Day 122 – Is this what a tramily feels like?

Day 122

Start: Hemlock Springs Campground

End: Beach shelter at Canopus Lake

Miles hiked: 18.0 trail miles

Miles on AT: 1429.5

When I woke up this morning, I was looking forward to something delicious: a deli! Yes, I was in New York, so there were delis on every corner along the way. As I was packing up my things and imagining what I was going to get, a hiker passed by. He looked familiar. I asked him if he had heard the music last night, but apparently he had just come back from the city.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. Last night there was even more music playing in the middle of the night. Two nights in a row, can you believe it? This time the music lasted from 1:30 am to about 3 am. It seemed to move a little, but not much, and the music was of a similar genre to the music I had heard before.

Again my sleep was disturbed and my nerves were on edge. I stood outside my tent in the middle of the night looking for a headlamp, but again I didn’t see any hikers. Strange.

At this point, I was fed up with New York. There were too many people everywhere, it was too loud, and there were too many mysterious midnight music festivals. The only thing I had to look forward to was the food.

It didn’t take long to get to the deli. I ordered a bacon and egg bagel and a beef patty (who knows, knows) to go and sat outside at the picnic tables with the hiker I had chatted with that morning. His name was Cook Out and he was from North Carolina like me.

We had been chatting for a while before I noticed Night Pony, Kaleidoscope and Limpkin coming out of the woods and heading to the deli. It turned out that they were slackpacking today and would therefore be able to do a 20 mile day.

I left them to eat their treats and headed back. Cook Out had already left, but after just a few minutes I met a new hiker. His name was Wise and he was trying to catch up with the rest of his hiking family who were only a few miles ahead of him. His buddy Dying had to leave the trail due to Lyme disease, but was hoping to get back on the trail soon.

As we hiked, the sky grew darker. It looked like it was going to rain, but it was hard to say when. At the next water source, I saw a familiar face: Stretch!

“What are you planning to do?” he asked.

“Not much, just hiking.”

We chatted for a while and told each other what we had planned for the day. My goal was to get to another state park with a lake so I could jump in and shower afterward. The lake closed around 6, so it was possible I wouldn’t be able to go in the lake, but showering was still an option.

Stretch started hiking again and I followed him a few minutes later. The trail wasn’t too bad today; there were quite a few flat, comfortable sections that made the hiking easier.

For lunch, all the hikers I had seen today (except Cook Out) gathered at the same spot and ate together. It was nice to be in a bubble! Sure, it was difficult to find a place to pee because there were so many people hiking nearby, but I enjoyed the company while eating.

As we moved on, plans to camp at the state park became more concrete. I was a vocal advocate and supporter of this plan and made sure everyone knew about it.

When we were almost there, Limpkin and I met a guy who turned out to be a Triple Crowner, meaning he had hiked the Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, and Continental Divide Trail. I went to see if a water faucet on the side of a building worked, and he happened to be sitting in his car after taking photos for a project. He offered me some water and we just started chatting. He had hiked these trails in the late 90s and early 2000s, which made his experiences on the trails completely different than ours. I loved listening to his stories.

Soon we were on the last leg of the hike to the state park. I felt a strange stabbing sensation all over my body. It started on the back of my thighs, then spread to my stomach and even my forehead. It was like I was being pricked with an invisible needle. The further I hiked, the more uncomfortable I felt. I had no idea what was going on.

By the time I got to the state park, I was feeling very uncomfortable. But I took off my backpack, got my clothes and soap, and took a shower (albeit a cold one). I stopped feeling the sensations and mostly forgot about them. I thought maybe it was a reaction to the DEET bug spray I had borrowed earlier in the day. Maybe washing it off had helped.

When I finished washing dishes and doing the hiking clothes, I found a group of hikers gathered in the yard area. Wow, that was a real AT experience. There must have been at least ten of us. We ate dinner together, chatted, joked, and generally enjoyed being (respectful) hiker scum. The state park rangers had ice cold water ready for us and let us know that the restrooms would be open all night. Awesome!

As the sun was setting, we all headed to the shelter, which was only about 0.1 miles from the farm. We spread out in the shelter, in the field, and under the trees, and when it got dark, we turned out the lights.

I think what I really appreciated that day was that I was surrounded by so many hikers. I really felt like I was in a hiking bubble with friends and familiar faces. We weren’t a hiking group, but we could hike at our own pace and camp together if we wanted. The trail was no longer a solitary endeavor, but a collaborative and shared experience.

It was a different feeling to find a group so late in the trail than it was to be in one of the groups I had met earlier, because there was a good chance we would all make it. I mean, we had come so far. Giving up was hardly an option; these hikers were committed to the AT.

I was happy to get this taste of the AT community while I could.

And this is day 122.

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