Pancakes start at 6:30. Bunny is always saying we need to get up earlier and since we are sleeping on the floor where breakfast is served, she can’t snooze her way out of this one. What she can do (and does) is grab the last blueberry pancake of the morning. It was a special treat and Bunny LOVES blueberries. Some women love their husbands and will at least share a bite, especially when it’s already her second pancake and her husband hasn’t had one yet. Fortunately, Bunny is too strong to be swayed by sentimentality. I did not get to taste a single blueberry after dreaming of blueberry pancakes for the last two days. Bunny is a heartless rabbit.
Chad texted us and told us VT was a little cooler, but the mosquitoes aren’t getting any better there. Boiling Point caught up with us hiking today. He got a hotel room to get away from the mosquitoes last night. Shawn Perks used to sit in the full sun wearing black on the Camino last year. He wasn’t at all bothered by mosquitoes or flys landing on and biting him. As long as it was less than 40C (104F), he’d say it was a beautiful spring day. “Look up mate, nothing’s trying to kill ya heer. Back home, we’d have 7 spiders lined up on the porch that’ll kill ya within a minute. So quit being a whimpering Pom and sit here in the sun and ave a beeer with me.” The point is Aussies aren’t bothered by little things. Boiling Point is an Aussie as well and he had to get a room to get some peace from them. He did mention it was a bit cool so he turned on the heat—it was only 85 yesterday.
I’m holding out hope that we’ll be able to do more miles when the humidity drops. After a good hard rain, the humidity will sometimes drop. Hope springs eternal. We were sweating before we even got back to the trail, but that may have been influenced from one of the foulest smelling privys we have ever had the misfortune to choke on. It took me three rounds of overcoming my gag reflex before I could ascend the throne.
We did get a couple of magic Gatorades and a ginger ale today thanks to our early(ish) start. We were on the trail by 8:30 even though we were only planning on 11 miles today. The early rise and 4 cups of strong coffee did get us motivated (and juices flowing which made the aforementioned throne room visit mandatory). The further north we go, the less we are disliking the trail. We’re still not back to the like stage—I’m hoping that returns with lower temps, humidity, and bugs.
In the mean time, Mosquitochussets is a bit less buggy. At least the gnats aren’t constantly in your face, but these mosquitoes are hellish—and organized. Straws are drawn and the short straw has to fly in your face while 200 kamikaze squeeters go for the back of your arms and legs, out of sight, while you are distracted. The most frightening aspect is that the mosquitoes are actually watching the trail and will not begin the maneuver until you are engaged in a treacherous climb requiring all of your attention to keep from falling and sustaining major injury or even loss of life. We have checked with other hikers at night. It’s not our imagination. This is an all out war that the mosquitoes are engaged in. We need to bring back DDT and fast. If Condors have to die to win this war, so be it. We just need to get some of their DNA so we can Jurassic them back into existence later.
We stopped for a snack at October Mountain Shelter. Sassy and Bear came into the shelter after we had been there a few minutes. We talked them into continuing on to the Cookie Lady another 2.2 miles ahead. We told her there was free camping, blueberries to pick, and often free cookies for thru-hikers. Since they are hikers, we had them at free cookies, at least we had Bear, Sassy is eating gluten free (can you say it sucks to be Sassy?).
When we got there, Round About was already set up and the Cookie Lady was gone. We know they are an older couple and they let hikers stay for free in exchange for some chores to help out on the farm. We all ate supper while we waited for Marylyn to return from shopping. When she got back, Roy (her 88 year old husband) asked us to mow the grass around the blue berry bushes. We were glad to help out. While the men were out working for the right to camp, Bunny and Sassy set up the tents by themselves. This was the first time Bunny had ever done it unassisted and she did a great job. She even came up with an improvement for extending the sidewalls. It looks like she has picked up a new camping task.
EFG