It Was A Hard Day's Night

As promised by Blue Sky, it's Mama Kath (aka High Life) checking in with tales from the trail. I'd just like to start by announcing to the world (or anyone who reads this blog!) that I am extremely proud of Kimberley, with what she has accomplished to date and what she has left to accomplish. It was the experience of a lifetime for me to share a small part of her journey with her last week.

I met up with Blue Sky and Green Lite near High Point State Park in northwestern New Jersey. They had already hiked 11 miles that morning - all warmed up for me. The first thing Kim did was go through my frame pack and dump out things that she said I wouldn't need - a trail veteran! The afternoon was spent hiking across the ridges of NW New Jersey, beautiful vistas and voracious mosquitos. Three applications of bug juice were all in vain. After another 11 miles, Green Lite picked a spot to set up our tents and we literally dove into them and were all hunkered in by 6:30pm- the mosquitos were that bad! For the next three hours, until it got dark, I amused myself lying in my tent and watching all the mosquitos, ticks, spiders and random bugs flying and crawling on the outside of my mesh screen above my head - lots of fun! I'm pretty sure I barely slept - not even the heavy rain through the night would lull be to sleep.

We rose early, packed up the wet gear and started off. Still raining, but light. It's a good thing nobody cares what they look like on the trail - my attire that morning consisted of my long john bottoms, a coat with a hood leaving just my face exposed and a big yellow plastic poncho over that. Our hike this morning took us down off the ridge through "agricultural lands" which is just a euphanism for ankle deep muck. Another 11 miles of this and we were ready to stop for the day. As Kim mentioned, we decided to stay in Unionville, NY, population 600 and try a night at "The Outhouse", home of the Mayor. A special trail angel, the Mayor, a 71-year of named Dick, opens his home to thru hikers in honor of his deceased wife. We were picked up at the General Store by his helper, Butch, who drove us to the Outhouse blasting Deep Purple on the radio -a great omen. Once there, we were treated to the Rules of the House. There were a couple of interesting ones - if any word over 3 syllables in length were used, we owed them a quarter! Also, the first beer was free, they were a quarter a beer after that, limit of four. We were particularly amused by the one that told us we would have to watch a video in the living room after dinner. More on that later. Our stay at the Outhouse would include lodging, a shower, the opportunity to do laundry, internet access, beer and wine, dinner, breakfast the next morning, and a ride back to the trail. It was an amazing display of kindness and camaraderie, even if Dick did keep referring to the thru-hikers as dumb f***s. Cocktails on the deck ran all afternoon, dinner was fabulous, I cried during the story about Mrs Mayor,and the video turned out to be an inspirational life lesson fashioned around the story of Britain's Got Talent winner from a few seasons ago, Paul Potts. Seems Dick is a huge opera fan. We all watched attentively and took his words to heart. The message was to accomplish your dreams and he was happy to play a small role in helping the thru hikers reach Katahdin.

Not sure if trying to sleep on a plywood bunk with seven other funky-smelling thru hikers and their gear was an improvement over the insects the night before, but we gave it a go. After a hearty breakfast the next morning, people started out - Blue Sky and Green Lite to get in another 11 miles or so before big sister Kelley arrived and we "switched out" I decided my "contribution" to the Outhouse before I left was to scrub the two bathrooms in the house. I'll leave it to your imagination how disgustingly dirty they were to me - I'm sure the thru hikers didn't care!

In closing - I want to thank all of you who are reading this, because if you are, you are a friend of Kim's, important to her, and are supporting her in this herculean effort. She is a very special girl and I'm so fortunate to have a daughter like her. Hope to join her for a day hike up in Vermont and I will be at Katahdin with a bottle of champagne in August!