My favorite zero up to now was the day we slept 18 hours in Branchville, NJ. Today, we had to get up a little after 7 so we could eat before Karen took us into Kent. It was hard to get up because I was hypnotized by the sound of the falls outside of our bedroom windows.
We’ve heard that the lady at the laundromat is quite strict with hikers. Word has made it down the trail that she chewed some guys out last week that were sitting in their underwear with a towel wrapped around them. Karen and Cliff loaned us clothes so we could wash everything we had at once. The laundromat had great Wifi, so we ended up sitting there for a couple of hours after our laundry was done.
While sitting there, I checked my email and made a few calls concerning gear. My Merrell boots are coming apart prematurely. They have agreed to replace them and send me a new pair up the trail. They have already done this once for Bunny. We’ve talked to other people having similar problems with their boots. It seems like they are having “glue” issues. I really like my Merrell Moab’s. This is the third pair I’ve had and the first that have fallen apart so quickly. They fit my feet without having to break them in. I’m glad they are working with us to fix the problem. Like Big Agnes, they have great customer service.
Olympus is a completely different story. Their customer service sucks and I’m through with that company. The camera I bought just last year has a board failure and they want an unreasonable amount of money to repair it. I’m better off buying a new camera that put a large amount into a discontinued camera. I’m not surprised Olympus is steadily loosing market share. They had a decent product but pay no attention to after sales or customer service. They are a dying company and already dead to me.
The biggest item on our agenda today was to get the food package Alice had sent us. She had originally sent it to Fort Montgomery, NY but it got sent back to her. We learned today that they had a temporary worker that didn’t know anything about the AT and general delivery for thru-hikers so he screwed a lot of people up.
Today, we had no problem getting our package at Annie Bananie’s. While we were going through the package trying to decide what we were going to carry with us and what we were going to ship forward, the driver that delivered the package yesterday came in. He recognized the box that he had to man handle yesterday. He started talking to us about hiking and what all we had in the box. He was concerned that we were not going to be able to carry all the weight. We assured him we weren’t going to.
Open a Christmas present, and everyone wants to see. While we were sorting, the woman we had met yesterday when we were leaving the shelter came in. She asked if we had made it before the storm and if there was anything she could do to help us out. This was Julia.
Julia lives in Florida but has been coming up to New England to spend her summers for the last 15 years. She does trail magic and maintenance almost everyday she is up here in the summers. Today was no different. She drove us to the post office so we could forward our extra food up the trail and then drove us to the library so I could print out a return form for a smartwool shirt that has worn out before it’s time.
Julia is probably going to retire this year and is thinking about how she can slack herself and hike the AT. She asked a few questions about how we do things on the trail. I’m sure she will be hiking the trail next year. She saved us a lot of town walking and carrying of weight around.
We met another sobo, Oracle. He started June 4. While we were talking to him, Nonna and Freeman (formerly known as Swiss Family Robinson) walked up. We all talked for a bit until we got a call from Karen. She was picking up another hiker, Bungie, and wanted to know if we were ready. We had just talked to Bungie and had agreed to meet at the Wine and Spirits store to be picked up.
Every shipment from Alice includes the fixings for “Cowboy Pizza.” Bunny and I sat on our deck finishing the beer we had bought yesterday and contemplated making the pizzas. The only way it was going to happen was if we both worked on them together. She wouldn’t buy my argument that I do all the cooking on the trail. We are getting better each time.
Sitting on the deck and drinking our last beer, we heard a knock on the door. Karen knew we were going to be sitting out so she decided to come down and join us. She just started the hostel a couple weeks ago. Chad the Dad was one of the first to stay here and that’s how we found out about it. Karen is a nurse (we are running into more nurses that any other profession out here). She’s now a school nurse and has the summers off, that’s why she started the hostel—extra free time.
Earlier, we had invited Iron Fist and Bungie to join us for a drink on the deck. They came over and we all watched kayakers on the river. Karen came back a little later and said more hikers had come in. Ultimately, we had another 3 hikers join us on the deck: Duckie, Tiba, and Kaos. Everyone agreed, the setting for our cabin was ideal. I’m going to hate to leave.
EFG