Bama➡️Baxter Day 123&124 

Day 123: 19 miles

This morning I woke up in my tent after sleeping great. The thunder and lightning last night was loud for a while, but once I knocked out, I didn’t wake up all night. And even though it poured rain, I was bone dry inside my tent.

By 7:30 a.m., we were all packed up and ready to head out. The first stretch of the day we did 6.8 miles before stopping. When we arrived at our first water source of the day, we decided it was the perfect opportunity to stop off for a break.

There I ate something and did some stretching. We hung out for a little while and then continued along. Not long after we got back to hiking it began to rain lightly. Just like yesterday, I decided to bank on the fact that the rain would let up quickly. But instead, it began to pour intensely, and I never put my rain gear on. Fortunately, it was so warm out that the rain was actually pretty comfortable.

It wound up pouring for about two hours straight. Sweet Pea and I were hiking together and talking for a while. We couldn’t help but laugh at the situation. When we walked by a couple of section hikers, they gave us the craziest look of disbelief. They were bundled up in their rain gear while the two of us were soaked from head to toe, but still smiling and laughing. In the true thru-hiker fashion, of course.

At one point, I realized that my pack cover was collecting water in the base. There must have been a small hole in it, or it was bunched up somewhere in a way that it wasn’t supposed to be. I repeatedly wound up having to dump out the puddle of water that was collecting at the bottom of the pack cover. Because it was raining so much, I really didn’t want to stop walking to figure out what was going on.

Around 1:15 p.m., Sweet Pea and I arrived at the Canopus Lake Beach recreation area. There was apparently a concession stand, so we figured that that would be as good a place as any to take another break. Just as we arrived, the rain let up, which was pretty hilarious. We had spent over almost two hours walking in the pouring rain, so of course it would let up just as we wanted to stop for a break somewhere dry.

Tailwind was already there at the recreation area hanging out. He was squatted up in one of the bathrooms drying his stuff out with the hand dryer. We joined him and dropped off our stuff in the bathroom. I took off my soaking wet shoes and wound up cleaning all of the mud off of my legs. Then I headed into the concession building to order some lunch. I got a chicken finger sandwich with French fries and a soda. What an awesome way to recover emotionally from the hours of rain.

While we were there, the sun eventually came out and we got an opportunity to dry out our things. After well over an hour, Squirrel arrived as well. He had gotten turned around on trail and wound up going south for a while before he noticed. So he wound up adding a good bit of mileage to his day which was why he was so far behind.

Before we left the lake area, we all were able to get our gear completely dry. That felt like such a blessing on a sopping wet day. Once again we had planned to do a pretty big day of hiking, but were discouraged by the rain. The idea of stopping early and sleeping in a shelter sounded wonderful. So instead of pushing big miles, we decided to just do another four miles and end our day at the RPH Shelter.

Sweet Pea, Squirrel, Tailwind, and I all hiked out together to head over to the shelter. It’s apparently a mostly enclosed shelter and is close enough to a road that we may be able to order food there. The trail over to the shelter was nice and easy and the time flew by.

When we arrived at the creek just before the shelter, there were a few other hikers filling up water. Everyone was clearly heading to the shelter for the night, so I quickly filled my CNOC bag and then headed over to the shelter. I really wanted to grab a spot inside and wasn’t sure how many people were already there. It’s been ages since I’ve had to rush over to a shelter to beat other hikers for a spot. I don’t think that that has happened since Georgia! It was quite a funny feeling.

The RPH shelter was really cool. There was a front door but no back wall. The far side of the shelter just opened up onto a covered porch area. A few other hikers were there already hanging out. But there was plenty of room for the four of us to get a bunk in the shelter.

I set up on one of the bunks and then laid a couple more of my things outside to dry. Another hiker, Mumbles, arrived and joined us inside. Then we got an order together to call in for pizza. I wasn’t super hungry so I just got an order of garlic knots and decided to split a two liter of soda with Sweet Pea.

The rest of the night, we all just lounged inside the shelter and wound up getting stoned. I got some writing done, which was lovely. Then I laid on my bunk and did my stretching before finally calling it a night.

Day 124: 31 miles

This morning we actually got an early start for the first time in a while. All of us were packed up and walking by 7:00 a.m. Once we set out, we wound up going about six miles before taking our first break of the day. Squirrel and I passed by a road and decided it was as good a place as any to stop. Sweet Pea caught up and we all hung out there for a while snacking and whatnot.

From there we did about seven more miles until we came upon a water cache. The area was pretty dry so we couldn’t pass up the convenient water source. We all stopped off there and filled up on water and decided to break for a bit to camel up. All of us sat around pretty quietly for that break. My energy has really been feeling off lately. I’m generally pretty strongly impacted by the vibes and energies of other people, so sometimes when the vibes aren’t feeling great, I wind up feeling emotionally drained.

After sitting around there for a while, we decided to continue on. We knew that there was a food truck just off of the AT up ahead and were eager to get there to eat. It was only about four miles further and the time went by quickly. Along this next stretch, we passed by a massive oak tree, which was really cool. It was probably just as big if not bigger than the Keffer Oak that we saw a while back along the trail.

It wasn’t long before we arrived at the road where we could walk over to the DC Malaysian Food Truck in Pawling, NY. The food truck was only a tenth of a mile off the trail, so we all walked over. That food was probably the best meal that I’ve eaten along the entire Appalachian trail. I ordered pork buns, a noodle dish, and a Thai iced tea. Everything was fantastic! We were all in heaven.

After we all ate, Squirrel wound up hitching into Pawling, NY to go to the post office. He ordered a bunch of new gear to lighten his pack weight significantly. While he headed into town to do that, Sweet Pea and I walked down the street to see if we could get everything for our resupply from a gas station. We grabbed a few things at the gas station and then decided to Uber into the nearby town of Wingdale for a side quest. The Uber brought us right to a smoke shop and the guy inside sold us some weed, which was super convenient. Then the same Uber driver brought us right back to the trailhead! It was definitely a ridiculous side quest, but it wound up working out well and not taking to long.

Our side quest was a bit unnecessary, but I honestly couldn’t remember the last time that I had so much fun. It really snapped me out of the mental funk that I’ve been in lately. Sweet Pea and I have been hiking together for a super long time, but I can’t remember the last time that we hung out just the two of us. It was exactly what I needed. I could truly feel a noticeable difference in my energy after our little detour.

Right as we got back on the trail, we ran into Squirrel, who had successfully gone into town and swapped out a bunch of his gear. It was just after 5:00 p.m., so all of our antics didn’t wind up killing too much time. When we got back to walking, I was feeling so happy and I was in a really great mindset. I felt like myself again for the first time in days.

After walking for a couple of miles, we decided to stop off and try some of the pot that we got at the smoke shop. Then we continued along for another 3.6 miles to the Wiley Shelter. When we got there, Tailwind was already set up and hanging out. Apparently, his feet have really been bothering him the last couple of days. All of the rain has caused some type of rubbing, which is giving him a lot of pain. So he is trying to slow down for a couple days in hopes that it gets better on its own.

All of us hung out at the shelter for a while before continuing along. We wanted to do a bit of a bigger day if we could. Lately we’ve been doing so many short days because of all the rain. I knew that it would feel really good to get a big mile day in. Only about a mile or so after we got back to hiking, we wound up passing the New York and Connecticut border! We have officially made our way to New England. I’m almost back home. I truly can’t believe that I have walked from Alabama all the way to New England!

We got to the NY/CT border just before it got dark, which was nice. Then we decided to play the game of walking for as long as we could before we turned our headlamps on. Sweet Pea and I wound up making it until around 9:15 p.m. before we finally had to cave and whip out our headlamps. By that point we couldn’t see a goddamn thing and it was getting a bit unsafe.

After a few miles, we passed the side trail down to the Ten Mile River Shelter. We decided that if the shelter was empty we would call it a night there. But if the shelter had anyone inside of it, we would just keep going until we found a suitable tent site. And of course, when we approached the shelter, we immediately got barked at by the dog of someone who was set up inside. So we continued on to find someplace else to camp for the night.

A couple of miles later, we decided to walk down Woods Road, which is a side trail to a covered bridge and a general store. It was obviously too late to go to the store, but we figured that we could camp somewhere nearby and hit the store first thing in the morning. I was feeling really good and like I could keep walking for forever! But we wound up finding a really cool place to tent near the covered bridge. There was a small trail to an overlook of a gushing river, so we decided to set up our tents right by the overlook. It was so late at night that we knew no one would be coming by.

Once we all got set up, we hung out for a little bit. Squirrel headed to bed and I did my stretching. Then I hung out with Sweet Pea, who was making his dinner at the bench on the overlook platform. It began to rain lightly around that time, so decided to retreat to my tent and call it a night.