Day 100 - Bears (July 17)

I'm laying in my tent listening to paniced campers talking about a bear they saw this evening. They were apparently camping near the Greenwall shelter were I am now. They packed up all of their stuff and ran to the shelter. It sounds like they are quieting down a little now. If I wasn't so tired,I would talk to them about shooing techniques.

I blew out the sticking on my new shoes today. I only got a little more than 200 miles out of them. I'm wearng Keens, and the exact same thing happened to my first pair of Keens at just about the same mileage. I got dirt inside my shoes, and the bottoms of my feet feel abraided.

Hitch hiking in the northeast is very difficult I hear. I went to Mrs. Murphy's Donut Shop this morning where the book said it would be easy to find a ride. No one was going toward the trail. I then found a place out front with a parking lot for people to pull off. No one stopped. Slow Poke came by and told me he had to walk the 5.5 miles into town from the trail yesterday because no one would give him a ride. Frank Sutton stopped by to give me encouragement saying the locals always pick up hikers. I was about to give up when a guy I talked to earlier picked my up after he got his hair cut.

I asked an older couple at Sutton place how they were getting back to the trail. The man said something about a jaguar, and not having room for me. The trail is just a few minutes from town by car. It doesn't take long to do two trips. I'll just have to remember to let them know if I see them with a broken bone by the side of the trail that I would like to help, but I can't help carry someone with my pack on.

I met Sage on the trail and he told me he has had a hard time getting rides since the south. In the south he said he often got a ride from the first car that passed him. He said a Vermont local told him that the locals joke about hikers being smelly. That is both funny and pathetic. The people making the jokes are most likely people who have never attempted something like this, and never will if they only think about the triivial.

The guy that picked me up was telling me how hard thingshave become after wealthy east coast people started buying second homes in Vermont. He said that 10 years ago you could buy a small ranch home for 80K. Now the same home will cost 280K.

Now that I've spent some time in the northeast, I noticed three culteral differences from the south. Teeth are not as optional here. People are not as hospitable here. Picking up hitch hikers is a good example. And people of the northeast crave money. Everything is more expensive here. I'm still shocked that a bed at Sutton place cost 50 dollars, and Frank did not even offer to give me a ride back to the trail.