartbeat returned to double digits per minute. I got in to the Melville Nauheim Shelter around 1545 with roughly 2 hours left of daylight it was a tough decision whether or not to go the next 8 miles to the next shelter. Thunder had been booming since I came up VT9 and I thought it was going to rain any second which helped me to make my decision to stay. Some folks were already there, a couple of young guys from Minnesota, one going to MIT, a guy showed up from New Hampshire, Half-way was his trail name when he Thru-hiked a few years ago. A woman whose name I forget was in the shelter already and Indy showed up while I was getting water. Two sisters, Ratchet and Awesomoppossom, came in a little while later with their dogs, Sadie and Bosco. Dinner and a campfire ensued and Guitar playing until late. The rain held off. I was trying to journal out by my hammock when all this racket went up around me. Some kind of animal was running around just outside of headlamp and computer light and I was getting a little unnerved. All I need is to startle some Drunk Belligerent Skunk coming home from the local watering hole to ruin my night most completely. I hung up the computer and hit the hammock. Around Midnight I awoke with a startle. It was silent and then the wind blew up with a tremendous howl, the likes of which I don’t think I have ever heard. It blew through the trees like a freight train and my hammock started to bob up and down; not side to side; but up and down, which meant the trees were being pulled away from each other. Lightning and thunder started popping up everywhere like a natural Fourth of July celebration. It was almost a constant show of light through the rain fly of my hammock. Then the rain started. You could hear it coming up the mountain with the howling wind and I suddenly realized that not only were we on the highest ground in the surrounding area; but, I had tied up to a tree which had already been struck by lightning. I hadn’t really thought of it except to assess whether or not it would be good to tie up to. Since it was a big tree and still living I figured it was OK; but now, with lightning assured, I reviewed the statistics of Lightning hitting the same tall tree on a ridgeline twice and the chances seemed pretty good. I have always wanted to get struck by lightning because I have this idea that after I do, I will be blessed with some Super Powers so I just laid there and waited for it. I woke up in the morning with no apparent Super Powers and a completely unsigned tent so I guess the lightning skirted our ridge. Oh well, maybe next time. Other than the vegetation being wet it looks like it will be anice day for hiking. I think I’m going to catch a toad today and put it on my head to see if he’ll stay there and eat the deer flies. It could happen! Oh yeah, this morning while I was talking about Mt Greylock I was describing these huge turds I saw on the trail that I thought were Elk or a big deer and it turns out they were from a MOOSE! I might see a MOOSE! I can’t wait! I’m going to call him Bullwinkle and see if he laughs!
David AKA “Mister Gentle Spirit”
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