वेरमोंट मोर्निंग होत एंड हाजी

Good morning everyone ~

I am writing from the Green Mountain House hostel in Manchester, VT at 1640.6 miles from Springer Mountain, GA (the beginning of the AT), and 537.7 miles from
Mt Katahdin, ME......Not bad. I have gotten to a point where i am a tad bit blown away by the fact that I've walked all the way from Georgia to Vermont. And i'm not alone in this. Just lately, in the past week....I'll just be walking and be like, "We're in Vermont, can you believe it!!" and whoever i am with will maybe say, "I know, I know !!! blah blah.....Amazing!! It feels pretty good to put midly, there's this excitment building that was too timid to come out before i made it this far. Hee hee !!!!
Vermont (verd - mont, french for 'green mountain') fills my very cells with such a refreshed feeling. I am so happy to be in mountains again. It definately makes the hiking harder, and my body is feeling it, for sure, but the air is sweet with the smell of spruce trees at the higher elevations, there is so much green, so much furry moss. I left a hiking tip (Many Names Hiking Tip #1) in a shelter log the other day (for other hikers to read and do what they will with) it said.."P.S. ~If, on your hike, you should come across a big rock covered in soft, fuzzy green moss, sitting in the dappled sunlight of the forest, stop and take a nap on it. The earth will be happy and smile down upon you" I have a feeling that that advice will not go ignored. Vermont has had a big reputaion for being super muddy, messy...hence the nickname 'Ver-mud'. I've been hiking with my friend Natty Bumpo and we wanted to give vermont the benefit of the doubt, thinking that people were just trying to be dramatic. I think sometimes people tell us hard, or negative things to look forward to for the same reasons that people gossip....the need for something other that reality to occupt the mind. Anyway....'they' were right. We were not a half mile over the VT/MA border and all of a sudden the trail just turned to this rediculous slop only to get worse and worse as the day progressed. Natty fell twice, I fell once (only my 3rd real fall on this whole hike). There were spots i would stick in my trkking pole to check the depth and it would be over a foot of serious mud. Very precarious and slippery. That intense muddyness has subsided a bit, especially when we get into the higher elevations. Even the mud can't hinder my feelings of love for these green mountains. Natty was saying the other day that one day in PA he got to a relatively high point (by PA standards) looked out over the land and was a bit deppressed by the flatness of it all, like..'i thought we were hiking in the mountains' We climbed Stratton Mt the other day, almost up to 4,000 feet and then up the fire tower at the top....amazing views, beautiful blue sky day !!
I know everyone likes to hear the names of the people i've been meeting along the way, so I'll make a little list because i don't know if I'll get to fit them all in to a story. Wishy-Washy, Hot Chocolate, Cass, Swift, C-Bass, Honey-Do, Magic, Pig Pen, Wishbone, Quade, Matty-G, Turtle, Fearless Phil......ect, can't think of more right now. It's been great to meet and grooove with a whole new slew of people.
So my parents, fairly newly retired, have begun a little adventure of there own. After hearing much talk of 'Trail Magic', they decided to go on a little mission to try it out for them selves. It started off with i thnk just a cooler of cold sodas at a road crossing, i think they didn't run into any thru hikers that day. So they went a little more south to Mt. Greylock in MA were there would definatley be thru hikers passing through. There Trailside party was complete with cold sodas, beers, ham sandwiches, and to my amazement, a complete list of all the hikers i've ever mentioned in my blog or over the phone, so that when they meet one they can cross the name off, or if they meet a new one they add it to the list.....pretty neat, guys!! They are really on top of their trail-magic game! And it turned out they ran into a bunch of my old hiking friends that got way ahead while i was off trail in june...so that was awsome to hear from them. They also stopped at this guy Tom's house in Dalton, MA...he takes hikers into his home, his house is literally on the trail as the trail passed through town on his street. They also met a bunch of good friends right there on the front porch. I ended up staying there a couple weeks later and Tom was so happy to meet me because he thought my parents were so cool !!! It's always nice to complete a circle like that! So the REAL trail magic from good ol' Jay and lynn (mom and dad) came the friday just a day before the newport folk festival. One of our friends, Honey-do, was going. He was getting picked up by some friends that day. Well that definatly planted the seed. We had all been seriously jonesin' for some live music, i wanted to dance in a big way, and the thought of seeing the ocean just seemed to sweet to pass up. We toyed with differnt ideas of how to get there and none of them seemed to stick. Finally, i said,"well, i could call my parents and see if they want to come and get us" ..i've learned that if you want something, ask for it, don't be shy, the worse thing someone could say is no, no big deal. Well, they said yes!! My dad said he would be there in 3 hours (we wre just south of the NY/CT border at the time. Amazing. So they came and got me, Spoonman and Natty, took us back to westboro MA we all got showers, food, beds (i actually slept in my old bed!) in the morning they made us a grand breakfast, i borrowed my mom's car and off we went to the Folk Fets ! SOoo fun, i swam in the ocean off the peir, heard great bands, we ran into Honey_Do almost immediatly. The weather was amazing, ran into a freind from the island...and, ha ha...i played a little open mic there (so i can say that i officially played at the newport folk festival!) They had a little Gibson Guitar set up there with beautiful $3-5,000 guitars and the rule was you had to play one of them, and it had to be an original song.......so that's what i did. It's felt kind of ballsy..and while i don't think i did very well, i got nervous(of course) and the guitar was really big and i had never played it before.......anyway, i still felt proud of myself for doing that!! My friends got photos and spoonman filmed me...i watched it and hated it of course!!
Next day we set out for Block Island, took the ferry over, rented bikes had an amazing day. Saw so many freinds, loved showing my trail peeps the magical place i always talk about. Got back to mom and dad's house they made us another great breakfast and dad drove us back down to NY. Before we left my mom was just bursting with such a sweet happiness that she, and my dad have been able to meet so many of the people i've talked about and experience the whole Trail thing, see what it's all about. It was just amazing. I was thrilled beyond words.....not everyone has the support from their families out here. A lot of people's fams don't get what they're doing, or just aren't intersted. So, just to have support is cool, but to have my parents actually set out to meet fellow thru hikers and do trail magic is just killer!!! So a BIG Thank You- you are Awsome to mom and dad (from spoonman and natty too)) !!!!!!Then when dad dropped us off in NY he came out and hiked a couple miles with us .....so i can say i hked a section of the AT with my da !!! Pretty Badass !!!!!
I have so much more to write...my sisters came out to mt greylock for a day..but i will write about that next time...i have to get off the computer NOW !!
Peace !! Much love to everyone!!!!

~MANY NAMES~