Day 10 - The 12 Apostles

Date: 19/12

There wasn't much to see between Devil's Kitchen and the end of the trail at the 12 Apostles. About 7km from the end, I left most of my gear at the hostel I'd be staying at which made for light walking. There was also a nice little wetlands boardwalk between the track and the hostel.

Wetlands near Princetown, Victoria

My first glimpse of the Apostles

The Apostles were interesting, but even mid-afternoon on a Wednesday they are overrun with tourists. I managed a few photos, and then headed off to the visitor centre to get a coffee and something warm to eat for the first time in 5 days.

Well, that's me done then.

Two of the 8 remaining Apostles. There were never 12. 

A few more apostles. One collapsed a few years back.

While snacking on a sausage roll at the end of the trail, I chatted with a family from California and a German woman with a lot of walking under her boots. We talked about great hikes we'd done and I managed to show her an echidna just before she left Australia to return to Europe (no good pics, sadly).

The hostel (The 13th Apostle, in Princetown) was great. The hosts were incredibly helpful and friendly, and the whole thing reminded me a lot of the better hostels along the AT. After 5 days of walking, I wasn't all that social so I mostly just headed to the local tavern for a pizza and some beer and then crawled into bed. It was a busy hostel, and the young'uns were up to party though, so thank God for ear plugs. (Actually, they were loud right up to almost exactly 11pm and then immediately went silent, so it was one of the more considerate backpacker groups I've encountered.)

I did (finally) manage to get a sunset here. Not quite the rugged coastal setting I would have liked, but it will do.

Oh sure, NOW the sky lights up like a painting.

In the end, the Great Ocean Walk was terrifically rewarding. I'd recommend it for anyone looking to do 5-7 days. It's not too challenging, and there is tonnes of natural beauty to keep you going. Altogether a great way to kick off my holidays.

Tomorrow, I shuttle back to my car and head home.

Day 6 - Great Ocean Walk

Date: 15/12

Melbourne was a bit of a break from the countryside, involving a lot of eating and drinking and trying not to get washed away in the rains. Yesterday I made my way to Apollo Bay and organized myself for the walk. All of that is to say that you didn't miss much.

This morning I finally set out on the Great Ocean Walk. The forecast was for a lot of rainy weather, clearing a bit in the afternoon.

Rain meant I didn't want to take my camera out so it was a (largely) camera free day, which is too bad since the first few kms produced a seal on the beaches around Marengo. I've seen seals before, but I've never been 20m from one just lounging on a rock. After that the walk entered the forests, which were pretty, but in the unphotogenic way that characterizes grey wet days in the forest. I met a few hikers, including a large, supported tour group that is camping with me for the first three nights.

This guy hung out eating in the trees on our campground.

But the highlight of the day, no doubt, was seeing my very first, second, third, fourth, and fifth koalas in the wild! This included one misty silhouette of a koala high in the trees grunting at the other koalas around, and one mother with her joey on her back.

I can finally check koala off the list of Australian wildlife to see.

I had to do 22km today, and wasn't sure how long that would take. Between that and the rains, it was a pretty business-like day of hiking and I found myself at camp around 1pm. This was way too much time to spend at camp, so from now on I'll be taking it much easier. Fortunately there were a number of koala around to stare at for ridiculous amounts of time, much to the amusement of the Aussies who are used to them.

Anyone know what this is? Angler fish? Puffer fish?

Camp was nice and near a beach (which produced this puffer? angler? fish), but pretty foggy. An earlier campsite had not had any suitable trees for hanging a hammock, so I was a bit worried that I had set myself up for a very uncomfortable few nights. Fortunately, this campground had lots of spots for hammocks and so it was all good.

Since I'd decided to carry my heavier camera gear, I had also decided not to bring a stove or pots in order to save space and weight. This means that all of my dinners will consist of wraps with cheese and sausage*, or peanut butter and granola. Under normal circumstances, this would be fine, but tonight it seemed a bit underwhelming next to the tour group's catered dinner of sausage curry stew.

But even a boring meal can't ruin the feeling of sitting on a beach watching the surf come in while I write this.

* I would really have preferred tuna, but it's hard to find the soft foil packets of tuna in Australia. This also means I won't be revisiting Blueberry Crisp's preferred meal of a tuna and peanut butter wrap. Stop making that face. It's much tastier than you think.

New Camera and New Friends

The new DSLR makes selfies harder.

After the sad death of my camera on my last outdoors adventure, I went out and bought myself my very first real exchangeable lens DSLR (Canon EOS Rebel T6i/750D for camera gearheads).

Last weekend, the camera made its first trip into the bush as I hiked the 45km long Six Foot Track over a couple of days with a group of new friends.

The Cast

I was invited along by Anna, a good friend who is also an outdoor adventurer. She had a trip planned with two Brits and a couple of New Zealanders - making us a pretty eclectic mix of ex-pats. Most of the group were new to trail names, but the girls all found themselves with one by the end.  You can see from this group photo that I'm still getting used to the camera.

Anna (Gollum), Nigel, Krissy (Necky), Kirsten (Gnomey), and Mack

The Hike

For those not into the local bushwalking scene, the Six Foot Track is a 45 km "trail" that is probably most famous for the annual Six Foot Track Marathon race. It's one of those trails that everyone does at some point, and so this was our turn. As it turns out, the Six Foot Track really ought to be called the Never Ending Dirt Road. It felt like we spent half a day hiking in the woods, and a day and a half walking along a dirt fire trail - shared with trucks, cars, and dirt bikes. I wouldn't rate it highly for the walking.

On the plus side we did end up with some good wildlife. In addition to the usual array of kangaroos, wallabies, and lorikeets, we saw two echidna, a wombat, a lyrebird, and a large goanna. Sadly, I have still not ticked koala off of my list of Australian fauna seen in the wild. Next time, I guess.

Goanna gettin' hisself some eggs

Kangaroo. Tree. Harmony.

There is also a long suspension bridge at around the midway point which made for a bit of fun.

Necky did not hate the suspension bridge.

Trail Philosophy

Every hiker has their own approach to being on trail. After doing the AT, my style now leans heavily towards "minimalist self-deprivation." I also lean towards "camp is the place you stay while you wait to walk again." This is not a common hiking philosophy. The 6' Track crew was keen to get to camp early to have lots of time there. They also had a very different meal philosophy - where I happily dine on a diet of cliff bars and peanut butter wraps for a few days, our meal plan for this weekend included:

• fresh wraps with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, avocado, cheese, and deli meats for lunches; 
• mushroom risotto, banana custard, and a bit of port for dinner; 
• and coffee, tea, eggs, bacon, and toast for breakfast.

All of that was made with fresh ingredients, from scratch. Mack is a killer trail cook. Mack also made me carry a lot of food. I have mixed feelings about Mack. (But then, I've made a conscious decision to carry rocks for nothing in the past, so I suppose I won't hold this grudge.)

Trail cook extraordinaire.
Also an all around delightful guy.

Besides the gourmet food, it was rather nice to have some real time hanging out at camp. I even managed to redeem myself as a fire builder after the fiasco of my last attempt in Australia. I didn't even have to resort to accelerants.

Nigel takes a moment out from wombat spotting
to look very British on some logs.

Most of the highlights of the trip involved a lot of conversation, laughter and inside jokes. Unfortunately, those are difficult to convey here. Here's a picture of Necky trying to explain to Gollum what a meerkat is, for a flavour of the sort of thing:

If only the Italian word for meerkat was "meerkat",
this would have been much easier.

All in all, the hike was a great time. The trail itself was forgettable, but as is often the case in these things, the people made all the difference. I guess that's a good general life lesson: visit beautiful places, but most importantly, bring beautiful people.

Gnomey proves that even walking on a dirt road
can be fun with the right companions

Happy Trails!

(More photos taken with my shiny new toy here)

Old Camera and Old Friends

This post is a bit delayed, since the trip took place shortly before I had to pack up my life and move it around the world again. Now that I'm settled in, I have a few minutes to recap it.

The trip

Some of you will recall that around a year ago I had some friends visit me on the AT and take me to NYC. Well those same friends are also fans of the camping life, so while I was in Canada for the summer we decided to squeeze a four day canoe trip on Lake Opeongo in Algonquin Park into our schedules. (My schedule was easily squeezed - the others have jobs.)

The plan was to canoe 10-12kms out to a campsite on an island, set up there, camp/paddle and eat for a few days before paddling back to the cars. A little like creating our own version of Upper Goose Pond in Massachusetts.

The best part was that only half of us were paddling to the campsite - the rest were taking an outfitter's ferry. Such luxuries meant that we could bring a lot more gear and food, and have a bit more of a glamping experience. Which we did. In spades.

Day 1 - Getting to camp

Maple paddles like a champ.

Maple was new to backcountry canoeing, so we headed off to learn a little about shoulder strength. It was a fun, challenging paddle, including a moment when we discovered that we'd set off without a map of the lake, so had to rely on my memory for navigation.

I'm not really great at navigation with a compass and a map in hand, let alone having both of those things only in my brain. Fortunately for us, my memory worked really well when assisted (read, supplanted) by the Google maps I'd downloaded to my phone, so we still found our way to the campsite. On the way we were harassed by a large group of seagulls who thought we were being a bit cheeky paddling so close to their chicks in the water. In our defense, we didn't even notice the chicks until we were practically on top of them. The seagulls did not seem particularly interested in our excuses.

We arrived just in time to make camp, and begin what ended up as an epic multi-course meal prepped by Mike and Nettie. There really are some times when glamping is the way to go.

Day 2 - Goodnight sweet prints.

Friday morning it was clear that the forecasted rains were not going to pass us by. Most of the crew decided this was a perfect excuse to do not much of anything at all except sit at camp, read, nap, and otherwise just be happy not to be at the office.

Yours truly is not that wise.

I decided I'd grab a canoe and go for a paddle. Bundled up in waterproof wear I headed off into the light mist on a serene lake to enjoy the quiet (not many make their way out in this weather), and generally just be glad to be on a lake again. I took a few shots, some of which even turned out reasonably nicely and was feeling pretty good about myself.

Then I happened on an island where the water was so calm and still that it made for a nearly perfect mirror so I decided to find a good spot to turn the canoe sideways and take a picture that in my head would end up something like this:

Just as I turned myself into position to take the shot, and without any warning, I found myself in the lake frantically trying to get back to the surface.  I'm still not sure exactly how it happened - I mean, in the image to the right, you can see how glassy and calm the water is. It's unlikely that a sudden swell pushed me over. 

As I floated at the surface trying to don my PFD, I thought I must have leaned out too far to take the picture. That made a lot of sense until I realised that my camera was still in my zipped pocket which meant I hadn't gotten anywhere near that point in the process. Fortunately it also meant that I hadn't dropped the camera to the bottom of the lake, so I might still salvage photos from the memory card - though the camera was clearly now an ex-camera.

I didn't have a lot of time to think about these things though, while floating alone in the middle of a large lake. My thoughts turned to getting back into the canoe somehow. It was a long two-person canoe, so self-rescuing was going to be a tall task. Instead of burning a lot of energy that way, I swam it to the shore of the island. There a couple of young guys camping took time out of updating their instagram accounts with photos of this idiot who'd tipped his canoe on the calmest day in history to help me right the canoe and set out again.

In the background of this shot of our accompanying pupper (taken by Chantelle), you can see me returning to our camp as a drowned rat.

Hershey looks at the camera, probably wondering why I'm so wet.

Day 3 - Short excursion

Day 3 was relatively uneventful. Maple and I took a canoe ride out a few kms to a trailhead, hiked in to find the small deer pond that definitely wasn't worth the mosquitoes, and then headed back for camp. The rest of the day was just chilling out at the campsite now that the rains had passed.

Day 4 - Hershey starts to make sense.

Immediately on Day 1, Colin and Chantelle's dog had developed a couple of peculiar behaviours at the campsite. The first was a desperate dislike of the area near the fire pit. Hershey hated this place so much that when playing fetch she would run across the tent-flies around the outside of it rather than through the wide open space. Even if we placed the ball in the area, and tried to entice her with food, she'd look at us like we must be insane to be standing in what was so clearly the world's most terrifying 3 m².

She would also get uncharacteristically upset if anyone left the campsite, particularly as it got darker. And particularly if that person was Maple, who happened to be the smallest of the party.

On Day 4, Mike figured out why. While using the thunder box early in the morning, he saw something like a large cat scurry up a tree. He didn't get enough of a look to identify it (lynx or bobcat?), but now we reckon that it had sprayed near the fire and that Hershey could hear it going about at night so knew that the forest held dangers of which we were unaware.

The lesson here is, when your accompanying dog tells you a place is unsafe, don't ignore the pupper.

Luckily for us, this was our departure day allowing us to escape without any more dangerous big cat encounters. Maple had decided that she was done with canoeing so Colin agreed to paddle back with me while Maple would ride with Dave and Rebecca as a third in their canoe.

Epilogue

If I summarize the trip for people, I say "we accidentally camped on a lynx's home turf, and I lost my camera in a near drowning incident. So it was a pretty awesome weekend."

And on the way home I had an email confirming that my Australian work visa had come through, so it was now official: Wallaby was going home.

In which Wallaby heads home (part 2)

While I was travelling in Sydney, I'd been expecting the city to feel like home. I was surprised when it didn't particularly feel like a homecoming.

I was even more surprised when being in my tent in the woods did feel like home. Apparently I'm now most at home when homeless.

Air mattress update:

It turns out my air mattress is still leaking, but slowly enough that I was able to get lots of good rest. I did wake up needing to reinflate it twice. I think I may be forced to replace it, but for now it still works.

(I know. Boring story. Most of hiking is about minutiae, really.)

Day 2

Day 2 opened with a beautiful sunrise over Pigeon House (I think) in the distance.

Sunrise over Pigeon House

[Ed Note: I have confirmed the Pigeon House sighting.]

I sat and quietly watched the sun come up for a bit and then broke camp, had breakfast, replenished my water, and headed off for the day's hike. Originally, I didn't think a 10-15km hike would be that bad, but after the trail yesterday I was now a lot more concerned about the clock. If today's trail was as challenging, I was going to be in trouble.

In the end, the hike was considerably friendlier (though still a good trek). And the rewards were well worth the effort: The Nibellung Pass and the deep, dark, lush vegetation was amazing.

A little more work than
your typical stroll

Hard to believe what can grow
in the dark

Lush green. It was too dark to really
get good pictures in the depths.

From the dark wet valleys, I'd come up to what felt like dry ridges, but was really the Monolith Valley corridor between Mount Cole and the Seven Pinnacles. It was truly spectacular. Unfortunately my camera seems to have had enough of my adventures so the photos aren't coming out as well as I'd have liked.

Monolith Valley

A quick shower to cool down

I had planned to walk around Mount Cole and climb over through a small ravine between Mounts Cole and Owen, but as I approached the entry point to the ravine, the clock started ticking in my head. The access looked passable, but I couldn't tell from below how technical it would be, and I knew if I was going to retrace my steps I needed to do so right away. I'm not usually one to take the easy way, but hiking alone in an unfamiliar area, and knowing that the last 7k of trail was going to be challenging, I decided not to risk the climb.

Besides, I'd enjoyed the Seven Pinnacles and the Nibellung pass so much that I was happy to experience it again.

Final verdict: It felt really good to be back on a trail again. I really wish I could have made it a three day hike though, especially after reading this report.

GPS trail info: Cooyoyo - Mount Cole - The Castle, The Castle - Long Gully Campground

In which Wallaby heads home (part 1)

After months of being off the trail, and recently seeing both Trout and Foggy start their PCT journeys, I've been absolutely itching to get back into the woods. Conveniently, I've also found myself in Australia visiting friends again for three weeks. This meant time for a little bit of a bushwalk in NSW for possibly the last time.

Me, showing off

Years ago a fellow Sydney Bushwalkers Club member (also Canadian) had told me that the Castle Track and around through the Monolith Valley was one of the best hikes he'd ever done here. It had always been on my list to try and get to it, so I figured this was as good a chance as was ever likely to come along. Sadly, Pouch has retired to my parents' basement, so I sewed the proof of my hiker credentials onto my smaller pack, borrowed a friend's mum's car, and set out for Morton National Park and the Budawangs.

Things I was about to try out:

1. no cook hiking: with only a 32L pack, space is at a premium so instead of bringing a stove and fuel, I thought I'd save some real estate and try eating only cold food.
2. the patch on my mattress: Near the end of the AT, my mattress had sprung a slow leak. A few weeks ago I patched it, but still hadn't had time to test it out.

Originally I'd planned for three days, but heavy rains on the first day forced me to shorten the trek to two days. The goal was to drive the 4 hours to the trailhead, and then make my way 7km to the Cooyoyo Creek camping area, possibly summitting The Castle on the way. The next day, I'd hike out through the Monolith Valley, past the Seven Pinnacles, circle around Mount Cole and cross through between Cole and Mount Owen, then make my way back along the Castle Track to the car. This would be around 15-20km.

Day 1

For day 1, I figured 7km was no more than 2.5 hours of hiking, so this should be easy.

I was wrong. 

The Castle Track, while not particularly difficult, is slow going. It's a long steady uphill with narrow track, tonnes of roots and rocks to scramble over, and lots of false tracks to lead a wallaby astray. It took me a solid 4 hours to get to the campground - partly because it was slow going, and partly because I'd assumed it would be faster so I wasn't pushing it. By the time I got there, I was worried about getting up to The Castle and back before dark. I knew there were some more treacherous climbs, and am not a fan of descending rock scrambles in the dark.

There were, however, some nice rewards along the way.

I think that's Pigeon House in the distance, but it's not on my map, so I can't be sure.

Sometimes nature tells you its time to take a shower.

Near camp, I met a group of hikers who were planning to go watch the sunset from the Castle. This seemed like a brilliant idea. We could go up without packs, and the track back to the campground was easy to follow, so hiking in the dark wouldn't be so bad.

Wrong again. It turns out that trying to summit The Castle from the east side requires a very steep, difficult rock climb without ropes. I'm not the most agile of climbers, but one of the girls was obviously very strong (and she recognized my AT patch!). When she decided it wasn't safe, we all abandoned the cause and headed back to camp. If time permitted, I figured I'd attempt it again from the west side on my way back the next day.

One of the things that I'd thought after hiking the AT was that cooking meals was unnecessary for the most part. You never go more than 4 days without hitting town, so you can get hot meals pretty regularly. Going a few days without one didn't seem like it would be that difficult (at least during the warmer months). In cold weather, or for longer sections (say the 100 Mile Wilderness), it might be tougher. But for a quick two day hike in warmer temperatures, I really didn't miss a hot meal at all.

... in which Wallaby proves that thru-hiking the AT does not require skill.

It was now about 6pm, and dark (it's autumn here). With a lot of hours to kill, a fire seemed in order - and it would have been. Except that I had forgotten to buy a lighter. And I hadn't brought my flint. And I only had one, broken, storm match left in my emergency kit.

So it's 6pm in the dark, and I have exactly one chance at making a fire after a heavy rainfall. People think that if you've done a lot of hiking like the AT, you must be skilled. This is not true. AT thru-hikers are merely persistent. On the AT, you rarely make fires, or do anything that actually requires a learned skill. I met many, many thru-hikers who didn't know any knots, or how to make a fire, or how to navigate/trap food/find water/etc... We are not survivalists.

So here I am with only one match and wet fire making materials. Suffice to say that the light breeze rapidly did away with the small flicker of a flame that I was able to make.

So now it's 6pm, dark, and I have no chance of making a fire. I supposed this meant it was time to go test the mattress.

(Part 2 to follow)

Day 106 - Shenandoah! (15/10/2016)

Today marks my first day in Shenandoah National Park. This is one of the sections that most AT hikers call their favourite, so I've been pretty excited about it. It did not disappoint...

We're finally back to some spectacular views and the walking track is every bit as beautiful as we were promised: for the first time, a section is just as good as NOBOs have said it was.‎

Camping was a bit rough. The winds were so high I had trouble getting my stove lit, then it died before cooking my food. Partly cooked macaroni, and semi-dehydrated chili were not the quality to which I have become accustomed.

Start: Mosby Campsite

End: Top of Hogshead Peak

Distance: 19.4 miles

Day 97 - Let's talk about food (6/10/2016)

[with apologies to Salt 'n Pepa]

Let's talk about food, baby
Let's talk about cal-ories
Let's talk about all the good things
 and the bad things
that I eat
Let's talk abouuut food.
Let's talk about food.

Today I could barely do 8 miles. I attributed my sluggishness to the long walk yesterday, which no doubt played a role, but I realised something else as well:

Meal	Typical	Yesterday	Today
Breakfast	2 cups of oats with dried fruit + Clif Bar with peanut butter (optional)	3 Huge Pancakes + bacon 1 bite of scrapple (regrettable)	Normal person sized breakfast skillet
Morning snack	Clif Bar with peanut butter (optional)	...	...
Lunch	3 wraps - 2 pepperoni and cheese, 1 peanut butter + Clif Bar with peanut butter (optional)	...	Normal person half sandwich and half bowl of soup
Afternoon snack	Clif Bar with peanut butter (optional)	Clif Bar with peanut butter	....
Dinner	2-3 cups of tuna casserole (pasta and tuna) + cup-a-soup or hot chocolate + Clif Bar with peanut butter (optional)	2 wraps	Normal dinner

Unsurprisingly, without more food in my body, I had little energy left after such a big day of walking.

I camped down at 5 pm, made a huge meal, and went to bed.

Start: Boiling Springs

End: Tentsite around 1075.9

Distance: 7.5 miles

Day 96 - Blueberry Pancakes Marathon (5/10/2016)

Our neighbour at the campsite this morning decided to harmonize with the trains by running his diesel engine for about an hour beside my tent. Suffice to say that I didn't sleep well.

Pancake slept even worse and woke to find someone had hacked her iCloud account and was sending Chinese spam messages.

In that mood, we headed into Duncannon for breakfast. Popping into Goodies Restaurant, we found Flatlander and Shakespeare already there waiting for their food. As we sat down, the food arrived and the three biggest pancakes I've ever seen were placed in front of Flatlander, who had unwittingly also ordered two sides.

Her hiker hunger was being tested. Her thru-hiker credentials were on the line.

Immediately I decided to order three blueberry pancakes. I also had Pancake and Shakespeare trying to convince me to try something called "scrapple." Here is how the waitress described scrapple when asked:

"It's all the parts of the pig you don't eat."

I ordered bacon.

Pancake insisted on ordering scrapple so I could taste it. I did. It was as bad as it sounds. Only in PA would that be a normal thing.

My goal had been to do 20 miles or so that but, but Trout pointed out that we were in the Cumberland Valley. That meant everything was private farmland, so camping might be tough. PA is also a stand your ground state, which means that if an owner found me camping, they could legally shoot me. 'merica.

From far enough away, you can't tell how terrible Duncannon is.

I set out anyway. All of PA has been covered in stealth sites. Instead, it turned out Trout was right. There was no camping, and so I decided to just press on to Boiling Springs where there was another train-track-adjacent campsite available. On the way, I picked up with BXE - a recently retired math teacher from North Carolina who had come to the same decision I had, and was about to finish his second consecutive 30+ mile day. BXE had arranged a hostel though, so when we arrived in Boiling Springs, we parted ways. As I wandered campsite-ward, an SUV pulled up and BXE's hostel talked me into staying there for $12, where I could get a hot shower, and a quiet, warm, and comfortable place to sleep.

This would have been both warmer and more comfortable.

I got two of those things. The sleeping quarters at this "hostel" was a small shelter with three walls, two of which were trellis fencing. The beds were a triple-decker bunk bed. But before you go imagining a lofty space with high-ceilings, let me assure you: there was only space for a regular bunkbed. It was as if the bunks were designed by the same engineer who came up with economy class seating on airplanes. Imagine morgue drawers, but without the convenient drawer sliding mechanism. Also, the "mattresses" were just thin foam mats. So after bundling up in all of my clothes, and yoga-folding myself into the middle bunk, I realised that would have been much warmer and far more comfortable in my tent. The hostel was quieter, though. And the shower was hot (though I was about to go off trail for a few days of hotel, so that wasn't worth $12).

Anyway, on a more positive note I have a new "biggest day", and I've now completed the marathon challenge.

Start: Duncannon
End: Boiling Springs
Distance: 26.9 miles.

Day 92 - Shhh. Be vewy vewy quiet, I'm hunting wabbits. (1/10/2016)

It's hunting season! The whole day was punctuated by gunshots in the distance. Like, a lot of gunshots. I've decided it's time to put away my deer impressions and wear orange.

SC and Pancake had planned to head to Hamburg for dinner, then find a stealth site near the road. I decided to join them, and we also met with Shakespeare (who I hadn't seen since Maine) and Flatland.

By the time Pancake finished her laundry, and we got Shakespeare and Flatland back to their shelter, it was 9 pm. That's around midnight HST (Hiker Standard Time). SC dropped Pancake and I off at the trailhead and started for home, while we night-hiked in the rain over rocky ground to find a stealth site.

So after three months, I've done just under 1,000 miles (987.7). Phew.

Start: Port Clinton
End: stealth near PA183
Distance: 14.7 miles

Day 90 - Home is where the bunks are (29/9/2016)

Rain. A lot of it. Then mist.

Pouch hangs out outside of Eckville.

Per last night's plan, I set out to do 18-20 miles to get close enough to Hamburg to resupply in the morning. On the way, I popped into the Eckville Shelter because a) it was supposed to be really nice with power, a shower, and real porcelain toilets, and b) because it shared a name with the town of my birth. It really was worth the visit, with padded bunks and a fully enclosed bunk house. Far and away the most luxurious shelter I've seen. I took a quick nap, then headed back on the trail only to run into Trout arriving. He offered to spot me some lunch for the next day so that I could stay at Eckville, which I did. Pancake joined us and we had another good evening followed.

Here's hoping the rain backs off soon, though it is nice to see running streams again.

Start: New Tripoli Campsite
End: Eckville Shelter
Distance: 13.8 miles

Day 89 - and then there was one... (28/9/2016)

North Side Trail

Tim made us all an amazing Mexican breakfast of eggs, refried beans and tortillas then dropped us back at the trail. The three of us (Pancake, Trout, and me) met up at the next shelter, where Trout and Pancake were both feeling pretty down (Trout for illness, Pancake for fatigue and a general malaise). I took a side trail Tim had recommended, and had some beautiful views to carry me through to the next shelter where Pancake and Trout decided to call it a day. I took care of some phone stuff while I had a signal. I had to overcome the draw of a warm fire and Pancake and Trout's campaign to keep me there to get going, but it felt wrong to call it so early without Pancake and Trout's reasons.

Rain and rocky terrain made it slow going, so I only did a few more miles before finding a campsite for the night. At dinner I discovered that I only had one more day of food left... which means a big day tomorrow to make it to Hamburg for a resupply. :(

Start: PA 284
End: New Tripoli Campsite
Distance: 12 miles

Days 67 & 68 - The Dog Days of Summer (6-7/9/2016)

It was good having Dave and Colin on trail. It was even educational: I learned how to tie alpine and fisherman's knots, and had some really good food (dehydrated baked beans!)

The guys and I all learned that I don't make this sound as hard as it is. By the end of day 2 (9 miles mostly downhill), the consensus was that one more short day would be enough.

We did 6 miles to meet Rebecca, who spent the drive home wishing she was a golden retriever so that she could stick her head out the window.* A particularly harsh reward for someone who had us set up with a campsite, beer, and spaghetti fixings. 

Car camping was good, but I'm looking forward to hitting the trail at full speed again in the morning.

Start: Tom Leonard

End: Mt Everett Road

Distance: 14.8 miles (9 + 5.8)

* which raises the question: is this why dogs do it? Do humans smell awful?

Day 62 - I Need A Vacation (1/9/2016)

Today marked the end of my first two months. I woke up early because I'd promised the caretaker I would go get water from the spring. This sounds generous, but really it was just because I'd get to take the canoe out again. Littlefoot and I set out and brought back 24 gallons. God I love canoeing.

I also planned to leave early. I'd heard the rec centre in Great Barrington allowed us to camp for free, so my plan was to race 19 miles into GB. So my plan was water, wolf down some pancakes, and hit the trail by 7:40.

Over pancakes, I chatted with Littlefoot and Bambi (the Caretaker). The conversation was so good I left at 9:30 (after another short chat with Jellybean and Pooh Bear who were having a late morning). 

I half expected I wouldn't make it to Great Barrington, but a lunch at the 8 mile mark with Sphinx and Freefall git me pumped again and I managed to press through.

I've now hit the 30% mark after doing 117 miles in 7 days. My legs and feet are ready for some concrete jungle, so I'm looking forward to Rebecca, Dave, and Colin's arrival Saturday. For tomorrow I need to deal with mail, laundry, and a few gear issues. I'm also loving into a motel for the night. Pro Tip: don't go to a resort town on the last weekend of the summer if saving money is your goal.

At least tonight the camping is free (even if the beer* wasn't).

Start: Upper Goose Pond Cabin

End: Great Barrington

Distance: 19.1 miles

* Barrington Brewery's ESB may be the best beer in its class that I've ever had

Day 61 - Rest Day At The Goose (31/8/2016)

This was a nice easy day, though I still struggled for the last few miles. You know you're tired when 11 miles feels as tough as 18. (Then again, you know you're fitter when 11 miles used to be a big day, and now it's a rest day.)

Upper Goose Pond is every bit as amazing as I was told it would be. The caretaker has a big white wolfhound named Falcor (to go with a small brown mutt named Bella). After pitching my tent, I took a canoe to an island in the pond for lunch. There I had a cup of tea, some lunch, and listened to music on my phone. Truly serene. When I got back, I found out that Uncle Mickey had bought hot dogs and hamburgers for everyone, so I immediately had dinner. Then I went up to my tent to make real dinner (yep, three consecutive meals in a few hours), and met Jellybean and Pooh Bear. They're both former army, and were on their first recreational backpacking trip - and discovering that trail walking with big packs is harder than they'd expected.

We had a great chat, and I gave them lots of reassurance that, indeed, trail walking with big packs is hard. Then we chatted about army life, and Germany (Pooh Bear had been an army brat there as well). They left me with a really delicious hit sauce (Puerto Ricans don't mess around with that).

Canoes, dogs, grilled burgers, and good conversations. It's really hard to explain how much I needed them that day.

Also, at the end of the day, Littlefoot showed up! I feared we'd lost him to the 12 Tribes, so I'm glad he's remained in society (sort of). I also found out that Eskimo, who'd gone to hospital with suspected giardia, was back on trail (and also not a member of the 12 Tribes). Good news abounds!

Start: Cookie Lady's

End: Upper Goose Pond Cabin

Distance: 11.1 miles

Day 56 - The Brown Carpet State (26/8/2016)

Vermont went from being a beautiful carpet of red pine needles, to a messy bog of mud on the trail. Admittedly, it just rained, but it seems that southern Vermont is very different from northern Vermont.

Since I've been so focussed on miles lately, there haven't been a lot of great interactions. Either that, or the great interactions are beginning to feel commonplace. In any case, I thought I'd take this opportunity to tell the apple story.

Way back in the 100 Mile Wilderness, most of us were craving some real food pretty badly. Being a week from any chance at a hamburger will do that to a person. Most people craved burgers, pizza, that sort of thing. Not me. Me, I craved a tomato. Or an orange, or something fresh, fruity, and juicy.

So on this day, I was walking in the rain and generally just thinking about tomatoes. I came upon a sandy beach, and went and looked out over a pond on a misty, rainy day. It was really very serene. Glancing up the beach to my left, I noticed something round and yellowish red at the edge of the water. "Taipan," I said to myself (since I was still going as Taipan then), "that appears to be an apple."

I looked at it for a long, long time. I eventually decided that I should at least go and throw it in the bushes so that it didn't sully the wilderness feel of the beach. I wandered over and picked it up. In my hand was the most perfect apple I had ever seen. It had a small bruise less than the size of my thumbnail, and only lightly brown. This imperfection only highlighted how perfect a piece of fruit my eyes were gazing upon. I looked at it for a long, long time again. "Taipan", I said to myself, "this is a perfectly good apple that someone has just accidentally dropped, probably moments ago." And then "Are you really going to throw this away?"

And I looked at that apple for a very long time. And I brushed away some small sandy pebbles that the beach had decorated it with.

And that was the most delicious apple I have ever, or will ever eat. I refuse to apologize for eating a dirty beach apple, for it would have been an insult to all of the apple, nay all of the FRUIT, kingdom, had I simply tossed it in the bushes for the worms. That apple ended its existence as nobly as any apple ever has.

And apparently that story has become well enough known that my name is now synonymous with being the "apple guy."

Start: Spruce Peak + 1 mile
End: Story Spring + 1.5 miles
Distance: 19.5 miles

Day 55 - Bear Safety (25/8/2016)

When I mentioned this project to a lot of people, they usually started out asking me about bears. Bears are a serious concern on the AT, no question. As a result, I'm kind of a stickler for bear safety:

1. I always hang my food, including cookware, at least 60 yds from my tent.
2. A good bear hang is 10' above the ground, 5' away from any tree trunks, and 5' down from a branch that would not support the weight of a bear.
3. My cooking area is 60 yds from my tent and also 60 yds from my bear hang.
4. Toothpaste smells like food to a bear, so it goes in the bear hang as well.

I do as many of those things as I can, as carefully as I can.

When it's dry.

When it's raining hard, my rules become more like this:

1. I haven't seen a bear in a couple of days. That one isn't near here. Probably.
2. Bears probably hate the rain too.
3. I've smelled like pepperoni before, so if bears were really a threat I'd be dead already.
4. Bear hangs are a stupid idea. If the food is with me, at least I have some chance of defending it.
1. Don't get wet for stupid ideas.
5. If toothpaste were food, hikers would already have eaten the whole tube.
6. Having dinner inside your tent puts a barrier between your food and the bears. Besides, bears know how stupid it is to eat in the rain, so they won't bother you. Don't be dumber than a bear.

Tonight it's raining, and it turns out macaroni makes a nice pillow. Like a bean bag.

Start: Bromley + 1 mile

End: Spruce Peak Shelter + 1 mile

Distance: 4.8 miles (with a stop in Manchester Center)

Days 45 and 46 - Hanover your gear! (15-16/8/2016)

I arrived in Hanover, went to the post office and discovered that my bounce box is missing. My bounce box holds the next map I need, most of my guide for the trail, cables and such for charging my watch and camera, clothes for town, one of my notebooks, and some other stuff that I'd really prefer to have.

So the last two days have been mostly preoccupied with food and finding my mailbox. So far, no one has any idea where the mail might be. I will say, though, that the USPS staff have been extremely generous with their time and energy. With any luck, it'll turn up soon.

Hanover, NH is easily the most hiker friendly town I've ever been too. One pizza place gives every thru-hiker a free slice of pizza, another bakery gives us a free donut or muffin. There's a community centre that will let you store your pack for the day, and offers cheap showers and laundry. There aren't many hostels, but the local college keeps a list of people who are willing to host hikers (trail angels). It's a busy time, so it took me a while to find someone with space but last night I stayed with the priest at an episcopal church just across the state line in Norwich, Vermont. This means that I've officially passed the 20% mark!

The minister also has a puppy, who woke me up this morning by a) licking my face, and b) stealing my cheese. I got up, had coffee, and joined the minister and her puppy on their morning park visit. God I love dogs.

My attempt to hold my feet together...

There's also some very good options for outfitters, so I've been able to replace my shoes, buy a new shirt, get a map to replace the one in my bounce box, and replace Pouch's rain cover!

I wasn't planning to zero here, but since I'm waiting on news about my mail I'll have to. I could do worse - there are some really nice places for food and drink here, and I haven't had time to try them all yet.

Start: um. Mile 425 or so.
End: Norwich, VT (though to be fair, I took a bus from Hanover to Norwich)
Distance: 18.3 miles

Day 43 - I'm wet! I'm wet and I'm hysterical! (13/8/2016)

The sugar shack was fun, it was nice to be sheltered from the torrential rains that hit in the early evening, and Pete had a pretty cool life story but in the end I probably should have skipped it in favour of some miles. I was (once again) reminded that I don't like shared sleeping arrangements. Late revellers, a couple "caring about each other deeply", and repeated intrusions by people looking for space to set up for the night meant that I didn't get much sleep.

As usual, that meant I was cranky when I woke. A situation not improved by the discovery that both the water and electricity were knocked out by the storms, so there would be no eggs and pancakes for breakfast.

The situation was further not improved by the thunderstorms that came while I was walking. Camping wet probably has some charms, but I have trouble seeing them today. Fortunately I'm not far from Hanover where it will be time for some serious gear shopping - my t-shirt is torn in several places, and my shoes have finally given up.

On a more positive note, the terrain has gotten friendlier making bigger miles easier. Also, the maté tea that my parents sent was amazing! I can't wait to make more.

Start: NH25A (near mile 408.5)
End: Around the 425 mile mark
Distance: 16.5 miles

Days 41 and 42 - Xmas in August (11-12/8/2016)

I hadn't thought I'd have much to talk about these last couple of days, but how wrong I was!

I'd planned to collect a bit of mail in Glencliff, only to discover that a "bit of mail" was:

2 t-shirts
2 tensor bandages
Some safety pins
2 bags of Nibs
4 boxes of smarties
An SHDC adapter for my camera
A USB cable
2 letters from Russia
A bag of maté tea
A rittersport candy bar
Electrolytes
A pound of Italian speck
A pound of Italian parmesan

I took a bit longer to get organised than I'd expected, but last night I had a speck and parm pasta dinner that could rival any Italian restaurant. All I needed was a nice Pinot Grigio.

This morning I set out to do 16-18 miles. I made it 3. A group of hikers waved me over to the truck that had just dropped them off. Indicating the driver, one said "This is Pete. You should go hang out with him for the day."

I paused. I'd just promised friends I'd be in NY in 3 weeks, which already meant 16 mile days.

Then I remembered a decision I made early on: since getting to Georgia wasn't the most important thing on my list, I would take advantage of any opportunities that could prove interesting. This seemed like one of those.

Pete, it turns out, is the son of a former state Governor who runs a sugar shack. For decades he has had hikers sleep in his shack in the summer, giving them free coffee, pancakes and maple syrup. Let me repeat that: pancakes and maple syrup, from the very shack I'm sleeping in, are FREE!

So here I sit, on the porch of a sugar shack, stuffed with pancakes and sipping beer, having completed only 13 miles in 2 days.

Life is good.

MacGruber, Sweetfeet, & Trotter at the sugar shack

Start: Mooselaucke peak
End: Mt Cube Farm
Distance: 13.5 miles