Hanover, NH

Made it into New Hampshire today! I have to admit, Vermont was a pretty hard state for us; if we though Marsh-achusetts (yeah, it's been officially renamed) was muddy and wet, we had no idea about Vermont (Vermud). A more poorly constructed trail I could not imagine, and as the first 97 miles were also the Long Trail, overused as well. Erosion, widening around mud puddles (muddles?) and often just water flowing down the trail... I have to admit, it hasn't been a ton of fun.

In fact, lately it's been feeling more like work than anything, especially with the mountains being "steeper and deeper" ever since Mt Greylock. The uphills are always a challenge for me, and the rain, mud, and a possible intestinal bug have not helped. I told myself, following a fellow hiker's plan, that if I felt like getting off trail for 7 days in a row, I would. I almost made it there this last week, even with the zero-day in Killington. I recouperated pretty well there, our room was a suite and had a TV, fireplace, and was generally very homey, not to mention right next door to the best Irish pub on the trail, and maybe the best I've ever been to. Great food, great times. But it hardly helped my mood improve. As soon as i started hiking again the next day I was depressed and not into it again.

Yesterday was better. I brought back some controlled breathing habits to help me on the climbs which has helped a lot, takes the focus off the pain and exhaustion and puts it solely on the breath; the mud was also less, even with the on-and-off rain all day. Walking through fields of waist high, sometimes shoulder high grass/foliage during or after a rain sucks, you might as well jump in a lake. My feet got soaked again; they've been soaked for days and days, thats actually a big part of my down mood. Your feet are your base, and when the base is troubled, all of you is. I may be moving towards getting trench foot; whatever's going on down there, it hurts.

No, it's not all bad, and I'm sorry to be filling this blog up with negetivity. My friends have been great, we all suffer together and we all bring each other up when it's needed. Thank God this trail is as social a thing as it is; I doubt I could do this alone, if only from sheer boredom. It will suck saying good bye to them when this is over. That's part of why I'm depressed lately, thinking about the end of this hike, and all that goes with it. It's far better, I find, to not think ahead too much, to stick with the present. The future takes care of itself, and when you're not focused on what's in front of you, you just get stressed out. One cool thing is that we may do a road trip after Katahdin to North Carolina to see a friend who's gotten off trail, or maybe farther. So there may be something good waiting for me there.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that even hiking I still almost got hit by a car. I guess parts of VT are NOT hiker friendly. On some dirt road in the middle of nowhere, and old lady swerved TOWARDS me and KBomb. She passed maybe a foot away from us; I couldn't even react, my mind couldn't process it... I couldn't even jump out of the way, all I could do was turn around and watch her drive away, totally amazed, like, what the fuck just happened?

Well, I'm updating here at the pizza shop, and our order is up, so I gotta go. I've got the White Mountains almost in my sights, preparing for the challenge, excited for the views, and hoping, praying, begging for no more rain.