Day 110: A Nearo

Decisions

One of the challenges of living the Vanlife along the AT is that my daily mileage is dictated by road crossings. Some days my legs tell me I should be hiking 20 miles, or 10, but the road atlas overrules them and gives me a choice of 8, 15, or 24 miles.

Today was one of those days. I could either do 7.7 or 23.6 miles. Since today would have been our weekly zero day, and I wasn’t sure if I’d really have the legs for 23.6 miles, I picked the short mileage and made it a nearo. Plus, a short day would set me up for a more reasonable 16.9 miles the next day, which would include three notable climbs.

How to Spend a Nearo

On nearo days, you can either sleep in or quit early. Or both. Or in my case, I get up early as usual and lollygag around while my better half and dog sleep in. To each his own. And by lollygag, I mean write and edit blog posts. I’m always trying to catch up.

Great Falls

We rolled into the Great Falls of the Housatonic near Falls Village around 10:30 am. I’d planned on taking Gus for a swim but the morning was overcast and a little chilly, and Northstar wasn’t enthused about spending the day with a wet dog. For his part, Gus was all in for a swim and kept bringing me sticks to toss in the water for him. Nice try, pup, but I’m not falling for that one again.

Gus & A Long Game of Fetch

Last summer, we took Gus and Roux on a little raft trip on the Oregon’s Lower Deschutes River. Our second day out, Gus found a stick by the river and went to work trying to pull it up to our camp site for a game of fetch. Unfortunately for him, the stick was part of a tree that had recently fallen in the river, so he didn’t make much progress.

Gus tugged, chewed, and wrestled with the tree for a while, but ended up just barking at it incessantly and annoying everyone in camp. Eventually, I walked down to the river, broke it off the chunk he was mad at, and absently mindedly tossed it far out into the strong current. Just as it left my hand, I realized my mistake.

Gus watched the stick’s flight into the water, glanced at me, and dove in. He still had his life vest on, fortunately, as he was swept downstream into a mile-long Class II rapid. Not that it bothered Gus. He is very committed to his games of fetch and was actually gaining on the stick, though he was a quarter mile downstream by the time he got within 50 feet.

Meanwhile, I ran along a railroad grade that follows the river calling him back. Not until the stick got away did he look around, see me, and turn to swim back to shore. By that time, we were almost a half-mile downstream. He climbed out, soaked and happy, and immediately started looking for another stick.

So, no, I would not be playing fetch with Gus at the top of the waterfalls today.

A Nearo Hike

The 7.7-mile hike went about as expected. It included a moderate climb, a few nice partial views of the surrounding valleys, some fragrant pine woods with needle-covered trail segments, and a short road walk through some fancy homes and an old cemetery. Best of all, I felt like I had walked in the mountains again.

I don’t know if it’s the granitic terrain, slight vegetative changes, cooler weather, or the first hints of bigger peaks in the distance, but trail hasn’t felt very mountainous since southern Virginia until today.  I know that the AT has had higher peaks since then, but something about them didn’t feel like mountains. I’ll have to give more thought to that over the next few days and take another crack at an explanation.

Moldering?

I walked up to Undermountain Road but saw no sign of Northstar or the van. I was about to pull out my phone to call her when I recognized Gus’ bark in the distance. The parking area was setback in the trees out of sight of the road between two nice homes, a perfect boondocking site. It even had a privy, though I had to explain the difference between a moldering and a moldy privy before Northstar would take a look. A moldering privy uses leaves to help digest the waste. A moldy privy is what you find out back of gas stations in Tennessee hillbilly country.

A Boondock Afternoon

We spent a wonderful afternoon sitting behind the screens in the van, writing, reading, napping, and occasionally poking our heads out to greet hikers as they passed through. Northstar was entertaining a group of section hikers when I walked up. Later we saw Pony and Soup walk through, two hikers I’d met at High Point State Park in New Jersey.

We had a long conversation with J-Mo and his daughter Lioness. J-Mo was hiking with the Warrior Project until he fell behind after going home to collect his daughter after her high school graduation. The Warrior Project helps veterans work out some of their post-service burdens through long distance hiking. I’m not sure I’ve met two nicer thru hikers on the trail this year. I’d love to hear more of his story.

I’d hoped to meet some of the permanent neighbors. I’ve been noticing homes that back up to the woods that surround the AT and have been wondering what the locals think about the trail. Do they know it exists? Are they aware that thousands of hikers pass by their backyards every year? Do their kids come out and play on the trail? Is “right by the AT” part of the sales pitch when they sell their homes? Or is it something they hide from? I could see it going either way.

Daily Stats:

• Start: Dugway Road (Mile 1500.8)
• End: Undermountain Road (Mile 1508.5)
• Weather: Overcast, humid.
• Earworm: None. Went straight to the book (Book 6 of Cradle)
• Meditation: Lk 11:2-4
• Plant of the Day: Wild Bergamot
• Goal: Set up for tomorrow’s mileage and climbs
• Best Thing: The falls at Falls Village
• Worst Thing: Grey skies