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40 lbs.

That’s what my pack weighed when I left home. Without a full water bag. I was a little apprehensive about that as I left to go pick Sven up. With a name like Sven, you don’t think of a big black man, but that’s who he is. Sven makes me think of a Scandinavian or something. Lederhosen and the like.

We met up with Janice and Kevin at a parking lot off of exit 47 on I-91. I left my vehicle there, and got into Janice’s mini-SUV. Kevin went along with Sven and our other companion Grigory. We drove north for a couple of hours, finally finding ourselves near the base of Mt Greylock, on the Appalachian Trail. We didn’t go south to Greylock, however; we went north, into Vermont.

Saturday

The trail uncovered a number of mistakes I’d made. First (yet not foremost) I found that the “hip belt” on a pack doesn’t actually sit on the hip. This hasn’t been an issue for me with lighter weights, but carrying around 40+lbs will reveal the true problem. The hip belt actually rides above the hips, so that the “lumbar pad” sits high in the small of the back. The pack will sit higher on you as a result. I found this out because I had the hip belt on my hips, and I was freaking out some muscles in my legs that should not have been freaking out. Plus, a higher step would cause the leg to touch the highly padded hip belt. At our first “packs off” rest, I asked Kevin if it should be like that (as I knew that something was wrong) and had him check my pack. He was familiar with the problem, and gave me the guidance I needed to get my pack in the right place.

But the real problem came later in the hike, maybe 4 or 5 hours in, when my heels just started killing me. I was hiking in my Vasque Sundowners, which I’ve had since 1996 or so (I got them while I was in Colorado), and I come to find that the insoles in them have pretty much been pounded into oblivion. I checked them later, and the heel was like 1 or 2mm thin. A normal pad should be 4 or 5 mm. I was hiking without padding on my feet, and with 40lbs on my back, I felt it. With every step.

I was very happy to set my hammock up and get in front of the fire at the shelter. When we got there (at around 6 or 7ish?), a large group of tents was already set up, and there were a couple of guys in the lean-to. Our group had room to join them, though. The tents belonged to a scouting troupe out of Cambridge, MA. They were both boys and girls, lead by 2 women and a man. They put on a series of skits for us.

After the skits were done, night had fallen. Kevin told a story about sinking islands, where gas keeps the island afloat, and then part of it folds into itself.

My hammock was nice and warm. I was a little concerned about warmth, so I put my reusable space blanket under my sleeping bag. My Big Agnes bag served me admirably. I was able to lay sideways in it, bring my knees up, and fly one knee out while the foot touches the opposite knee. I was warm most of the night, but (due to exhaustion, primarily) I felt a little feverish at night; I would have bouts of feeling cold (an ‘internal’ cold). I had to get up multiple times to take a leak, and I came back shivering.

I got a chance to partially preach the gospel to Sven as we were hiking. He’s tightly bound in the world system, and the gospel was an offense to him. We spoke about issues like the different versions of the bible, the ability (or lack thereof) of good works to save a person, what a person is saved from (and by whom). I told him that rather than being a moral guidebook, the New Testament is primarily concerned with hell, the judgment, and the way to escape condemnation.

Sunday

When morning came, my feet were feeling okay (aside from my pinkie toes)! I was mentioning my heel problems at the table at breakfast, and one of the women from the other group was kind enough to give me a section of moleskin padding, which I cut and placed under my heels. This helped!

We left at 8:30am on Sunday morning, a little after the scout troupe. We leapfrogged them a number of times during the day. We came up a relatively long and steadily inclined mountain. At the summit, we met up with the troupe. I shared my mango with a couple of them. We crossed a couple of pretty cool beaver ponds, one of which was actually higher than the boardwalk below (only maybe 6 feet from it’s edge).

There was a very nice stream along the way, which ended up being right near the next shelter. The troupe had been there for less than half an hour or so when we arrived.

Now this shelter was the bomb. It had an uber-lean-to. It was actually more akin to a hut or a cabin than a leanto. It had two double-decker beds built in (just wood, no mattress or anything like that) and a table between them. There was maybe 3 feet of open floor as well. A fireplace was built in front of it, complete with a flat stone over it for cooking (which is how I heated my water that afternoon). We got to the shelter at about 2:30pm or so.

I set up my hammock near the shelter/fire, and took a load off. I brought a microfiber cloth with me, so I cleaned my face and washed my hair with that, then washed my feet and arms and legs. Then I walked around barefoot and got my feet all dirty (but at least they were clean!). I’d changed out of my sweat soaked wife-beater and t-shirt, and into a clean wife-beater. The black flies were still in force though, so I put on my go-lite jacket (complete with balaclava for protection) as well.

Once I was situated, I invited a couple of the kids to play a game of cards. They were happy to oblige. One brought over a standard deck of cards (with oversized text) and taught me how to play Egyption Ratscrew. My interest dropped significantly when a number of arbitrary rules came into play. After that, I was like “I’ll teach you how to play a real game” and so I taught them how to play Coloretto. Everyone loved the “color game”.

When evening came, we played some more Ratscrew, and then split up into 2 groups of 4. Actually, we were supposed to split up into 2 groups of 4, but I think the other group of 4 grew disinterested and left. My group played Loco! and Scripts and Scribes. By the end of S&S, night had fallen (we finished the game by candlelight) and everyone went to bed.

Monday

Crew 56 left about a half an hour earlier than us the following day, choosing to eat on the trail rather than prepare breakfast. They wanted to get home! I had a protein shake for breakfast, and that (surprisingly) held me over well into lunch. With only 4 miles to go today, we were ready to roll. Of course, our warm-up was a consistent upward trail, not in your face, but up and up. It was also kind of degraded terrain, with lots of rooty path. Once we hit the high point on the trail and crested over to the other side of the mountain, the terrain started to “pretty up” a bit. We caught an excellent view from a vista up there. There was a large obelisk in the town below that generated some interest.

The path continued to descend moderately, flattened out for a little while, and then started an ascent for a short distance. This is right near the end of our trail. The last section is a sweeping switchback across a steep incline. The lower portions were literally rock stairways. I like this kind of terrain, but it did not make my feet happy.

When we got to the base most of the troupe was sitting there, waiting for their ride to come back. Some of them were playing Ratscrew, and invited me to join. It had been on my mind to gift them Coloretto, and so I did so and they started playing it. I get some strange looks when I give stuff away or serve strangers. They were a little incredulous that I should give them my game, and thanked me heartily. They’ll be going on a 10 day trip somewhere before too long, and will bring it along with them. I also recommended that they see if they can’t pick up Sticheln, since that plays 3-10 and is a great game. A Tichu set wouldn’t go amiss there, either; the new production has special cards in both decks, so you can do two 4-player games simultaneously, not to mention that the standard-deck comes along with it (so you could play Hearts, Spades, etc with it). Just bringing those two decks would provide a myriad of games they could play.

Problems

I had a number of problems on the trip. Feet were my main one, and so I need to get some better insoles for them. I’d already done research, but hadn’t pulled the trigger. I totally will now. It’s time for me to get the Archmolds.

The other problem I had with my feet was my pinkie toe skin getting under the adjacent toe. Miles with extra weight caused a blister-like feel, sans blister. Just a sore and sensitive skin area from repeated pounding.

I had too much stuff in my pack that I didn’t end up using. I’m going to do a full inventory and usage analysis.