A Week and a Half Back in Civilization

Time has flown by since I got off the trail on August 1st.  On my last hiking day before my break, Thursday, July 31st, I hiked over the first of the mountains I will face that has a tree line.  That means that you reach a certain elevation where there are no more trees... the conditions no longer support tree growth.  Mount Moosilauke, at 4,802 feet in elevation, with a "mean-looking" elevation profile, looked like a daunting task to me the night before, as I was talking with Woodman and Pidgeon at the hostel about it.  They had both slack packed the mountain, and were giving me tips.  I was feeling beat up and tired.  The weather forecast was calling for thunderstorms in the afternoon, so I wanted to get up and over it fairly quickly.  For those reasons, I decided to also do what the two of them had done, and slack pack.  I had only slack packed one other part of the trail... a nine mile section way back in Tennessee, when I was testing my sore shin splint to see if I could go.  On this Thursday, I had Legion - the hostel owner and an experienced hiker - shuttle me to the North side of Moosilauke, along with Woodman and Pidgeon, who were going to continue North from there.  Before leaving, I ate a good breakfast of pancakes, eggs and bacon.  All I had to carry in my day pack was a water bottle, my water purification tablets, snacks and a lunch, my fleece and a large trash bag, which was my improvised rain gear.  All I can say is that carrying a pack that was well under five pounds seemed like a real treat compared to carrying my normal pack of about 35 pounds.  While the climb up Moosilauke was steep, it seemed relatively easy without the weight.  There was a beautiful cascade alongside the trail much of the way up.  As I neared the top, the weather turned and I was "socked in".  You can see by the picture below that my view was a little different than the one Anne included in the last post.  It turned out that the North to South slack pack on my final day before the break was great because I got to catch up to several of my fellow thru hikers coming in the opposite direction that I hadn't seen in a while, including Bagger, Mother Earth, Hollywood and Hemlock.  Squirrel, who had come South to North, happened to be at the top when I arrived and was kind enough to take the picture.


Tom socked in at the top of Moosilauke

The cascade along the trail on the way up



I returned to the Welcome Hiker's Hostel that afternoon with time to spare.  I ran into the Austin, Texas couple - Youngbeard and Sunshine - as well as Sasquatch there.  It seemed like a fitting way to finish up this section... catching up with my fellow hikers.  I also chatted with Legion and Steady about ways to reduce my pack weight.  Steady is a triple crown hiker, having completed the AT, the Pacific Crest Trail and the Continental Divide Trail.  After my slack pack today, I am convinced I want to trim a few more pounds from my pack if possible.  Also, I will be more open to other slack packs when the opportunities present themselves.

My superb trail angel from Hanover, NH - Warren Thayer - drove the hour or so to the Hiker's Welcome Hostel and then back to Hanover with me, where I stayed the night in their home again.  I did my laundry that evening and cleaned myself up for the flight back home the next day.  Warren took me to the bus stop the next morning so I could pick up the Hanover to Boston Logan bus.  And I flew from there to Charlotte (via LaGuardia it turns out), where my lovely wife and my brother Dave picked me up.  We stayed that night at Dave's home.  Despite it being late at night, they had an awesome homecooked meal awaiting me when I arrived.  Thank you niece Sabrina and sister-in-law Isa!  The contrast between tent life and the pampered life seemed large that night.

As Anne and I awoke on the morning of August 6th, we saw the news that our son Phil had sent in the wee hours that our new granddaughter was born!  We were blessed to hear that Mom and daughter were both doing very well.  Here is a picture of our grandson Austin admiring his new baby sister.

Austin and baby sister Eliza Mae

 

As I write this now, I have been off the trail for twelve days, and we just returned from Grand Rapids, MI where I had the privilege of officiating my niece Stephanie's marriage to Matt Martin.  We had a great time over the weekend - and the whole event was beautiful!

The beaming new couple!

I'm thinking that life is pretty good!  We are excited about getting out to see and hold our new granddaughter soon.  My plan is to resume the hike on September 10th... the airplane reservation has already been made.

In the meantime, I'll be catching you up on several other things over the next few weeks, including:

• Son Kevin's plans to join me for the final ascent of Mt. Katahdin
• What I plan to do to try to stay in hiking shape
• Thoughts on trail angels and how they impact an Appalachian Trail thru hike