Winter is Coming

It’s supposed to get close to 40 degrees tonight, and I think I’m the only excited one here! I’ve found the quality of my sleep to be much better in the cold. I need to buy a new warm hat though, I lost mine awhile back and just forget to replace it in town. My bandana has been sufficient for now though.

Tonight we’re camping near an overlook on Arden mountain in New York with our new friend Moose. There’s a group of 3 nobos (nortbbounders) camping here with us. I’m surprised that we still encounter nobos sometimes this late in the season, winter is coming fast in New England!

Oh, so we hit 800 miles today! We’re also back to carrying our full packs again, which is strangely comforting. We slack packed again today until we met up with our trail angel around 5 and grabbed our full packs then headed up to camp. It was fun being so light but I missed the feeling of carrying all I need on my back. It’s late and I can barely keep my eyes open so that’s all for now!

-Kylie “Sprinkles”

P.S. The spot gps tracker has new batteries!

New York

The spot gps device batteries died, so it’ll be back on as soon as I can get batteries. Today we’re going over Bear Mountain in New York, the third Bear Mountain of the trail!

I’m currently sitting next to a cool van eating pancakes made by the guy who slack-packed us yesterday and is going to today. We leave most of our stuff with him and just carry a small daypack with snacks and a couple essentials. Then we meet up with him at a road crossing to pick up our stuff. It’s awesome!

Time to hike!

-Kylie “Sprinkles”

The Dirty

Okay so I’m gonna have to get real for a minute. If you gross out easily then this post might not be for you.

I pooped in a ziploc bag last night. We pushed for a 21 mile day so that we could camp at this deli .3 miles off trail that we’d heard good things about. They have awesome sandwiches and a spigot for water and outlets to charge devices and a nice yard they encourage thru hikers to camp in. But they don’t have a public restroom. I didn’t know that. I purposefully held my poop as we passed the last privy 3 or 4 miles prior because I was just so excited to have a real toilet that flushes and a sink to wash my hands. My heart dropped when I saw the “no public restroom” sign on the door. I ordered my sandwich and proceeded to ask if they knew of anywhere nearby that I could use a restroom, but alas they did not. It was a Sunday and the only other businesses nearby were a concrete plant and a heating company, both of which were definitely closed. I got my sandwich and went out back knowing there was no way I could make it back to the privy, nor was I willing to add 6-8 miles to my day just to poop. There was nowhere far enough away from where people hang out to dig a cathole, and I guess I could have gone back to the woods to dig but at this point it was starting to get dark. I knew what I had to do. After several minutes of contemplating my life and my decisions that had brought me to this point, I fished a spare gallon size ziploc out of my bag and waited for it to get really dark out. And then I pooped in the ziploc bag in the middle of their backyard.

It was pretty life changing.

Kent, CT

This town has such a stepford wives, etiquette school vibe about it. Everything is so expensive, but the people have been nice so that’s cool. We’re eating Chinese food in front of the (currently closed) welcome center right now then going up to the shelter to set up camp super late tonight. 8pm is past my bed time these days!

-Sprinkles

Bad Day

Today sucked. First full day in a new state and I can’t wait to be done with it. It was rainy and the rocks were slick and I felt wornout from the time I woke up. The terrain was a rollercoaster of steep short ascents and descents with nothing much to look at. I just was not having a good time. Ready to start over again tomorrow

– Sprinkles

Upper Goose Pond

Today I got stung by a yellow jacket. Man it hurt like hell, I definitely cried like a little kid for a minute. Not my proudest moment. On the plus side, it did distract me from my knee that’s been aching on and off since Katahdin!

We also did our second 20 mile day in a row, but this time we didn’t even get started until 10:45 am. We made it to Upper Goose Pond cabin just before sunset. I’ll be sleeping on a bunk with a mattress inside of a building with 4 walls tonight! There’s a volunteer caretaker here who makes pancakes and coffee in the morning. There’s also canoes you can take out on the pond but we have another 20+ miler tomorrow so don’t think we’ll get a chance this time around. Time to sleep!

-Kylie “Sprinkles”

Encounters with Nature

This morning I saw my first bear of the hike! He was walking across the trail and then looking through the plants, probably looking for breakfast. The wind has been howling all day, so I don’t think he ever heard or smelled us nearby. We both backed away slowly and waited until the bear had moved on. I wish I had gotten a picture!

Later in the day I nearly stepped on a chipmunk in the middle of the trail and it moved slightly then stopped moving. I honestly thought it was dying, laying there with its’ eyes half closed and not moving. I was trying to muster up the courage to put it out of its misery (I don’t think I even could) when it looked up real quick then scurried into a hole it was laying on top of! I guess I spooked it coming into or out of its hole! Man, that chipmunk doesn’t know how lucky it is!

We summited Mount Greylock this morning, but we weren’t able to see the view because of thick fog and some misty rain. There is a 93-foot tall Massachusetts War Veterans Memorial at the summit with a spiral staircase to the top. It looked otherworldly in the fog!

Tonight we’re camping in the backyard of an awesome trail angels home in Dalton, MA. Tom Levardi has been letting hikers tent in his yard for free for 40 years! One day he was hiking and a thru-hiker was trying to figure out where he was going to stay the night. The only lodging in town was out of his price range. Tom told him he could set up his tent in the backyard. The next day when Tom got home from work there were 3 more thru-hikers waiting to ask if they could tent there too. And he’s been hosting hikers ever since! It occurred to me that we are like stray cats, you feed one of us and they tell their friends and next thing you know there’s a pack of feral cats at your door every morning. At least we’re grateful strays!

-Kylie “Sprinkles”