July 31, 2004

My husband, Bruce, has spent the last few days with me in Connecticut.  I hiked during the day while Bruce provided trail support at its finest by meeting Bear and me trailside with lunch.  Bruce did our laundry and washed our backpacks in the car wash!  Bear's pack was so smelly that Bruce joked about waxing it too.  I spent some quality time with my husband of 23 years in the evenings.  Having trail support has helped me tremendously.  I am very blessed to have Bruce and my three children participate in my journey northward.  It won't be long before I can be with my family again.  I miss them all very, very much.  Hugs and kisses to Jethro, Twinkles, B-2 and Britty.  My 17.7 miles today centered around thoughts of you!

I had a hearty breakfast at the White Hart Inn before arriving at the trail at 9:00 a.m.  I hiked until 12:30 p.m. and had lunch with Bruce and Bear.  I was consumed with the first part of my hike today by the nearby racetrack.  I could hear cars racing for miles.

"Hey Bear," I said. "Want to go race cars?"

"Sure," said Bear excitedly.

Bruce drove us to the racetrack, but Ferraris were using the track.  We toured the track anyway before heading back to the trail to resume our day's hike.

I kissed Bruce goodbye and thanked him for his support.  Bear and Bruce shook hands and we pressed onward.  We were sitting atop Prospect Mountain when Mouse Bait and White Patch hiked up.  We hadn't seen thru-hikers lately so we exchanged trail tales.  I learned that White Patch had fallen in New York and cracked some ribs...ouch!  I also learned that Allegheny, a man with whom I had hiked, was bitten by a rattlesnake.

The rumor on the trail is that Allegheny was airlifted off the trail, recovered quickly, and is hiking again.

As we sat there, the four of us were discussing our plans.  Bear and I intended to hike for another mile to the lean-to.  However, the lean-to was ½ mile off the trail and 900 feet downhill.  That would mean that we would have a 900 foot climb in the morning and hike an entire mile that didn't count.  So...we chose to add four miles to our day's total and camp at a designated campsite.  This way, our miles would count.  Silly logic, but we wanted to be moving northward tallying the miles.  My night ended by camping in a thunderstorm.  I was in good company with Bear, Mouse Bait, and White Patch.