Ok, I'm on a really crabby library computer, and every long post I try to write won't post! I'll try to write a really short message. We're in Rutland, VT (staying with the 12 Tribes "hippy-Christian" commune...but more on that...), and doing well! My feet were really hurting until mid-Mass, but new insoles seem to do the trick. The mountains are getting higher and higher...and we are mere DAYs away from stepping into the two hardest and most beautiful states: New Hampshire and Maine! I'm really looking forward to the spectacular scenery ahead, but a little intimidated as well. We are coordinating with Jared's family so they can meet up with us before we head into the White Mtns.
much love, maribeth (dirty blonde)
We have finally arrived in New England and some people have expressed interest in meeting us on the trail. We will be in Massachusetts in about two days (Saturday June 16th). I know its short notice, but there are busses between trail towns in the Berkshires if you need to get back to your car. We should be in the White Mountains in 10-14 days (the end of June/beginning of July). E-mail me at jaredwestbrook@yahoo.com if you are interested.
Our story through NJ and NY involves losing stuff, getting lost, and many side adventures to find food.
I have had a bad spell lately with leaving precious pieces of gear behind at places. In Pennsylvania, I left my Thru-Hikers Guide at a restaurant. Without this guide we are essentially blind because it lists all of the shelters, water sources, and resupply points. So we made due borrowing info from other hikers and eventually copying pages. Our gear woes compounded when I left the pot/stove at a hostel in the Delaware Water Gap. Because we did not have our guidebook, we did not have the number of the church where we left it, and we were hungry after a full day of hiking. Luckily, we were near YMCA camp Ken-Etiwa-Pec in NJ and the director (Chris) was uber-helpful and friendly. Chris fed us, allowed to use his computer/phone to stage the stove recovery operation, and rounded up the materials to fabricate a new stove/pot should we be unsuccessful in finding the stov
e. We called the church and arranged for someone to deliver the lost goods to us, but much to our chagrin the stove was gone! Could someone had stolen the stove? We had faith in the thru-hiker community so Maribeth decided to post a sign along the trail alerting any passing hikers that may know of the wherabouts of our stove to please walk down the nearby camp. We hung around the camp the next day weeding the property and fashioning a new alcohol stove out of a pop can and a pot out of a large tin can. We rejoiced later when thru-hiker "Retro" and crew showed up at the camp toting our stove. We celebrated over dinner and hung out in the director's cabin watching episodes of Reno 911. Needless to say I was in the shithouse. I vow to check and recheck all places before we depart so we do not lose anything else. As for our thru-hikers guide book, I called the owner of this restaurant in PA arranged for him to send us the book in Fort Montgomery, NY. We reunited with Wingfoot (the author and "god of the AT") at last!
As for the getting lost part, the trail is often poorly marked with many "trick" side trails leading to nowhere so we constantly found ourselves getting off trail through NJ/NY. The worst instance of getting lost occured when we purposely took a side trail down a ridge at the NJ/NY border to get a shower from a local "trail angel." There were directions to this angel's place on a register attached to a tree telling us to walk down the ridge on the stateline trail for about 1/2 hour to reach his house for a free hot shower and possibly a cooked meal if he was home. It was a humid 90 degree day and we were smelling pretty bad, so we decided to take the plunge. The trail was rocky, steep trail and it took longer than 1/2 hour to reach his place. We were having second thoughts on the way down, but we had already commited much time and effort. We reached his house around dusk and found that he was not home. We took our shower, handwashed clothes, and cooked dinner. By this time it was dark and he wasn't home yet, so we decided to stealth camp in his backyard behind the wood pile. We vowed to wake up early in the morning and escape without him knowing. Sure, if we were discovered he would probably have been alright with us camping in his backyard, but we knew from his message on the tree that he was an evangelical Christian and we weren't in the mood to be "saved." Around midnight a storm rolled in and lightning bolts were lighting up the sky. We thought that it was fortuitous that we were not camped up on the ridge. Our clothes were hanging up to dry outside and I went to fetch them before it started raining. As I was outside in my underwear, the guy pulled into his driveway and his headlights shined on me. Luckily he did not see me, but it scared us a little. We woke up early and quietly took down camp. The last step was to fill our water bottles from his shower. The noise of the water running woke him up and we were caught. He came out and greeted us at 6:30 in the morning. I do not think he knew that we camped there that night, but he was friendly and wanted to engage us in conversation. It turns out he had helped out a wanted criminal and thief in the guise of a thru-hiker in the previous year. A guy was fleeing Rhode Island on child molestation charges and was seeking redemption through Christianity and the trail. He stopped in at this guys place and he put him up for a few days (without knowledges of the criminal's checkered past). The criminal could not escape his past and went on to steal gear, food, and two cars while hiking the trail. The criminal kept in contact with the trail angel and ultimately this led to his arrest because the trail angel turned him in. The story was featured in Backpacker Magazine in the April 2007 issue. The trail angel had just recieved correspondence with the criminal and offered to let us read his letter. We declined, thinking it an invasion of privacy. The angel defended the criminal as a saved man and it turns out that the angel was also friends with David Berkowitz "Son of Sam" serial killer. He also defended Berkowitz as a saved Christian and offered us David's Jesus pamplet. He said Berkowitz probably killed only three people, not the six that he was charged with. We smiled, accepted the pamplet and realized it was time to leave. So we trudged back up the ridge, got turned around, walked back down the ridge and realized when we were nearly back at this guy's place. It took us two hours to get back to the trail. On the way back up we thought of cheesy metaphors to describe our horrific experience such as "we were lost, but now we are found."
Finally, we have taken many side trips off the trail to get food. Notably, we stopped at two places that offered homemade ice cream only a stone's throw from the trail. We met a couple in Maryland (they were section hiking) that offered to bring us food when we arrived in Connecticut. We took down their info, and reuniting with our guidebook allowed us to cash in on the offer. We hiked 50 miles in two days to make it to CT in time for them to meet us at the trailhead. They fed us quinoa salad and brought us back to their place for laundry/shower/beer and here we are again in the hands of kind people.
2/3rds done. New England here we come!
Jared (Backbend)
