Excitement and Exhaustion

It’s finally here. I’ve been waiting for this moment for what feels like months, but realistically it has only been 2 weeks. The days dragged as my anticipation to get on trail grew. I got the word that Murph was in and this journey was going to include a party of two. We mapped out the drive up to Vermont from New York & New Jersey and calculated we would be spending a total of 10 hours driving to the locations we will leave our cars. Thrilling! I am fueled with adrenaline as I begin the drive up at 6 AM the morning of July 10th. I’m smiling from ear to ear and ready to get my feet on the ground and continue taking those steps to the Canadian border. After a smooth 5 hour drive I get to where Murph and I plan to park my car near the Northern Terminus. Now here is the thing. We both are driving and this makes getting off trail very easy. It also makes the first day incredibly long. Nonetheless I get to stop one before Murph. I follow my navigation and pull into the driveway. Upon approaching the home I’m planning on leaving my car I notice that the description of where I should park doesn’t match the layout of the homeowner’s property. I shrug it off and hop out of my car walking towards the front door. I notice inside the front door of this home is a rifle, mental note, cause I’m feeling like something is off. No one answers after I knock. I walk back down the driveway and around to the side of the house. I peer in the open window and hear family feud on in the background. I knock on the door at the side of the house, again no answer. Clouds are covering the sky screaming that rain is coming. My mind begins to create this false reality that I’ve entered an area of Vermont populated with individuals from the movie the Hills have Eyes. It’s only a matter of time before I get snatched and thrown in the basement of this house. I spend about 5 minutes outside this home before deciding I must have the wrong house. I text Murph this odd sequence of events and tell him I’ll wait on the road for him. We both link up on the road and proceed to try a house that matches the description we were given from the homeowner. Success! The homeowner has hiked the Long Trail in total 3 times end-to-end with his wife. We leave my vehicle after talking to the homeowner and head south to North Adams Massachusetts. After another 4.5 hour drive we arrive. It’s almost 5 PM at this point and Murph and I decide to do some last minute shopping at the ol’ grocery store. We get some last minute snacks and make our way to the trail head. We decide to take the Appalachian Trail Approach. We found a campsite approximately 2 miles in from the location we leave Murph’s car. Easy, 2 miles for the approach before we get into the swing of things tomorrow, right?

Day 0

Not even close. After driving all day we are both exhausted and within the first 1o minutes of hiking Murph and I are drenched. It’s not raining out, but the humidity hit us so hard we are dripping sweat shortly after beginning the approach trail. We hike around a nice stream and make it to our campsite. I’m amazed at how 2 miles could make me feel so disgusting. Is this what hiking the Long Trail is going to feel like? Before going to sleep I’m in awe of the hundreds of fireflies that arrive to our campsite. They flicker and flutter between the trees leaving a glowing trail behind them like little lightbulbs being switched on and off in the distance. It is sinking in, I’m here, it’s time to do the Long Trail!

“Campsite for Day 0 and some Sweets”

Day 1 – Out of Massachusetts and into Vermont

The morning starts much like the night before. The humidity is suffocating, like being slapped in the face with thick hot air. There is no escaping it so I have to adapt and accept this fact. The true day 1 starts with an intense climb up Mt. Greylock to get to the Long Trail Southern Terminus. Once again my body is releasing sweat faster than the Hoover Dam. My shirt and shorts are beginning to feel like swim gear and my eyebrows are constantly dripping sweat into my eyes. The act of brushing the sweat out of my eyes causes more dampness to blur my vision. This is frustrating, but just like that atop Mt. Greylock the first view of the trail appears. Instantly I’m reminded why I love this hiking thing so much and I’m filled with newfound energy. Shortly after continuing on the terminus comes into view. The feeling of seeing this sign that I had envisioned myself approaching was intense. I was filled with excitement, joy, and uncertainty for what this trip would have in store for me. I only knew one thing. It was about to begin. Murph and I approach the Congdon shelter. Or as we called it the Condom shelter. We met quite a few AT hikers and overheard conversations about rocks and a ski mask. What is happening? As one of the girls is leaving she tells us that someone on FarOut posted that a man in a yellow ski mask and wearing all black is throwing rocks at hikers .3 miles past the Condom shelter. We looked everywhere for this guy, but he was nowhere to be found so we pushed on. This hike is looking a lot odder than I expected. I’m glad I didn’t see him, but at the same time I was hoping he was there. We climbed down some stone stairs. These stone stairs went down for what felt like forever. The trail was gone and turned into a scramble. Murph and I make it down after descending about 750 feet of rock at almost 16 miles into day 1. It is an understatement to say our bodies hurt. We cross Rt. 9 and sit in an area that says no camping to make dinner. Murph’s legs are shaking from the steep descent of the stone stairs, I am exhausted and ready for dinner. We sat for about an hour before the dreaded decision was to be made. Do we camp here or find the first campsite? Of course, we couldn’t camp there, so Murph and I get up and cross the William D. McArthur Memorial Bridge. To our surprise directly across the bridge were tent sites. The trail provides. We sigh in relief, set up our tents, and hunker down for the night. It was a long one for day one.

“Harmon Hill, the first viewpoint on the LT.”

Day 2 – Hey Grandpa

*THUD* *ZIIIIIP**CLICK* 

A headlamp turns on. I groggily turn over and notice the light is coming from the direction of Murph’s tent. My body is exhausted so I doze back to sleep. I wake up the next morning and need to know what happened. I ask Murph, “did something wake you up last night?” He tells me he heard some noises and thought it might have been a raccoon outside his tent. Turns out it wasn’t, instead it was a baby bird. He could barely see it because the bird blended in with the leaves and the only thing that stood out was the reflection the headlamp’s light produced on the bird’s eyes. He didn’t know how it got there, but when he shined his headlamp on it the bird seemed to be extremely stressed and breathing heavy. The bird was gone this morning and this was a first for Murph on the trail. After that intense Day 1 we decided to have a mellow 10 mile day to Goddard shelter. FarOut was raving about the water. I love me some good water comments. I make my way up the first climb and run into a hiker named Doggone. She was from Virginia Beach where I had lived a few years ago. To make this world even smaller she lives on 24th street by the Ocean Front, the same street I lived on. What are the odds? I mean, cmon, seriously? We both agree small world and continue our hikes north on our own separate paths. Enter Alice, this is the first LT hiker I’ve met on the trail so far. She is doing her first thruhike and got dropped off literally the night before from Montreal. I remember feeling excited for her and hoping we cross paths again. I’m cruising along at this point and stop at a rock for a snack break. Out of nowhere a beautiful butterfly flies over and lands on my sock. It stayed on my sock feeling around and fluttering its wings. Following my sock it decided to explore a bit more, it flew up to my shirt and tested out how my leg felt. During this time I got the feeling that my grandpa was visiting. When he passed away my family and I noticed butterflies would follow us. Mainly myself and my mother. The strange thing was this butterfly landed directly where I treated my clothes with permethrin. I admired the butterfly as we spent about 5 minutes together before he went on his way. I got up and felt newfound peace as I hiked on. Murph and I get to Goddard shelter and I share what happened with the butterfly. We also indulge in the BEST water so far. No doubt, the comments were accurate. Our plan to stop at Goddard didn’t seem right, it was too early, and we felt great. We continue forward with hopes of getting to Kid Gore shelter. We make our way to the shelter and find it is packed, no tent sites or room in the shelter. So we drag our disgustingly sweaty selves down the trail to find a lovely area for camping and set up for the night. 

“Grandpa came to say hello”

“Hey little butterfly”

Day 3 – Stratton Mountain Surprise

I wake up, roll over to check my phone, and see it’s 4:30 AM. From outside my tent I can hear the pitter patter of the rain bouncing off of my rain fly. I don’t want to get up. Murph and I gather our things and roll up our wet tents with the goal of getting up to Stratton Mountain today. This is our first challenging climb of the Long Trail, in my opinion thus far. Shortly into our day we run into a familiar face. Alice is back, I’m starting to think that our paces are matching up and she may be joining us on this journey to Canada from here on out. My body is feeling great at this point. I arrive at Beaver Pond, one of many in Vermont. The stream leading into the pond is cutting between rocks in front of me and forming many small tributaries that connect to the pond. It is beautiful here, the trees are shrouding me from direct sunlight, yet I’m still able to see the sun rising above the horizon. I decide this is the perfect place to meditate. One thing I wanted to incorporate on this trip was meditation, so before leaving I downloaded a few guided meditation sets, one being focused on Stoicism. I sat down and listened. I heard the stream flowing, became relaxed, and listened to the ideas of negative visualization. I began to picture my life without people I love dearly and was filled with a newfound gratitude for those exact people who make time to check in on me and create memories with me. I began to picture not having the ability to walk. Hiking would not be possible anymore. I’m so grateful for the ability to walk, something I take for granted most days. The meditation comes to a close and Murph approaches me. We decide to break at the road before the climb to Stratton for lunch. Lets go!

The Surprise

I get to the road before Murph. Unlike my usual lunch, which usually consists of tortillas and peanut butter or meats/cheese, I decide to make a hot lunch. I boil my water and get some buffalo mac and cheese brewing. Shortly after I pour the boiling water into my meal Murph shows up. We make eye contact and he asks, “you won’t be mad if I push forward?” In my head I’m screaming NO, but I reply “not a problem, I’ll catch you up there.” I look at this full bag of mac and cheese and my perspective switches from relaxing and enjoying the meal to scarfing it down as fast as possible. It’s like I’m in a hot dog eating contest, but when I finish I need to climb 2,000 feet up a mountain. I down the mac and cheese within 5 minutes and pack everything up. I am racing up the mountain and the entire way my body is yelling at me, stop, go to the bathroom, digest. I’m doing the one thing I shouldn’t have done after eating a full meal and now my body is confused about what it needs. I pass Murph & Alice after making it about halfway up the climb. I’m dripping sweat off my face with each step leaving a trail behind me as I make it to the summit. I arrive at the firetower! I am afraid of climbing these things. I have only climbed one and this was a long time ago when I served in Americorps. For some reason I feel the need to face this fear. I begin the climb up the fire tower. Each step towards the top I can see myself slowing down. Every so often the wind hits me and my fear is being realized. I can fall, I may slip, and the wildest one was I can totally slide through the 4-5 inch wide gap between steps and fall to my death. I don’t think that is humanly possible, but it feels real at the time. The sky is clear with storm clouds in the distance and the first incredible view of the trail is being witnessed by me. I stare out at the mountains in New York state, my home. In awe and filled with excitement all exhaustion leaves my body. I see Murph getting to the summit and shout down from the firetower. We reconnect at the bottom and get word that the gondola down to Stratton Mountain is open and even better they are selling food! It’s 2:30 PM and 3/4 of a mile to the gondola. The last gondola rolls up to Stratton Peak at 4:30 PM according to some locals who were excited to talk to Long Trail hikers. Alice arrives and according to our calculations we want burger. We hike full steam to the gondola and ride down this thing excited for the side quest we just unlocked. A mountain bike event is going down and after going to the bathroom I return to Murph handing me a popcorn bag. A woman running the snack bar at the event gave us all popcorn since she was closing up and saw we were hiking. Pretty awesome. We all order burgers and within 10 minutes we smash everything. We relax and rest until about 4:20 before heading back up the gondola. Back to the trail, what a refreshing side mission we just pulled off. Riding up the gondola I’m picturing the times I’ve skied at Stratton as a kid. It’s pretty surreal looking at the same mountain for the first time in a different season. We make it back to the summit and decide to push on to Stratton Pond. Our first pond of the trail. Do we swim?

Stratton Pond Shelter

We reach a massive shelter with bunks and a larger section hidden in the attic of the shelter for hikers to sleep. Shortly after arriving a man approaches us. He introduces himself as Jake. He tells us he is the caretaker for the shelter and gives us the ground rules. Awesome, I didn’t know they had those up here. I decide to sleep in my first shelter of the trail fully giving myself to my favorite style of hiking, lazy hiking. Lazy hiking is essentially doing the bare minimum to get by. If I can cowboy camp I’m in, if I can shelter I’m in. This makes packing up in the morning that much easier. What once was a 20 minute clean up is now a 5 minute pack up and walk. I set up my pad and sleeping bag and make my way to the pond. My body feels disgusting. I smell worse than I ever have backpacking and am still sweaty from the humidity that has been a constant on our journey. I am swimming, I am taking a bath. I feel the crisp cold water rising from my feet to my torso as I enter the pond and then with one swift movement I submerge my entire body into the water. My head arises from under the water, I shake out the water dripping from my hair and scream with excitement. I feel refreshed and look around at the pond I’m currently in. I start to realize this may very well be the only time I’m in this pond during my lifetime. I feel so fortunate to experience this and swim to shore. Jake, our caretaker insists we come back to the pond for sunset as we head back to camp. Upon arriving at camp we notice a family of 6 talking by the fire pit. These kids are young, around the ages of 10-13. One of them engages with me and Murph almost instantly. He is infuriated by what is happening with hard candies. “How can they do this?” he says. “I love jawbreakers because you suck on them and they last a long time. Now we have lifesavers gummies and skittles gummies, but they just are not as good as the hard candy. You can store them in your pocket and save em for later. With gummy candies you can’t. You finish them as soon as you put them in your mouth.” This kid is gonna be a lawyer or master debater. I was questioning him about his logic and laughing with him about his fascination and love for hard candy. Before I know it the sun is setting. I tell Murph I’m headed to the pond to check the sunset. He wants to join so we both make our way down to the pond. We get there a bit late, but can see the beautiful pinks and purples on the horizon in the distance. We stand around the pond silent. Taking in the beauty in front of us. A beautiful way to end our third day on trail. 

“Time for a swim in Stratton Pond”

“The sun setting over Stratton Pond”

Day 4 – Town Day!

The first town day. I’m so ready. My body is screaming for a shower and some McDonalds. It’s funny how I want McDonalds when I’m out here. We are planning on hitching into Manchester Center for our first resupply and night in town. The day starts off lovely. Alice is asleep and we don’t want to wake her, but she had concerns about hitchhiking into town. Murph and I decide we will hang by the road for a bit and see if she makes it to help her hitch. It’s smooth sailing today and before I know it I arrive at Prospect Rock. I am walking down what looks like a logging road up until this point and start to wonder if I’m off trail. Prospect Rock is hidden off to the left of the trail here. No markers or signs, just a small indication of a well traveled footpath guides me down into the tree coverage. The view is amazing and I end up meeting a woman from Texas who offers me fresh fruit. I kindly decline and tell her I’m headed into town today, but appreciate her kindness. We talk about Big Bend and she insists I go visit. Murph and I make it to the road before we know it. After some deliberations we decide Alice might not make it to town today. She seemed very tired the night before and we hadn’t seen her at all up until this point with many long breaks just hanging out. We decide to stick our thumbs up and within 2 minutes a car is pulling off to the side of the road. I see the passenger window roll down and a woman yells out to me, “I don’t wanna hit you!” I laugh and realize they are picking up a couple hikers ahead of us. Within a minute we get a wave from the vehicle motioning us to hop in for the ride. Excitement is here knowing we have a night at the Econo Lodge and McDonalds so close to our fingertips. Murph and I get to the lodge, shower, and make our way to McDonalds. On the off chance that Alice shows up Murph leaves his phone number and tells the clerk at EconoLodge to let her into our room if she arrives. Showering felt incredible. I was cleansed! The sweat, gunk, mud, urine, and dirt was washed off of me. It felt holy. After an incredible lunch consisting of a quarter pounder with cheese, large fries, and 10 piece nuggets Murph and I handle our town chores. We resupply at PriceChopper, grab some gear we both needed and make our way back to the lodge. The rest of the night is spent exactly how a town day should, with lots of lying down and Impractical Jokers. The first stretch of trail is under our belts and we are having a blast.

“Prospect Rock with my new friend from Texas”

“One of the many breaks to unfunk my sweaty self”