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.