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7/13/01, day 121. 20.6m. Ten Mile River Lean-To, in CT. Relaxing day with Norway, Longshanks, Blur, Cameron, Will Scarlet, and Swagman. Walked into CT today, and I feel like I'm home at last. Tomorrow I think I'll go backpacking. 7/14/01, day 122. 8.4m. Mt. Algo Lean-To. I'm with a truly wonderful great group of people, and this was a splendid day. The weather was perfect -- one of those days that make you take a deep breath and thank God out loud for creating such a spot in time and space. On top of that, the CT terrain has been quite the repreieve from the pure ass of PA, NJ, and NY, and is once again putting grins on thru-hiker faces. Every now and again in the past coupla days I realized that hiking the AT is a privledge, not a chore, and its doing wonders for the spirit. It was a morning mosey into Kent, CT, a small yuppie town, but a town with everything within short waling distance. Once again thru-hikers took over the town, and it was nice to have friends in every business establishment. This was the first "town day" I've had in awhile, even though I've had my fair share of town in the past few weeks. Anyway, we all loaded up on food at the grocery, and we hiked 0.3m South back up to this shelter, where we had quite the feast. Longshanks bought a portable grill, and we had hot dogs, steak, hamburgers, veggie burgers (for me), soda, beer, candy from Chinatown in NYC, homemade cookies and brownies from Murph's maildrop, potato chips -- the works. And with such pleasant people! Longshanks, Blur, Swagman, Greenlight, Stray Cat, noggin, Moonshine, Norway, Smittie, some SOBO, and a ridgerunner. It's been weird being about 7-10 days behind my "people" -- T and W, the WOE, etc. -- but I am beginning to feel comfortable with this group. AT people are, in general, good people, and damn fun to be around. i can't believe that just the other day I almost quit the Trail! What a moron! 7/15/01, day 123. 16.2m. Chris' house. So today promised, finally, to be a normal day. not so, not so. i pranced out of the crowded shelter early to avoid the crowds, and about 7m in I happened upon Leslie! it was great seeing somebody from the old crowd, and she and I had a grand time chatting it up for a few hours. After that pleasantry, i had a nap then a hike to a road right before my destination, where Smitty, Longshanks, Blur, Cammeron, and Cammeron's aunt Chris were chilling by Chris' car. They offered to take me with, so we travelled back across the border to NY to Chris' beautiful farm house, where we had a huge-ass feast and much rejoycing. Life is indeed good. 7/16/01, day 124. 17.8m. Plateau Campsite. Woke up and make pancakes with Cammeron, chilled around at the house for a spell, then a long drive to where we left off yesterday to slack here. Had a good day haning with that crowd, especially when we found a place to jump off a rock into the Housatonic (sp?) and goof off. We were all fairly beat but we were able to make it to the right spot to meet chris on time. Jumped into Salisbury for an expensive resupply, then here. Off to MA tomorrow -- home sweet home. 7/17/01, day 125. 13.267m. The Hemlocks Lean-To. Rainy day over wet mountains. Beautiful day, beautiful smells. Nuttin' much more about it. Hangin' in the shelter with Swag, Stray Cat, Smittee, Leslie, some dude, and Murph. Life is good. 7/18/01, day 126. 19.7m. Mt. Wilcox South Lean-To. Gorgeous day. I've been meaning to pull slow days to katahdin, and I've vowed never to do anything over 20, but today i had to set myself up for a day into some neat cabin or something. the mosquitos were a bitch and a half, but today was one of the most beautiful of the whole hike. I had no idea Mass could be so tranquil, but there it is. Life is swell. 7/19/01, day 127. 15.8m. Upper Goose Pond Cabin. It was another wonderful day, with 70 degree weather and light breeze throughout. I spent a good part of the afternoon in a tree, throwing sticks at people. After that got old, I moseyed up to this here place, and AMC cabin on a splendidly tranquil galacial pond. I had a good time hanging with the gang, although there are several here that kinda piss me off, and the huge volume of people make it hard to relax. It's a very short day tomorrow, so there should be time to chill out with the canoe before I head out. 7/20/01, day 128. 11m. Camping at the Cookie Lady's house. woke up today before most of the crowd and had a 5:30am skinny dip in a warm mountain lake, one of those lakes that has never seen or heard an engine. there's something so pure about a morning swim in the middle of nowhere. Stray Cat and Longshanks picked the lock to the canoe with a fork and were off. I had a very relaxing morning, alternately hanging with the crowd or talking with Leslie on the dock. It occured to both of us that many on the other side have never seen a naked lake, one not surrounded by cottages and infested with jet-skis. it was hard to leave such a beautiful place, but we all had to pull at least a few miles in order to get to the pickup spot for the cookout tomorrow. So it was an easy enough walk, but it was mainly across swampy terrain, and the resident vampires had themselves a feast. When I got to the shelter, I noted that not only were the vampires having their annual convention, but that there was no tenting (a tent being the only real refuge from an insect swarm). On top of that there were written warnings of bears and bloodthirsty porcupines, so I decided to try my luck 2m down the Trail, where the "cookie lady" sometimes lets people tent on her lawn. So here tons of people are tented, waiting for the morrow's festivities. 7/21/01, day 129. 0m. Camping at Blur's Grandma's House. Okay, my friend, my zero went thusly: Woke up and had some frest eggs at the Cookie lady's and chilled as more and more thru-hikers filed in to get picked up: Noggin, Priceless, etc. So after a spell there was a good 15-20 hikers when Longshanks and two other vehicles arrived and whisked us away to Blur's Grandma's house, where we had a huge-ass party and people kept arriving from all corners of the Trail. I started eating about about 1 and pretty much didn't stop until 8, when Leslie, Greenlight, the King, Clark, and I drove off to see some stupid karate movie. It was awful swell to catch up with people, esp. Clark and the King. 7/22/01, day 130. 6.6m. kay Wood Lean-to. Chilled, just chilled at Blur's Gramma's house for the morning watching Batty consume 7-8 beers before hiking. After a spell there was a ride then a very brief hike to this shelter, which is quite crowded 'cuz the majority of the party crowd is here. We're having a great old time, as some kid sent Murph fixins for S'mores.
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