Day 92 An Ending

Today had beautiful weather, easy trails, lots of town food, but was probably the hardest day on trail for me. 


I woke up at 5AM and saw a text from Tyler saying he decided to quit. I’ll let him share his reasons for quitting as he sees fit. Getting Norovirus a second time is definitely a horrible fate. 


As for me, I know that I have enjoyed every minute of the trail and haven’t wished to quit for even a minute. Three quarters of people who set out do not finish the trail. It is not easy. I am incredibly sad and disappointed that I will not be able to share the rest of this journey with Tyler. The experience began over 4 years ago when he and I set out to hike the whole trail. For him it ends today. 


Pushing through difficulties like losing Tyler’s companionship is all part of the journey. Unless I am physically unable to finish I do not intend to stop until I reach the top of Katahdin. And through the journey I will practice presence and gratitude, which have brought me peace and joy through the trail this far. 


We hiked 23 miles today. We woke up and took our time getting started. We got back on trail after our short detour to the Cookie Lady and began hiking around 7:45. 



We had some cool woods in the morning.





Then we dropped down into Dalton MA for lunch. The town felt very much like a classic northeastern mill town.




We ate a huge lunch at a sub shop and were back hiking around 1:00.  Between Dalton and Cheshire MA we mainly hiked through repetitive woods and easy terrain. We did have one good view though. 




We got into Cheshire around 4:00PM and stopped for dinner. We had hiked around 18 miles, with 5 left to go on the day. We ate at a restaurant called Common Table and talked to some section hikers who hope to hike the whole trail at some point. 



We also talked to a local who told us there was no way we could hike the 5 miles from Cheshire up to the shelter where we planned to stay the night. It’s kind of funny talking to people who aren’t familiar with thru hikers and what we do. Yes, the hike out of Cheshire was 5 miles up hill. And yes it was very possible, I would even say easy, to hike those 5 miles in an hour and a half. 


We made it to camp around 7:50 and set up our tents. Tomorrow we will hike 20-23 miles, hit 1,600, and enter Vermont.


Goodnight,

Walker 





If you want to follow Tyler or Spencer, here are their logs as well:


Tyler: https://tylerat2024.blogspot.com/?m=1


Spencer: https://www.instagram.com/baxter.bound?utm_source=qr&igsh=MWx4MzRqa3M4dGk3Mw==

Comments

  1. E R Stick, JrMay 29, 2024 at 4:52 AM

    Your commitment is commendable and we appreciate your continued effort to accomplishment your objective. As always, a well constructed post we've enjoyed reading your thoughts, seeing the photos and and corresponding narative. Remain steadfast you'll not regret it.

    ReplyDelete

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