“What You Wish For”

AT Day 96; LT Day 9

Miles Today: 22.76

LT Mile: 141.2

(Skyline Lodge [tent])

I have to keep this entry much more brief than I’d like. It is late, we are tired, and on top of it all my keyboard is no longer functional so I’m left typing on a screen with my thumbs. Needless to say, it takes me a lot longer to get ideas onto the page like this. And after 1800 miles with that little keyboard, I feel sort of like I’m working with my hands tied behind my back. A thousand ideas I want to get on the page every night, and with that little keyboard I can sometimes get a half dozen of them; without that I’m not sure how to even get by.

But we still try…

I wasn’t able to get enough signal today to be able to order a new keyboard, but getting that replaced is a high priority. So when I found one bar of service, I reached out to Boots to see if she’d be willing to help. And she was on it like white on rice (not sure why I chose that descriptor, of everything f else in the English language I could have worked with, but here we are).

I know I don’t mention her as much in my journals anymore, but we are still in regular contact and she’s going to meet me in Maine for a week after I finish the trail.

—

The Long Trail… so much to say about the Long Trail…

Holy shit, this trail is a lot more difficult than the Appalachian Trail!

It’s not that we’re going through anything that’s inherently dangerous, but the condition of the trail itself makes progress incredibly difficult compared to what we’ve grown used to on the last 1700 miles of the AT. And that’s saying quite a lot; the AT is a hard hike up to this point! But the Long Trail is even more.

This is likely the most difficult thru hiking trail that I’ve attempted. Both Plinko and I had complete falls today, and I had a couple yesterday. The trail drew blood from both of us, though we’re fortunate that it hasn’t been much. But Plinko also broke both of his hiking poles today within one mile of one another. He also lost his headlamp in one of his falls, although he didn’t realize that until this evening when we went to set camp.

All to say that Plinko has been getting it even rougher than I have, and I already said this is probably my most difficult thru hike that I’ve attempted.

The trail is much quieter than we’ve become used to over the last 3 months. We almost see nobody except one another. We’ve both remarked that this could be a tough one to do alone, especially after having been on the AT Super Highway for the last 3 months. We saw one guy who was doing trail work, and we saw two hikers at each of the last two shelters. Other than that, the LT has been quiet.

Oh, and some day hikers at the little lake where I went swimming this afternoon. But we didn’t really engage with them.

—

The Long Trail has been bad enough that I did take a moment to ask heart-to-heart if Plinko wanted to continue on. There was an opportunity ahead where we could have hitched back to Rutland, and I told Plinko that if he wanted we could finish the Long Trail after the AT. But he said absolutely not and that he wants to carry on. And I respect him for that. Part of me may have wanted for him to be the one to pull the trigger. But a bigger part wanted to stay. And I’m glad that we have.

—

The humidity in parts of the day is so thick that you can literally see the air when the sun shines through the forest just right.

—

This evening I met two hikers at a shelter. One of them was named Stick and he’d hiked the full AT in 2013. We all three talked for a bit, and I felt like I would get along with Stick if we had the chance to hike together. But he is solo and only hiking a long portion of the LT this time.

I asked if he wanted a coyote tooth and he was happy to accept. The other guy, Andy, said that he thought a coyote tooth must have meant some kind of psychedelic drug, and that’s why he declined.

I told him no, it’s just a real baggie of coyote teeth.

Another full day tomrrow.

Wormwood.