Hi everyone,
Yes, its been quite some time since I last journaled. I plan to note the highlights of the last month in several emails to come. Stephan and I spent the last 10 days in the fair state of Ohio where the weather was cool but sunny ever since my sister Amanda's wedding last Saturday.
The wedding was beautiful and perfect, and Mandy was lovely in white. Not to be outdone, Johnny was also dashingly punk-ish in his liberty spike coiffeur. We were all amused to see Mandy show how springy those spikes really are - she pushed one flat to his head and it sprang upright without hesitation. Rave No. 4 is apparently all one needs to produce this look. John, welcome to the Family!
It was great to see my family during this break. The only one I didn't see was my brother Aaron who recently graduated from West Point and is now in officer training. See you over the holidays, Aaron.
Due to nasty colds, Stephan and I actually delayed our return to the trail. Stephan was developing a sinus cold just before we left for Ohio last week and is still recovering from a chest cold. He was kind enough to share it with me (some things we don't need to share!) but I mostly have the sniffles now.
We flew into Albany NY (8/26) and then hopped on a bus to Bennington VT. We enjoyed one last night in civilization and stayed in the Autumn Inn followed by a visit to the microbrew in town. I think the town stay did us some good - we were in bed at 7 pm (but watching tv) and didn't get up until 10:30 the next morning. While en route to breakfast we bumped into Mickey and Mallory, Rowboat and Atlas - I was glad to see them and also glad we made the jump ahead.
We finally arrived at the trailhead around 2 pm and had a 1300 ft uphill climb before reaching the shelter. Stephan was still coughing a lot that morning so I was concerned about hiking however he said he felt okay. We planned a very short day - less than 2 miles, actually, but we didn't want to push it. At the Melville Nauheim Shelter we met a Sobo who goes by Mustard... from Akron OH of all places. He is a trombone performance major working on his masters degree at Akron U.
I like being back on trail again. I think that we can summit Mt. Katahdin by Oct. 6 as long as we average 14.3 miles per day (~100 mi/wk) which shouldn't be a problem. Then Stephan and I will head to the NY/CT border and hike north to pick up the states we missed, then complete our hike on Mt Greylock.
--Steph
www.hikingat.com
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