Sunday, July 28, 2013

Hiker Trash

As we have hiked over 1700 miles we have come to realize we are the worst kind of people. We are Appalachian Trail thru-hikers, or Hiker Trash. You may ask what does this term mean. It means to many that we are the homeless hikers dragging their town down into the slums.  We are the kind of people that smell non-stop & have others cover their face with their  shirts in gas station lines. We are the kind of people who put our beer in paper cups then sit on closed store stoops & wonder if the cop that just pulled in the alley is coming for us. We are the kind of people who go into the post office & when we go to grab our wallet out of our pack a moth flies up towards the mail lady. We are the kind of people who get on the bus to town & when we sit down an ant crawls out of a hole in our shoe. We are the kind of people who see trash on the side of the road & wonder if its trail magic, only to rummage through it & find only trash. We are the kind of people who get excited when a public restroom has good toilet paper. We are the kind of people who leave a pile of pizza boxes under the sink & a black ring in the shower of the hotels we stay in. We are the kind of people that wonder if it would be rude to fill our water bottles up with the hose on the side of your house. We are the kind of people you love to hate, true Hiker Trash. But what can we say we pee in the woods, we live in a tent, we shower once a week & we have hiked from Georgia to New Hampshire (so far).  Everything we need fits in a bag on our back & we choose to live this way. So I say be proud to be hiker trash! And the hell with the rest!!
-Puddin'

Also for anyone that's been trying to comment & having problems I think we have solved the problem so any and all comments welcome. 

Enjoy the pics from the past few days!!


Waterfall in New Hampshire. 


Hard life for a thru-hiker eating lunch. 



Filtering water. 


View from a cabin on a great lookout point. 

More great sunset pictures. 







The cabin with the lookout view. 


Oh so we found this amazing pie place right on the trail. So, PaddyCakes & I tried to polish off a whole pie but were unsuccessful. We have two happy friends that got a free piece of pie though. 


A lot of the trail has been overgrown. 



Cooler temps but flowers still in bloom. 



What real trail magic looks like. Not road trash. 


Some tall old pines. 


Filtering more water. 


More georgous flowers. 


We made it to New Hampshire. 


Connecticut River between Vermont & New Hampshire. 


Our family is back together!!



Friday, July 26, 2013

Into the mountains of "Vermud"

As we get further & further into Vermont the muddier it gets. The middle of the trail has become one big mud hole. We have to puddle jump or better yet rock hop your way around the trail. We finally had some rain again which brought the temperature way down. Instead of 95 during the day it's down to 75. Night time temperatures are in the low 50's. So, we are sending for some of our cold wearher gear since we are heading back up into the mountains. 
 

PaddyCakes hoping rocks on the trail. 


Cloudy view of a pond we crossed

Later in the day the sky opened up & gave us a great unexpected  view. The sun was shining down into the valley beautifully. Spanky, PaddyCakes & I were climbing some rocks when one of us turned around & saw what we almost missed behind us. 


Big puffy clouds. 


The sun shining through was just amazing. Especially after hiking through the rain for several hours. 


This picture is kind of freaky because Spanky is kind of fading into the background. 


All of the rivers & creeks we passed were super high from all the rain the night before. We were lucky enough to have a hotel room but some of our buddies said the volume of water that fell from the sky that night was unbelievable. The most they had seen on the trip. 


PaddyCakes & Spanky playing on a suspension bridge. 

The next morning was overcast again but we beat the rain & just had a little drizzle. Throughout the day we came across two of the largest caren gardens I had ever seen. One was so large & impressive. The carens were placed up the cracks of the boulders. Some were even in trees. 


Gloomy morning as we walked past another pond. 


PaddyCakes & I both added our rock to the collection. Then we had lunch there. It was truly magical thinking of all the people who had added to the creation & wondering who started it. 




One of the carens in the tree. 



The second caren garden. 


After enjoying all the rocks we hiked down to a nice sized double waterfall. Since we were making good time we crawled around down in the water for a while. 



There were even carens down by the falls. 


PaddyCakes enjoying the view 



Me enjoying the carens. 

Later that day we hit some high points & saw some mountains in the distance. I am sure we will end up climbing some of them. 


To finish the day we came across a river that had cut out these beautiful shapes in the rocks. Some of them most unusual looking. So since we are such water lovers down we climbed to take an evening dip before making it to camp. The water wasn't as cold as I expected but PaddyCakes skip the water anyways. Not me, in I went. 


Some of the interesting rock cut outs from the water. 


Enjoying the water. 


We came to another suspension bridge. This one was extra bouncy & fun. 


As the day came to an end we decided it was one of the best days we had had in a while. So we ate dinner & tucked in. That night we camped right next to a river but the temperature dropped really low that night & we got CHILLY! Also it got so cold that the battery in our phone died. I was a little upset since we were going to have a mountain view the next day. 

That morning we had a long climb up to Killington Mountain, one of the highest peaks in Vermont. It seemed like the miles drug on all day long but we finally made it to the top & enjoyed the great view. The only negative thing was a gondola ran to the top of the mountain since it was a ski resort. This meant there were tons of people up there, and TONS of kids. It sometimes is so deflating to hike & climb all the way to the top of a mountain so you can enjoy the view just to be bombarded by the "weekenders" who rode the gondola up & who's kids have tons of energy since they didn't climb up & are running around like mad children. But, it is what it is & the view was still great. 


View from the top courtesy of Spanky since our phone was dead. 

As the day came to an end we entered a State Park that had a shower house that we got to charge our phone in. So while we were charging we had dinner then moved on. We found a great stealth camping site right by Kent Pond. It was more like a lake though. 


Another small waterfall before we stopped for the day. 


The lake was literally right outside our tent. This was our view from the tent. 

But before we called it a night we were blessed with the most amazing sunset over the water. I just couldn't believe the colors & the reflections off the water. I took a ton of pictures but these were the best. Enjoy!







This morning we are hiking into Killington city where we pick up a resupply box thanks to wonderful Ms. Gail. She has even made special treats for us this time. Yum yum. Also Sleeping Beauty should be back on trail in a few days so that's real exciting too. Alot more mountains in our future with the Green Mountains then the White Mountains coming up. We officially have less than 500 miles to go. That is exciting but also a little sad to know our adventure is coming to an end soon. We have made it four months & only have one to go. New Hampshire is only two days away so I better get going. Hope everyone enjoys the pictures. Until next time. 
-Puddin'