Troll's 2010 AT Journal

31 August 2010, Lincoln, 0.0
We made the quick drive this morning to Glencliff to pick up my hiking clothes I left there. Just before I left Mad Mike called me on my cell phone. He had left Glencliff 20 minutes ago and was driving my way. I told him that we had to head back there to get my hiking clothes. He said he would call me around 10 am again and see where I was so we could hock up. It was great to hear from Mad Mike. I started a Springer with Mad Mike, Geo and Hopper. Mike only stayed on the trail for two months though, he never planned on doing a thru hike.

Mike called at 10 am as he said he would. We decided to meet at the Flume. The Flume is a tourist attraction in the area. We sat and chatted and talk about our hike and what Mike has been up to. Mike told us that The Professor is off the trail. He picked him up in Hanover last week and took him to REI and he turned in all his gear and got credit for it. Mike said that he got to Velvet Rocks and his foot hurt so bad he could not walk. He even took five days off and it did not get any better. I was sorry to hear that. The Professor was a great guy and I enjoyed running into him. I am wondering if the big mile days he was doing while slack packing is what caused the foot problem. I was sorry to hear that he got off the trail.

After Mike left I dropped Hopper off at the Old Bridle Path trail. She is going to take that up to Greenleaf Hut where she is staying tonight. My plan is to head out in the morning and take Liberty Springs trail to the AT and then on to Garfield Ridge Campsite. Then the following day to Zealand Hut where I might meet back up with Hopper. Hopper just got off the phone with me telling me she made it to Greenleaf Hut and that it was really buggy and I should bring my bug net.

It is pretty darn hot hear today. I think it is in the 90's and it is suppose to be the same tomorrow. I am not looking forward to the climb out of here tomorrow.

I sat around most of the afternoon in Chet's "One Step at a Time" hostel trying to avoid the heat outside. Chet is a great guy with an amazing bad injury, who refuses to let it this accedent limit him. Chet had been preparing for an upcoming through hike when he had a terrible accident. He was using a whisperlite stove and fuel bottle. When pumping the fuel bottle it cause a static charge and that static charge ignited the fuel bottle, causing it to blow up. This made Chet blind and in a wheel chair. He has made great progress in the last two years that I have known him. Whisperlite has since then also change the design of the pump on there fuel bottles. They now have a elbow at the connection to the pump. This is suppose to keep any static charge from going into the fuel bottle because it will not go past the elbow.

I sat around most of the afternoon in the hostel trying to avoid the heat outside. Shadow, Forest, Pebbles, and T-rex came in this afternoon and Forest picked up the guitar they had here and complained a little about it being warped and not able to tune it properly. He still played it though and and sang, it sounded pretty good to me.

T-rex and I went out a bought a bunch of burgers with the accessroies and some beer and came back to the hostel and cooked them up for everyone here.

At 8 pm I took Pebbles and Forest to Dunkin Donuts and they got all the donuts that they were going to throw away for the night. Now we have bunches of assorted donuts for all the hikers for breakfast in the morning.

We also made a run to Price Chopper for some last minute stuff. While we were there I ran into a hiker named Crawfish and he asked me my name and I told him Troll, he asked if I was Attroll from WhiteBlaze. I told him yes and he lifted up a copy of Appalachian Pages. He was very polite and told me how inaccurate the profiles and the data was. I explained to him now that I realize that now that I have been hiking the trail. I also explain to him that I am no longer publishing the book and that Awol and I split.

By the end of the night here are Shadow, Forest, Pebbles, and T-Rex, Just Bluesky, Rip Van Winkle, Puma, Chef, Timon, Carl, Rock Steady, Minimuffin, ****, **** (I cannot remember everyones name).