6/12-6/16/08 to Dalton, Mass

6/16/08  17 miles to Kay Wood Shelter, 3 more to Dalton, Mass.

The day is not yet done, but the monstrous thunderstorm that has overtaken the skies provided a good impetus to rest awhile at this convenient shelter. Maybe it was the coffee and early start I had this morning, but thus far time has really slipped away in effortless labor. Perhaps this cool weather is making things so easy or perhaps I’m a crazy child of nature!

6/15/08 28 miles to Upper Goose Pond Cabin (Berkshire county, Massachusetts)

What a change in fortune this day has been. After waking up at 4:00am from my fitful greenhouse shelter sleep, I quickly scrambled into the world of new obstacles and rewards. Before noon I had already completed 12 miles and felt confident in the prospect of being here tonight. However, Massachusetts has certainly doled out its punishment with insects. The mosquitoes in this region are so bad that I can only hope to outrun and outmaneuver them as my chance for not being devoured. Hiking has become frantic—I cannot stop to pee, drink or even adjust my load without being swarmed!  My strategy has been reaching each road crossing in an unbroken movement, because the insects cannot reach me there. By the end of the day I was saturated with sweat, DEET, Goldbond powder and bug carcasses as well as past-exhaustion.

But reaching this cabin, a free service of the Massachusetts AMC (Appalachian Mountain Club) has restored all efforts. New company—Pickle and Garlic—and old friends, Longstep and Sleepwallker—have certainly restored most of my energy. I felt adventurous to take a moonlight swim in Goose Pond and now I can sleep easily with the luxury of screened windows.  On to Dalton, MA tomorrow.  

6/14/08  16.8 miles  Disarrayed empty greenhouse by the CornCrib Farmstand on the side of Route 7 (near Sheffield, MA)

Truly this is the most fitting image of a bum I have yet attained. I practically outran a lurching thunderstorm to make it here, only to find the farmer’s market closed. But tired after nearly 17 miles of rigorous climbing and battling families of mosquitoes, in addition to seeing a black horizon ready to storm, I realized this would be home for the night. 

6/13/08  18.1 miles to Brassie Brook Lean-to (Northwest corner of Connecticut)

No complaints for this tranquil day. I was blessed with both moderate terrain and moderate weather. I wish I could resolve this entry with more clearance, but it has to be abrupt or the mosquitoes will eat me. 

6/12/08  19.5 miles to Sharon Mountain Campsite

Once again I have neglected my precious inner voice but fortunately this time it was not a product of stress, but leisure. In Kent, Connecticut, I stayed with my friend Jillian Sawyer and her family. In fact, I stayed two nights, accepting their wonderful hospitality and enticing company. The image that best depicts my voyage back to society is navigating White Plains, NY at the direction of Herman Furman, Jill’s blind friend, to recover his guitar from a music shop.  It truly cannot earn its traumatic justice in my journal alone, because it was such an irreplaceable journey. Herman is a very brave man and Jill is and has always been a mystic spirit.

To bring the final atonement to the universe, the heat wave finally expired, in one final violent storm. Only the two tornados I have lived through could surpass this storm in intensity. But after finishing its course, the fireflies came out to dance again, to let us know that everything is fine. 

Second to last

Goodbye green mountains, goodbye relentless hills and wicked thunderstorms. Today is the threshold of a great new white horizon, today is my day crossing the free state. 

5/29-6/10/08 to Kent, Connecticut

Posted by Mom from Michael's (Ishmael) handwritten journal entries mailed home:

6/10/08  17 miles to Kent, Connecticut

I will use this lull in activity to repay my cheated journal. Unfortunately if has been so stuffy and oppressively hot recently that life has been like muffins in an oven—a very humid oven rampant with insects.  Those muffins are also required to climb an average of 18 miles of hills everyday. As a muffin, I know my body is rapidly adapting, because I am sweating and drinking more than ever before. On the brighter side of life, I am now a mile away from Kent, where hopefully I can visit my friend, Jillian Sawyer.

6/8/08  19.5 miles RPH Shelter (across the Hudson River, NY)

This has been another day subject to the weather. Even before sunrise I felt the oppressive heat descending on me. However I was grateful to slaughter many miles before noon, so I could bathe in the tourist paradise at Canopus Lack. Highlighs of the afternoon include seeing a rattlesnake threaten me closer than three feet and walking through a refreshing thunderstorm. The peaceful, conclusion happened when Young and Dumb, ’07 Northbound hikers left hordes of trail magic at the shelter. Life is nice.

6/7/08 15.6 miles to Graymoor Spiritual Center (near Peekskill, New York)

Some days are doomed from the daybreak like when I walked outside this morning and felt the sweltering heat like the Everglades. Even walking downhill I was coated in a film of sweat, so going up the steep rocks of Bear Mountain practically dehydrated me altogether. But aside from the heat, there was something I encountered today that was completely unexpected. No one told me that Bear Mountain State Park was the relocated ethnic quarters of Brooklyn. The trail meandered right through flocks of every religion and ethnicity possible in the woods. There were times when I practically had to compete with the line for the swimming pool to walk on the AT.  Most of the people, I assume had no idead the significance of this path. The roles instantly changed: they were the invaders to my land, and I was the native. 

6/6/08 19.6 miles  William Brien Shelter (28 miles into New York)

The Empire State has poised its challenges and revealed its marvels ever since the southern boundary. It feels as though I’ve instantly been shrunk to hobbit size, running through a rampant forest, alive and powerful. The terrain is awesome but daunting, towering over us at every angle. With today’s rugged hiking, Start, Longstep, Sleepwalker, Railroad King and I all made the pilgrimage to Bellvale Creamery for homemade ice cream.  Today we were rewarded with trail magic from Daddy-O, the most inspiring and inspired trail angel.

6/3/08  18 miles to Secret Shelter

Unfortunately, I have been curt and negligent about recording my thoughts recently, but these days I truly have faced fatigue powerful enough to suppress my thoughts. Feelings aside, I had a refreshing stay at the Delaware Water Gap Hostel and have since been hiking with Starfi, a chipper guy connected both to the word of god and to the grooviness of being outdoors. The trail in New Jersey certainly escapes the stereotypical image of the Garden State. I have yet to see a sooty wasteland, and in fact, it’s quite beautiful here. Unfortunately the insects are voracious. I hear the mosquito is New Jersey’s State Bird! 

6/1/08  21 miles Gren Anderson Shelter   Sussex, New Jersey

Very fatigued, both mentally and physically!  Neither crossing the Pennsylvania border into New Jersey nor receiving the hospitality of the Delaware Water Gap Church Hostel raised my strength. New Jersey is surprisingly beautiful but I will need more to brighten my spirits. I’m seriously considering a zero mile day in Vernon, NJ. 

            Enlarge your perspective. Be patient, be real.

5/30/08  21 miles around Palmerton, PA

Today has been a peculiar day, one whose twists I can only attribute to the omnipotent grip of fate. This morning, after braving the sweltering heat and rocky passages, I parted with Start and the Tennessee Twins to hitch into Palmerton—a difficult task but with its rewards. After soliciting the help of local launderers to guard my property, I devoured a monstrous calzone and left town with another lucky hitch, satisfied with clean clothes and calories. Yet I could not have picked a more tortuous day to climb the zinc mine from Lehigh Gap. The ascent is practically a mile of treeless, shadeless boulders on steep rocks.  I had only the zinc factories to thank, and the oppressive cloudless sun to appreciate for walking across the oven. After 10 miles without a water source, I luckily stumbled on Delps Spring, where I drank a liter on site. After that, I was steeled to reach the next shelter which plunged me into a rocky night hike. However, about three miles inward, I ran into a man walking his dog, oddly at 9pm, who invited me to stay at this house where he frequently hosts hikers in the garage.  Sure enough, his service is listed in the AT Guidebook, so I stepped over my suspicions and set up here at his garage. He is certainly astray in his wilderness views: an avid slackpacker, a gear buff, an Earl Schaffer servant. Hopefully I can reach Delaware Water Gap tomorrow night.

Ready for fresh Cheese

Here I am, whittling away another piece of infinitessimal time at the Dalton Public Library. The Vermont border is just North of here, and I am excited to step into the savage Northern terrain. Today I am taking a day off; however, because even hikers have to heal after these intense summer days and endless rocky peaks.

Peace After the Storm

Peace was restored to the galaxy this Tuesday after the wave of heat that has plagued the Northeast swept over in a final showdown. I am grateful for my friend Jillian Sawyer's hospitality, who let me stay with her in Kent, CT, and watch the onslaught from behind windows. Many trees are down and looks like warfare hit the forests, but luckily I was being pampered with time off while my friends suffered. Now I am in Salisbury, CT, close to finishing one more state!

photos from ?Pennsylvania

Thunderstorming through the States

The mosquito is the state bird of New Jersey