HAMMERS REFLECTIONS ON MA & VT
MASSACHUSETTS (90 miles)
A past thru-hiker told us way back in Virginia that people become less friendly as you go north on the AT and you will experience less and less Trail Magic. This has not been the case. Trail Magic has a serendipitous quality to it. As you approach a road crossing you are ever hopeful but are not too disappointed when it is not there. When it does appear it has the effect of brightening your day and the ability to make a pretty awful muddy, rainy or otherwise hard day, so much better.
Who are the trail angels? Some people are hikers who realise what a blessing the trail magic was during their own hike and wish to give back to the hiking community. Some trail magic is provided by church groups along the trail while others are interested locals or relatives of a current hiker who may live close to the trail. On occasions people will travel great distances to provide trail magic for a day or a couple of days. Others may follow hiker bubbles for a week or even months during the hiking season.
What does trail magic consist of? It may range from water caches to coolers left with cold drinks or candy bars and snacks left in boxes around road crossing. Then there is trail magic where you get to meet the trail angels and have a chat.
Often the trail angels will have hotdogs or burgers they may cook as well as cold drinks, chips, candy, fruit, cakes and often beer. Some even have medical chest and repair kits. It is on a take what you need basis. Some trail angels will accept donations but many wave you away.
There are other trail angels who will go on a trail angel list, who will provide rides to town or be prepared to pick up injured hikers and get them to urgent care centers. Trail angels also provide rides back to the trail. Some trail angels are retired while others use holiday time or weekends to volunteer their services.
In towns people obviously can identify hikers by their beards and bedraggled look, even without the pack. This leads to many random conversation in cafes, shops and on the street. I have experienced the same occurance while cycle touring and love this aspect of the journey.
I will be forever grateful to the many acts of kindness we have received over our 3 thru-hikes. From the bottom of our hearts we thank you.
VERMONT (150 miles)
It rained on our northbound (NOBO) arrival in Vermont. I quickly realized that Vermont is in need of a geomorphogist who can redesign the trail to separate it from the creek lines. When I wrote this first line we had been in a tremendous downpour for almost the entire day. I couldn’t tell the difference between trail and creek beds, it seemed much the same. We later learnt that the rain that greeted us on arrival in Vermont was unprecedented. We were grateful to make it to a shelter which had room for us. Knowing that we had numerous creeks and beaver dams to ford ahead of us including one very difficult crossing, we got off trail the next day to reassess.
Seeing the news, we were shocked to see the extent of damage that had occured in Vermont over the two days of torrential rains. Towns were flooded, houses washed away, with the major extent of the damage about 70 miles north of us. It is a characteristic of this area that the mountains are steep, the valleys are narrow and the ground was already saturated from above average seasonal rain. Ten to eleven inches of rain in 24 hours caused extensive damage. We later learnt that a hiker had gone missing on trail to the north. Unfortunately he was found drowned about a mile and a half down from a creek crossing about 10 days later. A tragic outcome which shook us deeply.
We assessed the situation and got reports that you could get from Bennington to Manchester on boggy and muddy trail. When we got to Manchester Center we reassessed and given the prediction for more rain, as the weather system seemed to have parked itself over Vermont and parts of New Hampshire, we decided to flip north to Maine and hike the Hundred Mile Wilderness and Mt Kathadin NOBO and then head back south bound (SOBO) to Vermont This would hopefully give Vermont and New Hampshire a bit of time to dry out or at least give emergency services a chance to attend to their pressing issues.
One couple we met on the trail said the rain was also quite severe on Bear Mountain in New York state. They arrived at the bottom of Bear Mountain in late afternoon and saw a picnic table which had a roof over the top. They thought perfect, they could set up their tent on the picnic table and be sheltered from the rain and the water on the ground. About 2am Happy Flower felt a nudging push on her back. It took her a while to realise that it was water lapping over the top of the picnic table. They scrambled out of the tent and took their gear to higher ground. By 3am they said the water started to subside. They lost some hiking gear but realised it could have been far worse. They estimated that the water level had risen about 15 ft from when they set up the tent. It was later reported that in New York, 9 inches of rain fell in less then 6 hours.
We returned to Vermont about a month later and the unseasonal weather continued. One beautiful sunny day welcomed us back and then it rained pretty much the rest of our time on trail. And just as the trails were beginning to dry out a bit, fresh rain made for fresh mud. It is amazing how you can make 95 good moves jumping from rock to rock or rock to log in the mud and one bad move results in a shoe full of mud. The challenge was to sink in the mud the fewest times and then clean up your feet at the end of the day. I can vouch that muddy socks and shoes in the morning are not fun.
The trail continued to be challenging right to the finish. On the last morning we had a torrential downpour for about 60 minutes and it freshened the mud and made the duck boards slippery.
We battled the wet and muddy conditions to return to the point where we flipped. Rain followed is right to the end of the trail .