Day 7, June 20th Stoney Brook Lean-To

Day 7, June 20^th, Stoney Brook Lean-To

I wake up at 6:00 am. The boy scouts are just getting out of their hammocks. I do not think they will be on the trail by 6:30. I start my pack up and get ready to eat routine. The leaders come up to use the picnic table with me, and we talk about today’s plans. I hope to get to the bivouac area on the other side of the Allegany River. They are planning a food pickup at the next road junction. We all leave around 7:45. It does not take long for me to become aware of how much pain I am feeling everywhere in my body. The hiking is slow. Mentally and emotionally I am fatigued by the discomfort. The pack feels like lead even with 2 meals gone, though I have added 2 liters of water making my start supply 4 liters. I check the map often and double-check the blazes. I return to the AT habit of checking both forward and backwards for the blazes on the tree. One goes accustomed to and feels reassured to certain frequency of blaze marks on the trees, rocks, posts, or the road.

I have not developed a daytime eating pattern. On my Thru hike of the Appalachian Trail, I developed a 10:00, 12 noon, and 3:00 rest and eat break. I imagine I will get into the same pattern again. I remember a hiker on the AT who showed me how he had arranged his pack so that he could eat and drink as he hiked so he could hike all day without stopping for a break. I am not that hare-core!

My progress is very slow. I find that the slant of the trail plays some part in the pain of my non-surgical right hip. When I was doing my preparation walks in Wisconsin, the hip hurt, but I dismissed it. Here it often hurts with every step. I am still plodding along rather than hiking. My mind knows it takes more work because I loss the momentum of forward motion. I use my brain to instruct my body to stride. My body takes a few strides and then fatigues. I am back to plodding.

I stop about 11:00 am for food and water. I sit on a fallen log that is not too dirty. The scenery reminds me of the Appalachian Trail the canopy of green, the rocks, the trees, the smell and feel of the ground. The flashbacks of the past are being drowned out by the immediate present of the trail and discomfort in my body. The pack feels so heavy as I sling it onto my back. I feel cold water on my back and quickly take the pack down. In the awkward movement of slinging the pack up, I have pulled the bite valve off its tube. My old tube clip rusted and broke a couple years ago. I had been using a rubber band until yesterday when I found a discarded tent line and plastic tightener to use as a hanger. I swear realizing that to not have a bite valve will make it hard to drink while I hike. The pressure of the water in the Plady means that the bite valve could have shot several feet in any direction. A quick look around, I do not see it. I am careful not to disturb the leaves and grass so that I wont cover it up with my movements. I look again, no bite valve. I open the top compartment of the pack and fish out my glasses. With them on, I see the bite valve about 3 feet away from me. I figured out that I could double the water line and hold it with a rubber band if I lost the bite valve. I would not be able to replace the valve for many weeks until I got to a big enough town with a good sporting goods department. The only item I lost on the whole Thru hike of the Appalachian Trail was a small knife left on a rock wall after fixing dinner. I remind myself once again to double check before leaving a campsite and after I use an item to pack it away. I say a little pray of gratitude for finding the bite valve then rearrange how I have it placed on the pack. I resume hiking and recognize that I am behind on my planned itinerary.

It is 3:30 when I arrive at the Lean-To, I am tired, completely soaked, I take my pack off, and sit down at the picnic table. The sun is out and there is a strong breeze. I start thinking about how far behind schedule I am. I was planning to be at the Bivouac campsite tonight. The strong breeze feels good at first, but I start to feel first chilled and then cold and dull. I become more fatigued. It seems funny to my mind, but all I want to do is get warm. I take my sleeping back and air mattress out of the backpack and get out my large blue ground cloth. I set it all up; climb into my back put the pillow under my head and fall asleep feeling very cold. I wake up 1½ hour’s later feeling warm. I realize that I had first stage hypothermia even in this warm weather. I get up go to the spring get water, and come back to start dinner. I am in for the night. Going to bed at 7:30 is really early but feels good. I am now further behind schedule, but this is the right thing to do. I hear more coyotes and an owl in the early evening. Nice music to go to sleep by.

Day 8 June 21st bivouac

Day 8 June 21^st Bivouac

I hear the birds around 5:30 am as my mind comes to consciousness. I roll over telling myself, “I can sleep another ‘round’”. I wake up at 6:30 lay on the air mattress as the air is pushed out of it by my weight. I deflate the pillow. Roll over and stuff my sleeping back into the stuff sack. Then roll up the mattress and put it into its stuff sack. Now for breakfast while I get dressed and start loading the backpack. I eat a few bites and pack something. This goes on until I am ready to start hiking. By 8:00 I am ready to hike. There is some up hills that are gradual. Then a downhill that allows me to move a little faster and this feels good. I can hear the Interstate below me. I get to a grass field and as I start through it a man with a backpack is coming towards me.

We stop and talk. I tell him there is a steep hill coming up. He say that he knows it, and that he hikes it at least 2 or more times a week to stay in shape for longer hikes. We talk about the trail in general and part company.

When I get to the road, the blazes are unclear so I get the map out and figure that I have to turn right. After 50 years I see a white blaze. I am in the sun now and heating up rapidly and starting to sweat. I have to turn left on another road and go under the Interstate. Then the trail goes through a grassy part of the cloverleaf on Interstate 89/17. I begin to feel more tired. The weeds are like weights on my legs. I get across the cloverleaf and again the blazes are unclear. I look at the map and then read the instructions on the back of the page. It says that I am about to inter the reservation and that I should walk quietly. It also says that part of the trail is the old park entrance. All I see is a mud road with old puddles of water. It is the only way to go. A cat crosses in front of me. I wonder if it is wild or just out hunting from some home I cannot see.

I am feeling very hot now. The mud road becomes and old cement road with numerous ATV side road shot offs. My body is fatigued and in pain. Every step becomes exhausting. I walk 15 steps and have to pause. I wonder why I am doing this crazy hike. It seems like it is taking forever to go 100 yards. I feel sluggish and in slow motion. I remember a similar feeling on the AT but it was in the cold and this is in the heat – heat exhaustion??—I do not realize it until 2 days later when I look back on the experience --.

I plod on, resting, plodding, resting, plodding, resting, plodding – there is a house to the left with a small lake, the mosquitoes start to swarm me, I plod on. I get to the old iron bridge over the Allegany River. It has the Indian name for the river painted on it. I cross the river and take a picture. I sit on a large square rock at the end of the bridge to eat and drink. A couple of cars make their way slowly over the bridge and wave at me. I think about hitch hiking a ride and quitting the hike. I decline the thought with some reservation. I sling my pack on after reading the map both sides. I go 30 yards where I am suppose to turn right on a snowmobile trail that parallels an active railroad track, Western NY & Penn. The guide says it is an active track and to be careful. The trail looks more like a footpath than a trail. Just as I turn right here is a run off of water coming from a large pipe under the track. The water is clear. I have no idea where it comes from. I feel it and it is cold. I take my pack off and get out my Aquamira Frontier Pro filter. I chose this filter because is much lighter than my pump filter. I filter one liter and drink most of it. I filter 2 more liters and put them in my pack. I start up again and hear several ATV’s roaring nearby. I walk down the path. It is covered with brush and I have to work my way around several dead falls. The blazes go across the track and up a hill on Sunfish Run RD. I feel a little better after the cold water.

I am in the sun again and getting fatigued again. The road walk, one of many to come, stops at the entrance of Camp Li-Lo-Li and turns right down a farm road. I decide to rest for a while. I pull my small tarp out of the pack and put it on the ground. I get some smacks out of the pack and sit down. The sign says Welcome and Volunteers Welcome. I toy with the idea of exploring the Volunteer Welcome, but fall asleep. A delivery truck wakes me up. He waves at me. I eat and drink. The mail delivery van drives by and 15 minutes later returns. This time he waves. A Harley rider drives by and nods at me. I rest for an hour plus. The Harley passes again and waves at me. I but the tarp back in the pack and sling it up onto my shoulders being careful of the bite valve. The guide says there is no water at the Bivouac but there is a stream between the bivouac and me. I start up the road and come to the stream in less than ½ a mile. I fill all the Plady’s and continue up hill. I actually get some “striding steps” for 10 yards several times. I stop often going up hill. When I figure I am about ½ up the hill, I stop for a rest. In taking the pack off, the bite valve goes flying off. It takes a couple of minutes to find it. I must be more careful !!!!! I reach the top of the hill and see a very very steep down hill logging road.  Even going very slow I slide several times. At the junction in the road I see a small sign in a tree to the left “Bivouac” (it is the only one I will see for the whole hike). I turn left and see a log that will make a seat and take my pack off. Then I start the routine 1. drying line up, 2. unpack putting things on the small tarp, 3. start soaking the rice 4. set up tent, 4. change into dry camp clothes, 5. hang up wet clothes, 6. blowup air mattress and pillow 7. put sleeping back in the ten along with mattress 8. eat and cleanup 9. set out tomorrows breakfast and lunch 10. go to bed.

I continue my journal. I note that I have one day of food left and according to my speed and the map 2 days of hiking before I get to Ellicottville. Before I headed out from Wisconsin, I emailed the RV Park that is ½ way between here and Ellicottville about staying there. The return email said there was camping space there that I could use. It is also next to a golf course restaurant. I figure I can get enough food at the park store to get me to Ellicottville.

As I look at the map, my planned schedule, I realize that I am behind and very fatigued. My body hurts and this has not been fun. I tell myself that I can always call up MP at Worthington State Forest and ask if they could use a volunteer for the next 6 weeks. This would give my hiking time in the woods and be round people I have enjoyed over the years. I will give myself some time to see if my body starts to feel better. I change my goal to seeing how much of the FLT I can hike in the next 6-7 weeks since it looks like I would make the whole trail as I did with my Appalachian Trail Thru hike. I go to sleep with a plan and a couple of options feeling more relaxed about the whole hike. I hear a chainsaw down in the valley. As dusk settles in, the noise and yelling stop. I drift off to sleep.

Day 9 June 22nd Ellicottville, NY

Day 9, June 22^nd Ellicottville, NY

I wake up stiff and sore. I am still fatigued. I pack up, sling the pack on my back, it is lighter with no water. I head down the hill where the guide says Tom Hook’s has water. When I get there, a lady calls out from a window asking if I need water, I answer yes. She comes out and turns on the faucet. I tell here where I am from and that I am just starting and End-to-End hike on the Finger Lakes Trail. I pack up, look for the white blaze and see it on the telephone pole and head right down the road. After I have gone a quarter mile I see not blazes ahead of me. I turn and look back, a habit one develops on both the AT and the FLT. I see the white blaze on the pole. Several cars pass in both directions. Some drivers wave at me. I set the pack and walking sticks down by a road sign and decide to walk down to the curve and see if there are blazes pass the curve. There are no blazes so I can only conclude I missed a turn somewhere.

It is difficult for me to ask for help. It was true on the AT and has started to be true on the FLT. There are times when meet or have met people on the trail, talked with them, and 400 yards down the trail realize I had some questions that they might information for me. I flag down the next car that comes towards me. I ask if I have missed the trail. The man says yes and tells me to get in and he will show me the blaze I missed. He asks me if I stopped to get water and I said yes. He tells me it is his home. I introduce myself and tell him my plan to get food at the Elkdale RV Resort explaining to him I had one day’s food and two days hiking ahead. He laughs and says there are “nothing there but RV’s” and no camp store. I tell him I have a food box in Ellicottville. I am beginning to feel some despair at my dilemma. I might be able to stretch the food out, but with my fatigue I know this is not a good idea. Tom asks me if I want him to take me to Ellicottville. I hesitate; if I take him up on his offer it means I wont hike every mile of the FLT. He sees my hesitation and says it is up to me. I say yes, and immediately notice my body relax as if a burden has been lifted.  He goes inside and tells his wife what he will be doing for the next 45 minutes. (we are going to do in 45 minutes what I had scheduled myself to do in two days).

On the way to town, Tom tells me that a couple of years ago a man broke his leg and crawled down from the bivouac to his house. He took him to the hospital. He said he had met allot of hikers over the years. We pass the RV “resort”. It has only RV’s parked and clearly no store. Tom drops me off at Kelly Lodge. He leaves up to me if I am to give him gas money. I give him $10 and go knock on the Lodge door. Tracy’s Shepard dog greets me with a good sniffing. Tracy offers me coffee and we talk for an hour. She is managing the lodge for the owner. She grew up in Ellicottville, was living on the east coast working as a social worker, and came back after a bad relationship. We talk about social work and my plans for the next 48 hours.

(This the first of many examples where something or somebody shows up to help on my journey. Over the years I have noticed that once I commit to a course of action, things fall into place – magic happens both on the trail and at home, but at home I am often too busy to notice.)

She gives me a key to my room and I pick up my bounce box and food box. It is a short walk to the motel part of the Lodge. I check it out. It is a night room with a large bed, TV, large shower, and plenty of room to spread out my food and gear for planning, sorting, and packing. But first a shower, the first one in 4 days. Then I turn on the weather channel, a habit developed on the AT. I lie down and nap. It is a short walk to the down town section of town. I find a health food store and ask about potassium supplements. They have a bottle for $29, I decline. I am speculating that with the heavy sweating I am leaching out potassium resulting in some of my fatigue. I got over to the  Topp’s grocery store and find potassium at $6 a bottle, I buy it. I talk to the young girl at the checkout and tell her I am from Wisconsin. She lights up and says she live in Eau Claire with her dad for several years and that he still lives there. I then walk next door to the Subway and get a 12 in. Tuna meal. I am eating slowly and taking small bites. A man notices and then comments on my strange behavior. I tell him I have been eating trail food for 4 days and that I wanted to enjoy “town food”.

I locate the Post Office for mailing my bounce box to N. Hornell, Econo Lodge. I call the Genesee Falls Inn located in Portageville and ask if it is ok to send a food box and explain that it is all dry food with no spoilage. Lew says yes. I tell the approximate date I will arrive. I call Gina and tell her to send the food box marked Portageville then go back to the Lodge. I spread out me food and look at the map, figure my pace into days and find that I need to pack for 5 days and have food for 4 day. I go back to the grocery store and purchase what I need. On the back to the Lodge, I meet a lady and ask her the location of the Library and email. She gives me directions. Back at the Lodge, I sort and package my 5 days of food and set it off to the side of the room. The Library is fairly new and the computers are fast. There are some grade school children on the computers playing games while their parents nudge them to hurry up. I check my emails and send my first report to my friends. I also type in my journal and add my pictures and send them to myself incase some thing happens to the camera.

I contemplate gaining back a day by starting hiking tomorrow, but I reason, given the fatigue and mood I have been in the past several days, it is more important to rest – so I will be careful and cautious.

I go back to the Topp’s store and feel the usual overwhelming from the many choices of each item. I buy a dinner to cook in the microwave, a can of beer, and a salad. While the dinner heats up, I watch TV and then eat. It is evening in a dry room and I am clean. Tomorrow is a true zero day of rest, eating, planning and packing.  I hear the cars in the street as I fall asleep. I wake up in the night to thunder and rain and go back to sleep dry and warm.

Day 10, June 23rd, a zero day

Day 10, June 23^rd a zero day

I eat a couple of extra Power bars and start going through every item in my pack and judge it’s necessity. I figure I take out about a pound and add it to the bounce box. I pack the food in the food duffle bag and leave the Lodge to mail my bounce box at the post office. Afterwards on the way up the street to the library, I see the lady who gave me directions yesterday. She is washing down her porch. I say hi and she recognizes me. We talk about the trail and mildew on houses in both NY and WI. I tell her that I paint house and have power washed quite a few over the years. Completing the computer work at the library takes about 2 hours. When I get back to the Lodge, I ask Tracy if she would give me a ride to the trailhead tomorrow and she says yes. We set a time for leaving in the morning. I got back to Subway and get another meal. The owner and I talk about my journey. He tells me to come in for a free breakfast before I start my hike. I go back to my room and watch the weather channel, pack up, eat dinner, and go to bed. I guess I have decided to continue the hike with the goal of hiking as many miles as I can. This rest has lifted my spirits. More rain during he night – the grass will be wet tomorrow.

Day 11, June 24th, bivouac north of Franklinville

Day 11, June 24^th bivouac north of Franklinville

I get up at 7:30 and go to the Subway for my free breakfast. The lady did not find the note the owner said he would leave for her. She is suspicious of me and calls the owner. He verifies his offer to me. I have the biggest breakfast they offer.

Tracy and I start at 8:30 am figuring it will be a 15 min. ride to the trailhead. She is going to breakfast with a friend and invites me and I tell her about my experience at Subway. She has to meet her friend at 9:00. We drive up and down the road but are unable to locate the trail. I ask her to drop me off at the library and I will figure it out from there. At the library, I talk with the woman behind the desk and ask about the trail. She says it is a couple of miles up the road. I ask how people react to hitch hikers locally. She was not sure, but said she would take me to the trail when the other attendant arrived. Her husband is a local Forest Ranger. I tell her about my experiences with law enforcement in NJ. We talk about places we have hiked and camped. I observe that I do not have the strength I had when I did the thru hike of the AT. She said she understood. The lady arrives and Susan drops me off at the trail. It is easy to see why Tracy and I missed it. The blaze is a couple of trees into the woods and the path is covered with weeds. I am starting the next section of my hike feeling much better than I did 2 days ago.

The trail is a combination of road walk and woods. At one point a storm approaches me and I sit on the porch of an abandoned house while it passes by. I take a break and eat.

The rain clears and the sun comes out. The rain has cooled things off and taken humidity out of the air. I am hiking more comfortably. I rest every time I start to feel fatigued. Eventually I get to road 16. I decide to attempt to hitch hike into Franklinville. The guide says there is a good restaurant there. The yuppie cars speed by without waving. It is clear that they wont stop. I imagine their thoughts as “if you are crazy enough to hike with a pack in this weather, you can get your self to where ever you need to go, besides you look rather dirty and I do not want to get my Beamer dirty”. I start hiking down the road and come to an ice cream stand where I order a triple shake. I ask if I can fill my water bottles up explaining what I am doing. They say yes. The water is clean and cool. The lady smiles and waves as I sling my pack up and head back up the road to find a place to set up camp on the trail.

I hike about a mile back into the woods and set up camp just off the trail. There are a number of thorn trees in my location so I have to be careful on my tent placement.  I check to make sure there is nothing that will puncture my air mattress. I hang my food. People keep asking about bears, so I play it safe. I clean up with Wet-Ones. There is no water near by.

I can hear the road and the frogs as I fall asleep with the birds.

Day 2 June 15th, Cambridge City, Indiana

Day 2 June 15^th, Cambridge City, Indiana (my home town)

Wanda always gets up earlier than Ted. She reads the paper and has coffee. I join her and we talk and read and drink. There is the old and pleasant ritual of looking at all the sales notices and reading the local news and talking about local events and people. When Ted joins us, we eat and continue talking. Afterwards, I get cleaned up and head out for Greenfield, Indiana where the nursing home is located. It is about a 40-minute drive. I use to plan what I would say to my mother during these miles, but that is no longer necessary. Her memory has dimmed and her awareness of world outside her nursing home is so limited that we really do not have a conversation any more.

I arrive about 30 minutes before lunchtime so that I can go to her room and wheel her down to the dining room. I sign in at the front desk and get a lunch ticket charged to my mother's account. It is the one of the few things she can give now. Today, she is already in the dining room, so I go over and greet her. We have to reorganize the table so that I have a chair along with the other two women she always eats her meals with. She asks me if I have used her account to pay for lunch. I say “yes”. I start talking to her about my upcoming hike and the details about the next 3 days as I travel and make arrangements with my friends in Ithaca, New York who will be supporting me throughout the hike. She smiles and says, “that's nice”. I am not really sure how much she comprehends, but there is no to evaluate her memory. I already know its limitations. I stay a little longer than usual at the lunch table with her. Then I wheeler down to the bedroom. When we get there, her room mate waves at me and says “hi”. I give my mother a map of the trail and my planned itinerary so that my sister can mark off my progress and my mother will have some idea of where I am. My mother says to put them in the closet on the shelf for my sister to look at on her next visit. I go through the ritual of signing into my mother's logbook for visitors. Then I leave with what has become my usual sense of sadness after these visits. I use to reflect on past memories of my mother and the world we shared when she was younger and able to be more engaged mentally with the world around her. Although memory and communication can be unpredictable, the last time I visited, she related that before she married my dad there had been 5 other men who proposed to her.

I get into my car and drive away. I stop at the White Castle and get some sliders. I have memories of White Castle that goes back to high school. There was once when Ted, his twin brother, Jack Smith and I took a trip and bought a dozens of “burgers” to eat that night. The trip back to CC is the usual 40 minutes and while watching the familiar scenery, the sadness fades away. On the way back to Ted and Wanda's, I decide to drive through Cambridge. I often do this. I have said to others that there is a memory on each street corner. I drive by the filling station where the funeral home I grew up living in until I was 17 once stood. The old 1920's house was torn down after my dad sold the property to the Shell Oil Company. He then built a completely new funeral where we lived on the side of the funeral home rather than above the funeral business. Ted, his brothers Tom and Allen along with their dad built the new funeral home.

Ted, Wanda, and I go to the Mexican restaurant for dinner. Never in my wildest dreams as a kid would I have imagined a Mexican resurgent in the old filling station on Main Street. Then back then there I can remember only two restaurants in town, the Green Chicken and the Family Restaurant. To go to them was a real treat since we always ate our 3 meals at day at home – we ate punctually i.e. Breakfast was at 7:30 am, lunch was at 12 noon, and dinner at 5:30 pm, and heaven help you if you were 4 minutes late. Back at their house we have a beer and watch TV for a while before going to bed. Tomorrow I drive to Ithaca, N.Y. Where Gina and Patrick live. I worked, as a Ridgerunner, with them on NJ's 75 miles of the Appalachian Trail 6 years ago.

Day 3, June 16th, Ithaca, NY

Day 3 June 16^th  Ithaca, NY

My Garmin says that it will be a 10-hour drive to Ithaca. Getting on the interstate early like this, may allow me to get to Ithaca faster than the 10 hours. I alternate between listing to a talking book, listing to the radio, and driving in silence. The outside temperature starts out warm and by late afternoon, I am driving with the air conditioner cooling me off. I figure I will make up for comfort during the hike. I am anticipating that I will start out hiking in hot weather.

As I cross the NY state line, it is early in the afternoon. I get the inspiration that I can save some postage money by dropping off my bounce box and food box at the Kelly Lodge in Ellicottville, NY. I check the map and it looks feasible. I call the Kelly Lodge and introduce myself as Garth Fisher from Wisconsin, that I am going to hike the FLT, and that I plan to stay at the Lodge. I explain about my food box and she says she will be there all afternoon and evening. I head out cross-country to Ellicottville. Ellicottville has a couple of ski hills and is quite busy in the winter. I see the ski hills and realize that western NY is quite tall hills and valleys. I get into town and have to ask the locate of the Lodge. When I pull into the lodge I see a large driveway, a large 2-story house and a large apartment building. I go into the building and see numbered rooms. I check the place out – TV’s, videos, common kitchen and lodge, and a laundry. I see a phone on the wall that gives a phone number to call to get in touch with the main house. I dial and Tracy answers and invites me over. Tracy is an attractive young woman who manages the Lodge. She worked as a social worker for 15 years and returned to Ellicottville over a year ago. She grew up here and has family nearby. We sit in the big house dining room and talk about the seasonal nature of a ski resort town. I leave my food box and bounce box and give her an approximate arrival date.

I head east towards Ithaca. I am considering dropping off a food box at N. Hornell but it has gotten a little later in the afternoon so I decide to continue on to Ithaca. I do not want to get there too late. I call Gina and tell her my location and what time the Garmin says I will arrive.

Driving into Ithaca, I see a large complex of college buildings on the hill north of me. As I drive to Pat and Gina’s house I marvel at the steepness of the streets and notice that all the streets are lined with parked cars almost bumper to bumper. I wonder what it must be like in the winter with a deep snow. There does not appear to be enough room for a snowplow let alone anyplace to put the removed snow. The Garmin takes me to their home at the end of a dead end street.

It is nice to get out and walk. I am greeted warmly and go into the right hand side of their duplex. I immediately feel a t home. Their son, 6-year-old Drew, has toys on the floor and a hamster cage on the floor. Drew tells me they are hamster sitting for a friend who is out of town for a couple of weeks. Gina and Pat are veggans. We have a marvelous meal of veggie’s, bread, and fruit. After carrying in all the food boxes and storing them in the guest bedroom, we talk of the AT in NJ, and out individual travels over the years since then. They assure me that snow removal is not a problem.

We determine that with everyone’s schedule, that Gina and Drew will drive me to the trailhead on the Pennsylvania boarder on Friday morning the 18^th. This will give me a day to rest, get my gear organized, and go over my itinerary and the plans for the food drops. Gina tells me that tomorrow evening they are going to Julie’s for their once a week shared dinner and that I am welcome to participate. Hey, does a long distance hiker turn down a family meal???   Never !!!!!!  I go to sleep easily after a long day.

Day 4, June 17th, Ithaca, NY

Day 4, June 17^th    

Gina bought a fan for the window two days ago. It cooled the room down. The temperature is in the high 80’s with high humidity. The sun shines brightly through the two windows as the fan stirs the air. I look at all the food boxes and gear. Today is a day for planning and organizing. After breakfast, Gina and I talk about tomorrow. We will leave Ithaca about 9 am, which should get me at the trailhead around 12 noon. I plan to hike 7 miles tomorrow. I figure I can make 1 ½ to 2 miles per hour, which would get me to the Lean-To 5 pm. I spend the rest of the day lounging around, studying the maps, and packing my backpack.

In the evening we go to Julie and her family’s duplex a few blocks away. I carb-up and enjoy the variety form veggies, bread, and fruit. After we get home, I get out my hair cutter with the idea of taking off most of my hair. The cutter has not been used for a long time and needs to be taken apart and cleaned. I decide that my hair is not that long and figure that if I need to hitch hike, a clearly gray haired older man with a backpack is safe to pickup and give a ride. I go to bed with the fan on me, the windows open, and the curtains wide upon. Ahhhh Sleep!

Day 5, June 18th, Bivouac

Day 5, June 18^th    Bivouac

We all get up early and have a breakfast of potatoes pancakes, maple syrup, fruit, and coffee. I take my backpack out to the car. I show Gina how I have set up my food boxes and show her where I have put the addresses for each box. I also give her an envelope with $100 to cover the cost of postage.

I am leaving my car with Gina and Pat. Gina, Drew in his car seat, and I get into my car, and I start driving away to my journey. I stop at a gas station and fill up the car’s gas tank. I pull out and we are on the road for the next 3 hours. On the way, I see signs on the roadside identifying this as The Southern Tier, which means the southern half of western NY. The weather is minimal clouds, hot, mid-80’s and relative high humidity. We have to drop down into Penn. to get to the trailhead. I fill up the gas tank in the last town before the trailhead. I start driving out into the countryside. It seems like we may have gone too far so we stop and ask a man walking along the roadside if we had missed the trailhead. He says know that it is about ½ mile up the road. And, there it is, a small parking area on Penn. route 346, a sign saying North Country Trail and Finger Lakes Trail, and a clear foot path heading north.

We get out of the car, and I put my pack on for the “start the hike” picture. We say our good byes, and as I start up the hill, I see them drive away in my car. I am on my own now.

I have a black shirt because it was the only color the color the odor resistant Tramcar shirt came. My ventilated wide brimmed hat came from Walmart, the backpack is an Ospry Aether 70, the gaiters are OR knee length, the water bottles are Platypus 1 liter and 2 liter with a hose and bite valve, the short are zip leg nylon, the size 14 boots are a wide toe box from Keen, and the 6 ft. hiking poles are out of the woods.

I start into the woods following the familiar 2 x 6 in. white blazes as if I were hiking the Appalachian Trail once more. The trail is flat for a few hundred yards and then starts going up hill. I start up the hill and have numerous flashback pictures pop into my mind from the AT and the AT in NJ. For the past 9 years, I have had AT flashback pictures almost every day. Different sights, sounds and smells trigger the pictures, thoughts, and emotions. For a while, I my consciousness is absorbed in past hiking experiences. Gradually I am drawn back to the present as I begin to sweat very hard and my breathing becomes more labored. I have been on blood pressure medication for several years. When I first the medication any effort in the warm weather made me sweat very hard but that reaction has been dormant for years. I am not sure if it is the medication or just the heat, but I am losing water rapidly. I stop to rest and realize that my heart is beating rather fast as well. I start up again; I start hiking slowly and realize that my pack feels rather heavy compared to 45 minutes ago when I started into the woods. I only brought 2 liters of water figuring I would get to the Lean-To quick enough to avoid the weight of 2 additional liters. I also realize that I probably have only hiked a mile or so out of the 7 I plan to hike this afternoon. I start up a long hill and my breathing rapidly becomes labored and my heart is racing. I get the inner urge to “push through” the discomfort as I did when I was younger, but decide to slow down and pace myself better. Before I left Wisconsin I had a number of people tell me to be care during the hike. I even had two people tell me they had a “bad feeling” about the hike and advised me to stay home. I took the advise “to be careful” to heart, and I am applying it right now. The sweat is soaking my clothes and my hat.

I see a young man coming down the hill in front of me. When we get abreast, we stop and talk. Jeff is out for 3 days and is doing some advanced training before he goes on a 10-day backpack trip. He is headed down into Pennsylvania to a campground for the night. I tell him about my plan to do an end-to-end hike of the FLT. He wishes me well, and we head off in different directions. I try to pick up my pace and my body responds with heat/sweat and deep breathing. I slow down. I sip some water through my bite valve. I wipe the sweat from my forehead as I top the hill and see a little down grade ahead of me. I move a little faster. For years, I have always gone faster on the downhill “slide”, while the uphill “climb” has always been slower. Today, I pause often on the up hill climb and catch my breath and rest my legs. The downhill feels good, but as it always goes, “when there is a downhill slide, there always comes an up hill climb that follows”. I start up another hill and realize that I am taking single steps verses keeping up my momentum by taking striding steps. I retrieve the memory from my AT hike of the “stride” and try to put it into my muscles, but my muscles are too fatigued and too weak to make a stride. I keep clodding along up one hill after another. I feel more fatigued and thirsty. I drink more water and eat two fig-nutons. I burn the fig-nutons calories fast and feel fatigued again. It is getting later in the afternoon, and I am not making good mileage.

At 4:40 I come to a little creek with a bridge over it near Wolf Run Road. I look at the map and see that I have only come 4 miles. It is 3 more to the shelter. I consider the option of camping or pushing on to the shelter. At 1 mile and hour, I could get to the shelter around 7 or 7:30 pm. There will be enough evening sun light for it to be safe hiking. I cross the bridge and walk through some waist high grass and weeds. I go 100 years and hear all the voices from Wisconsin telling me to be careful. I hesitate for several minutes and then turn back, cross the bridge and drop the backpack.

Over the years I have developed somewhat of a pattern of what I do first when making camp. I pull out my small ground cloth of silicon-impregnated nylon and spread it out. Next is the unloading of the backpack putting items in different quadrants based on when they will be used. Next is setting up the tent, followed by getting water either from a spring or filtered from a creek. I have an Aqua Mira Frontier Pro for filtering water. It is a few oz. and says it is good for 50 gallons. I bring along a small bottle of white iodine as back up. Then I set the food aside and let the rice meal start soaking in the ¾ liter aluminum cook pot from Campmor. I blowup the air mattress and pillow then put them in the tent. I have decided to leave the tent fly off tonight since I know that there is no rain in the forecast. I hang the drying line and put my wet clothes on it. Then I go cleanup in the creek. By then the rice is ready to cut. I set up the Esbit stove and get a ½ oz. fuel pellet open. Setting it on the Esbit platform, I light it, put the pot on top, and set up the windscreen. Next I sort out what will go into the tent for the night and what will stay in the backpack. By then the food is hot. I sit on the bridge with a liter of water and eat my one hot meal for the day. After hanging the food bag high in a nearby tree, I go to bed. The stars are out and bright. There is a cooling breeze. It is 8 pm. I quickly fall asleep alone in the woods with the sound of the creek behind me, and the stars above me.

Day 6, June 19th, Beck Hollow Lean-To

Day 6  June 19^th Beck Hollow Lean-To

The birds start singing at 5 am or so. The sun rises around 6ish. I get up around 6:30 with the plan of starting the hiking day between 7:30 and 8:00. Before I crawl out of the tent, I stuff my 45-degree down sleeping bag into its stuff sack. Deflate the pillow and mattress before I pit them into their stuff sacks. I take my small tarp out of its zip lock and reach out of the tent to spread it out in front. Then I toss everything out onto the tarp. Now it is my turn. Once out I retrieve the food bag from the tree and then my clothes from the drying line. I take my med. and supplements while I eat breakfast of 2 cups of dry cereal with 3 tablespoons of dry milk and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar while I load up the backpack. I figure the pack weighs about 40 plus pounds with food and water. At 270 pounds that means my legs have to horse 310 pounds of dead weight up the hills and brake sufficiently going down hill to avoid going too fast.

With every thing packed, I cross the bridge once again and head into the weeds again. I start up the hill beyond the weeds. It is not long before I realize that I all of me hurts. My feet, knees, my non-surgical right hip (hurts with every step), my muscles, and my hands are cramping from gripping the walking sticks. It does not take long for the sweat to begin pouring out and soaking my clothes. There is no way I can hike fast. I go up and down several hills and reach a ridgeline following combined trails. The path is clearly worn down so in my fatigue I watch the path rather than the blazes. Eventually I realize that the white blazes are not on the trees in front of me, rather the blazes are red and yellow. The FLT must have turned sharply off the main path, and I missed it. I get the map out and attempt to figure out the various trails that criss-cross the area. It looks like it is too far to retrace my steps. I hear voices coming up the trail. I continue walking until we meet. They tell me that they are on a day hike. I ask if the crossed the FLT on their hike up the hill. They were not sure. I told them of my plan to do an end-to-end hike. They tell me if I continue down this trail I will come to a parking lot with their red SUV and that there was a large map beside the truck. They wished me well and I continue down the path. I become more aware of how sore my muscles are and how much my feet hurt. It is taking a great deal of effort to hike. I get to the parking lot, find the car, and find the map but the FLT is not clearly on it. I see cars passing on the road 2 or 300 hundred yards down the maintained road. I see a park maintained truck coming towards me. I flag it down and told him of my problem i.e. I was lost though I was sure I was in the general area of the FLT. He was not sure of the Flat’s path through the Allegany State Forest. He takes me to the park office where I fill my Plady’s and ask about bears. I am told that bears are a minimal problem currently. I take my map out and we consult with a senior ranger who tells us where to go to connect with a trailhead. We drive by the little park store and Ron asks me if I want to stop. I say no and have the feeling I have not earned any ice cream etc. Ron tells me that he has been around the Allegany Forest since he was a kid. His parents would come here to rent a cabin during the summer. I ask about the shelters and the springs. He said that years ago, people would come from the cities with their gallon jugs and fill them from the springs. But, an administrator in the city somewhere decided that there was a liability for the park if people got water from the springs. So, many of the springs were blocked up. We get to the trailhead, and I get out, thank him, and head up the hill. I have missed about 2 miles of the trail, and from the depths of my fatigue I feel thankful.

I hike slowly to the Lean-To. When I arrive, I am the only here so I set up shelter with my sleeping gear. I locate the spring and fill the Plady’s and then clean up myself. I am sitting at the picnic table writing in my journal when I hear voices coming up the path to the shelter. Gradually 8 boy scouts and 2 leaders come into the clearing headed towards me. The boys have backpacks that are off balance and overloaded for their size. The smallest boy has the most awkward and out of balance pack. I have seen this before with boy scouts when I worked in NJ on the AT.

I tell them that I can let them have the shelter because I have a tent. They have hammocks and tarps to string between trees. They set off to make camp. The littlest boy has the larges tarp – a big heavy-duty gray tarp. I start to warm my dinner, while they set up camp and start to cook their evening meal. I talk with the scout leaders about their hike. It is their yearly 50-mile hike, and they are finishing their second day. The coyotes are singing while the scout leaders are doing individual evaluations of the scout’s behavior. They tell me that they plan to break camp early and be on the trail by 6:30 am. I fall asleep before they are finished with the evaluations.

Introduction to: The Old Man and the Trail, A Solitary Journey of Renewal

Garth Fisher

In 2000 I did a through hike of the Appalachian Trail, at the age of 60. I then worked as a Ridgerunner for the AT in New Jersey for 4 summers. I completed my first marathon in 2005. In 2008 I had a hip replacement and doubted that I would ever do a long distance hike again. I learned this year, 2010 that I could do a long distance hike. In my other life, I am therapist, Hospice Volunteer, and an Intuitive Energy Reader, I have attempted to understand my work, my clients, our world, and myself as deeply as possible. My goal with my Blogs is to share some of my experiences and thoughts as well as offer you the reader a space to share your relevant experiences and thoughts to the subject of the Blog. My plan is to add the comments made about a post to the post itself as an extension. I appreciate your participation and look forward to hearing from you. Respectfully Garth Fisher

View my other Journal: Finger Lakes End-to-End Hike at:
http://fingerlakestrail-end-to-end.blogspot.com/  

Thoughts and preparation for the Hike

Thoughts and Preparation for the Hike

There are two levels to my preparation for a long distance hike. The first level relates to my inner process, and the second relates to the technical aspects of getting ready for the hike.

The Inner Process: It has been 10 years since I did my Thru hike of the Appalachian Trail. It has been 5 years since I worked on the AT in New Jersey and ran my marathon in Las Vegas. After the marathon, my hip began to seriously deteriorate, leading to a hip replacement 2 years ago. I went from 5 years of yearly heavy duty exercising, to 5 years of slowly and steadily becoming a couch potato physically. Yet, as I worked more as a therapist, I exercised my brain more and more. Yet, as I approached my 70th birthday, I progressively felt like my life was over or coming to an end. Looking back on the process, there was a gradual void starting at age 65. During the months of my 69th year, I realized that I had never thought about my life beyond 70. There was a void in my consciousness relating to the future past a certain age. During this time frame, I was working for two psychiatric clinics one in Janesville and one in Madison, totaling about 50-55 hours a week. My focus was on helping others. I took that responsibility seriously and whatever I could to assist others in their quest to feel and behave better. While at the same time, I did very little to take care of myself. Gradually, an image began to form in my awareness. It started with me looking back over the journey of my life. The view was a landscape made up of jungles, valleys, rivers, swamps, and mountains all of which I had struggle through and survived all of those obstacles, and now I was standing on a ridge with all of those trials behind me. When I turned around and looked forward, I saw a large plain in front of me. I knew that somewhere over the horizon there was (is) the OCEAN of LIFE. In my personal spiritual philosophy, the OCEAN is where we came from and where we all return -- the cycle of birth and death. Once the above image and view of my life settled into my awareness, the logical next question is, "what do I do on the journey from here to there?" I also realized that to do anything, I needed to have an open time space This awareness lead to the realization, that to create a space, I would need to retire from my work.

This was a difficult decision, because I felt a responsibility to my clients, and the idea of me "abandoning" (which meant that I referred them to other therapist) them was very distasteful. I experienced various episodes and levels of guilt. Once I concluded that I would create a time space for myself, I had to decide what I was going to do. Doing a long distance hike of at least 500 miles was my primary thought. I had been talking about doing the El Cameno pilgrimage trail in northern Spain for 3 years. When I started looking at 500-mile trails beside Spain, I came across the Bruce Trail in Canada, the Grande Trail in AZ and NM, the Finger Lakes Trail in New York, and a coastal hike along England's coast.

According to the FLT Conference, only about 20 people thru-hike the trail each year. The total number of thru-hikers in the trail’s 48-year history is a mere 289. The trail takes about six to seven weeks to complete, and it’s easy to go an entire week without seeing another hiker.

Technical Preparation

Technical Preparation:

Decision making, at least for me, is a long process of mulling something over and over. It can be in the background of my mind for a long time, while my day-to-day activities are in the foreground. Eventually, a conclusion forms, and the answer becomes progressively more clear. Deciding to do a 500-mile hike, required a 3-4 month time space. In turn this required, a 3 months or so planning and walking through the process of retiring from my work, deciding which trail to hike, planning meals, and deciding and if necessary purchasing gear. I started with doing an internet search of all the trails under consideration and looking for books on each trail. I then ordered maps of the trails and then started evaluating the terrain, local resources i.e. nearby towns, possible food drops through post offices or motels. There was also the consideration of which direction to travel -- east to west or west to east, all the trails I was considering went in these directions. I gradually eliminated: the NM/AZ trail because of the mountains, the Bruce trail because it was out of country and had very few towns near the trail, the El Camino trail because it was out of country and I did not have time to learn sufficient Spanish to feel comfortable navigating through Spain. The Finger Lakes Trail had one other plus. In 2003, I worked with Pat and Gina on the NJ Appalachian Trail as a Ridgerunner. They were living in Ithaca, NY, the middle of the FLT, and they had invited me to visit at different times over the years. I chose to do an End-to-End hike, as they call it, of the Finger Lakes Trail. The distance would be 550 miles plus. The starting time would be in mid-June. The basic plan was to drive to Ind. and visit my mother and some HS friends, Ted and Wanda, and then drive to Ithaca where I would leave my car while I hiked over the next 6-7 weeks.

Using the FLT maps, I plotted out an itinerary, and made up food boxes that Pat and Gina could send to me at post offices (general delivery) or motels. The next task was to sort through the gear I had and consider what new gear I needed to purchase. My doctor had who did my hip surgery 2 years ago, advised me to keep my pack weight at around 30 pounds. Historically, my pack weight was usually around 40-45 pounds. I will review my gear and what I have learned to be truly necessary gear and considerations for an end-to-end hike of the FLT in another segment (see the next page of this post for the link to my gear ideas and list).

Using the FLT maps, I plotted out an itinerary, and made up food boxes that Pat and Gina could send to me at post offices (general delivery) or motels. The next task was to sort through the gear I had and consider what new gear I needed to purchase. My doctor had who did my hip surgery 2 years ago, advised me to keep my pack weight at around 30 pounds. Historically, my pack weight was usually around 40-45 pounds. I will review my gear and what I have learned to be truly necessary gear and considerations for an end-to-end hike of the FLT in another segment seeI then started the journey of retirement, buying gear, and a modest attempt of getting physically in better shape. Over the past 5 years I had gradually gained weight, my doctor's lab workups said that my body was not doing so well, and my psychology was depressed. My outlook on life was definitely at a low point, and my overall energy level was the lowest it had been in 35 years.

Essential Equipment and Gear -- from my experience

Essential Equipment and Gear -- from my experience

To read the list of essential gear and the gear I took go to the pages 3 & 4 of:

http://fingerlakestrail-end-to-end.blogspot.com/

thanks,  Garth

Day 1, June 14th, 2010, Janesville, Wisconsin

Day 1; June 14th, (2010) Janesville, WI

It has been a long process, the preparation with the maps, the buying of gear, the planning and boxing of food, making arrangements for my clients at the two agencies, and doing some physical training by walking with my pack. I have been taking care of work, personal, and hike details right up to last night. Sitting in my car this morning, after loading every, I contemplate briefly what I am about to embark upon. I have history: hiking the Appalachian Trail in 2000 and working as a Ridgerunner in New Jersey for 4 summers on the AT. I have also done long hikes in Arkansas and Florida over the years. But, this hike will be different. I had my hip replacement two years ago, and the 2 years prior to the operation, I was in enough constant pain to prevent me from doing the high level of physical activity I would have normally done. I am overweight by many pounds. My other hip has had episodes of pain, causing me at one point to get it x-rayed and evaluated. The doctor looked at the x-ray and said it was fine, and then sent me to physical therapy. After 6 weeks it was much better, but I still have episodes of pain when I walk even without wearing the loaded pack.

Putting the key into the ignition, I fire up the car and head out of Janesville, Wis headed for Indiana where I will stay with my high school classmate and his wife, Ted and Wanda for 2 days. I will catch up with them and their world while I visit my 98-year-old mother in the nursing home. I have traveled these highways since 1969 when I was discharged from the Army and took my first job as a social worker in community mental health in Elkhorn, Wisconsin. I have traveled the roads through all seasons and weather conditions and for numerous reasons besides the holidays. I often use the time, especially when I am alone, to reflect on the past and speculate about the future or I simply zone out and drive in a meditative state of foggy mind.

As I drive through the flat lands of Illinois, my Garmin keeps interrupting my “zone” by telling me that I need to go right at the next exit, then turn left to get back on it idea of the proper course to Cambridge City, Indiana. I turn off the Garmin, I will turn it on later to see what time I will be getting to CC and then call Ted and Wanda so that they will know when to expect me.

It is a 7-hour trip with a little rain in central Illinois. It is not too hot at first but later the temperature reaches the high 80's so I turn on the air conditioner. Then I have second thoughts and turn it off. I need to get my mind and body ready to accept whatever temperature and weather conditions come my way day after day during the hike. I have planned to be gone for 8 weeks with 6 weeks allotted for hiking. At least that what I have figured out and set up my itinerary allocate. I have done this based on my past experience of how many miles I can expect myself to hike in a day. I know that I am 70 years old now but my head is filled with memories of the past hiking experiences. I have to admit that there have been times, when I have felt a little proud of myself at people's reaction upon hearing my plan to hike 550 miles alone on the Finger Lakes Trail. I only know a few people who have done something like a long hike and know the details that have to be accomplished to do a hike like I have planned for myself. I stop at a Pizza Hut along the way and buy their salad bar. I recognize that something back in my head is saying, “carbo-load for the hike”. For now, however, I need to drive to Indiana and complete this first leg of the trip.

I arrive at Cambridge City in the late evening. Wanda tells me it has been really foggy in the morning due to the high humidity. We eat and have a beer. We talk about out families and our kids. Then we relax and watch some TV shows. Before I go to bed I check my email on their Internet connection. I have slept in this room many times over the years. It is comfortable tonight with the air conditioning on medium high. Tomorrow I will have lunch with my mother. My sisters were not able to arrange for a visit at the same time, so I will be doing the visit alone.