Mile 1694.4, more rain and more lyme disease

We are getting so close to the end now. Only 484 miles left!! It has been raining pretty much every day, which has made things kind of gloomy. I think I counted about 26 out of the last 33 days it has rained on us. We just want the sun to come out!! Another gloomy thing is now I have lyme disease. It is such a hard thing to identify, and everyone seems to have different symptoms. I have been tired and moody for the past 10 days or so, but I just figured it was from walking in the rain every day. I talked to a couple of doctors on the phone two days ago, and they both agreed they did not think I had it. The very next day I woke up and my elbow ached so bad, then my fingers on my right hand started swelling and aching just holding my pole. The aching seemed to just throb from my right knee, up to my hip, and then down my arm hitting every joint. We hiked 10 miles yesterday, and decided to stay at a really nice lodge that is extremely hiker friendly. I started taking Nick's antibiotics, and it seems my joints are already aching less but my head is about to explode. Stupid ticks!!!
Oh yeah, I didn't get a root canal. They put in a temporary wedge thing, and it didn't hurt afterwards so they say I might not need a root canal ever. Paul came and visited us on top of Mt. Greylock, the tallest mountain in Massachusetts at 3,491ft. We did not get a view though.
We made it to Vermont!!! This is also the end of the Long Trail. The LT is a 275 mile trail from the southern end of Vermont to the northern end. It is the first long distance trail made in the US. The AT and LT follow the same trail for the first 105 miles.
A typical swampy pond in Vermont.
A moose!!!! We were just hitting the trail in the morning when we heard something running towards us. All of a sudden this huge animal came through the trees just trotting down the trail towards us. I said, "Look at that!" That scared her, and she turned around and started trotting away from us down the trail. We started walking fast after her to see if we could catch her. In about 5 minutes we saw she had tired and was just wondering down the trail. Nick took the camera and started following her. They reached a power line clearing, and she got scared and turned around and started running back towards Nick. This picture captured her running back towards him. He yelled, and she turned again, ran back, and headed down the power line.
This is her running away after Nick yelled.
I cannot believe how big moose are! I think they crossed a horse with a cow. I cannot imagine how scary it would be to encounter a big bull moose.
The view of Vermont from a fire tower.
We had a wonder trail magic surprise in Manchester, VT. This lady picked us up when we were trying to hitch into town. She offered for us to stay in her barn where she had an apartment....we of course took her up on this offer, but we had no idea it would be soooo nice. We had this place all to ourselves...just us and one other hiker. It was the nicest apartment we could have imagined. She also had a pond, hot tub, sauna, and 5 golden retrievers she shared with us.
This was the living room. We were dreaming of how nice it would be to snuggle up in this room with the wood stove and watching the snow fall outside on all the trees in the winter. It must be wonderful!!
Vermont mud sucks. The trail is very muddy in some spots. This is one of those sections. Nick's poles are about a foot in the mud.
Now his leg is sucked into the mud...just kidding.
We barely caught this view of a mountain before all the clouds blowed back in.
Nick crossing a bridge. The sign warns the weight limit is one person....that is reassuring.
I guess some boy scout group stacked up a pile of rocks and it started this tradition. Everybody tries to add a contribution when they hike by.
Of course Nick and Justin could not just add one rock. They added a shelf and each added a stack of rocks.
This was another area the rock cairns were taking over the trail. It is pretty crazy.
Clarendon Gorge.
On top of Mt. Killington....look at that view behind us. Nothing but clouds and whistling wind.
That tower is only about 200ft away, but we can barely see it through the clouds.
We made it to the "Maine Junction" where the Long Trail splits off and heads north and the AT starts angling NE. Hikers on the LT only have 165.9 miles left to Canada.
We have 469 miles by this sign to Katahdin, but this year we actually have 486.9 miles left.
I don't know why I can't write under the next picture, but this is me with lyme disease. I look pretty sad carrying my right hand in my coat because my elbow hurts too bad to carry the pole.

Nick has the Lymes

It is official Nick has Lyme disease, but do not think he is special. I guess pretty much everybody in this area has had it at some time, and it seems like all the hikers are on antibiotics for it right now. The ticks are horrible here. Nick had it about 10 days before he caught it, and he was already starting to feel it affecting his joints, muscles, mood, and energy level. It is a nasty disease. He has started his 4 week regimen of antibiotics now, so he should be fine. The sad thing is the antibiotics are making him sicker, but the doctor tells me this will get better.
Poor guy.

I tried to make this picture appropriate...we just had to show the classic sign of Lyme disease. Okay so we felt really stupid, because we did not recognize this horrible rash as the bulls eye. We thought it was a spot rubbed from his waist belt and then became infected. It wasn't until the doctor pointed out the red ring around the nasty rash we could see the bulls eye.

I hope you just didn't eat, but again I just had to show how nasty this is. The middle is covered in a pimple thing. It is so gross. When he stands up it turns all purple too. Folks lets be glad we do not have Lyme disease in the Midwest!

Hard Times on the AT

Mmmm...where should I start? We are now in Massachusetts at mile 1,510.7. We only have 667.6 miles left. Since leaving New York City we have seen a massive amount of rain. Pretty much every day it has rained on us. It is starting to wear on us a lot...thank goodness we are over 2/3 done. This has been an especially rough week. I have had a toothache for about 3 weeks now, and Nick has been feeling very tired and achy. We just arrived in Great Barrington today and I have already confirmed I need a root canal, and Nick is currently at a clinic waiting to see if he has Lyme disease. The good news is I might get a root canal for free. Apparently in Massachusetts it is the law everyone has to have health insurance or you will be fined, so somehow they have some awesome clinics that offer free services for people that do not have insurance like me. Today they already did some drilling and temporary work for free, but I have not heard if they can fit me in tomorrow to do the root canal. Nick had to take a bus to a bigger town with a walk-in clinic, but hopefully it will not be too expensive. It seems everyone has had Lyme disease that lives up here. He will just have to take a dose of antibotics, and he will be good to go. Wish us luck! Hopefully it stops raining so our morale is boosted!! Oh I almost forgot. We saw 2 more bears. This time when we saw them one ran away quickly, but the other one didn't seem too scared. We both thought about grabbing the camera, but something told us maybe this bear should not be messed with so we yelled and clapped our hands. He ran a little ways down the trail where we needed to go, so we followed and saw him again. We yelled some more, and he just ran out of sight and stopped. We never saw him again, but he sure wasn't that scared of us.
Q&A:
1. I have not tried to eat stinging nettle. The way it made my legs feel I would have not guessed you could put it in your mouth. If I get brave enough I might have to try that.
2. Did we get to do any sightseeing in NYC? Nope. We were trying to save our money, so we didn't do anything but eat out a couple of times and buy myself a new pack.
The Lemon Squeezer. We heard about this part of the trail about 100 miles ago, but we didn't find it to be too bad. The trail likes to lead us through the most pointless things. It is really like an obstacle course.

In Bear Mountain, NY we got to walk through a zoo that was actually part of the trail. This is a horrible picture, but there is a bobcat in that house. We were also at the lowest point of the whole trail in the zoo...124ft.

Crossing the Hudson River.

This snake just ate a good meal. Look how fat her belly is!

The flag on top of a mountain. It says, "In memory of Sept. 11, 2001."

Finally we found the biggest oak tree on the AT. It is 20'4" around and estimate to be over 300 years old.

We made it to Connecticut!!

Nick is such a gentleman. Here he is placing some rocks across this rushing stream to help me cross so I won't get my boots wet. Due to all the rain the streams have been pretty tricky to cross. Only one time did I have to suck it up and just get my boots soaked.

Can't believe the road company actually made signs for this detour. Nick was a little upset about the detour since it stopped him from getting to do the exact trail. They are putting in a new bridge though, so what can we do.

They even made detour blazes. How cute.

This was placed here in Lime Rock in memory of the first settlers...or something like that. Kind of different.

Lime Rock also had a racing park. This is not a very good picture, but they had the course kind of blocked off. We heard the roaring of racing cars vibrating through the valley for hours while walking over the mountains.

This is the Housatonic River. Now I have already mentioned this a couple of times, but it has been raining a lot here!!! You can see how flooded the river is, and how scary those falls look. When we were here a boy went swimming above these falls...not smart. When we were walking through there were helicopters, rescue boats, kayakers, news crews, and a ton of people all around the river looking for him. Our thoughts are with his family, but I do not think this could turn out well.

The Giant's Thumb.

I love small states...we are already to Massachusetts!

The view of MA. We had to climb 3 mountains yesterday over 2,000ft. That is the highest we have been since Virginia.

New York City

We made it to New York, mile 1373.9. Things are going great...well my knees are starting to complain a bit louder, but other than that things are great. We are taking a few days off in New York City right now to hang out with Nick's friend, rest, and buy some lighter gear to help my knees out a bit.
Q&A:
Can you start anywhere on the trail or do you have to start in Georgia? Could you start in Maine and work your way toward Georgia? Thanks Kim for the question...I am glad you are still thinking of questions even if the kids are enjoying their summer. People do start any where. Some people start in Maine and go to Georgia. Some people start in Harpers Ferry and go north to Maine, and then fly to Georgia and walk north back to Harpers Ferry. These people are called flip floppers. Pretty much you can do the hike any way you would like, but you are only considered a thru-hiker if you do the whole trail within 12 months. The most popular way to do the trail is definitely Georgia to Maine. It is easier to deal with the weather, and New Hampshire and Maine offer very challenging terrain so it is easier to get through that section in good physical condition.

The view of Pennsylvania farmlands from the Pinnacle lookout.
So many rocks. Since Georgia we have heard about how horrible Pennsylvania is. We did find a lot of rocks, but it wasn't that bad. Our feet felt sore a few days after miles of walking on rocks, but we were not bruised and crippled like some hikers.

Lehigh Gap was quite a climb. We did not get any pictures of the face of the mountain we had to climb up because I was afraid I might start freaking out if I had too much time to think about the situation we were in. It would be quite a horrible fall if I slipped on the rocks...thank goodness it was not raining! Around the side of the mountain from where we climbed up there was a nice painting of the American flag. This mountain was completely bare just a few years ago due to zinc smelting from 1898-1980. The plant dumped over 33 million tons for residue on the mountain killing all plant and animal life. I am not sure when, but the county put a mixture of biosoil (human sewage), fly ash, potash, and lime on the mountain to encourage plant life to grow. The ridge is still bare, but along the sides of the mountain grass and trees are starting to grow.

One of the two plants that is responsible for dumping the zinc residue on the mountain.

Green grass growing on the side of the mountain.

Nick on the bare ridge. They are in the process of trying to get grass to grow up here.

The terrain has turned rockier. It causes us to go slower, but it is fun to mix up the type of hiking.

The Deer Head Inn in Delaware Water Gap. Thought this was a cool, old house. It costs $100 to stay here though, so we stayed at the free hostel down the block.

Crossing the Delaware River...we are in the process of leaving Pennsylvania and crossing into New Jersey.

We made it to NJ...hooray!!

We thought we heard a moose at Sunfish Pond, but we discovered this huge bullfrog was making that noise. Not the best of pictures, but they are pretty shy.

Nick looking very confident after conquering this mountain of rocks.

A cute frog.

It has been another rainy week. The moisture in the trees created these clouds hovering above the valley.

We were really excited to leave Pennsylvania and all the rocks, but we found New Jersey had its own problems. We lost the trail many different times, and we are convinced they only do trail maintence once a year. The trail was overgrown with branches. It was irritating since this area has the largest cased of lyme disease, and in this area we had to rub against so many leaves allowing ticks to get on us easier.

High Point monument. We are not sure what the significance is of this huge monument.

New Jersey has a lot of marshy areas where we have to walk across long stretches of boards.

Marshy areas allow vines to grow really big I guess. This is the biggest vine we have seen on the trail.

We walked around this neat wildlife area. It was covered in different kinds of birds...bald eagles, great herons, ducks, geese, and these swans.

Stinging nettle hurts. I walked through a patch of nettle with shorts on. It felt like the leaves were cutting my legs open. Within 5 minutes my legs were forming blisters all over, but luckily in about 45 minutes the blisters went away.

Good-bye Pennsylvainia...Hello New York.

A very confident, huge black snake. He could have easily been over 6 feet long.

Greenwood Lake...there were many boaters out there having fun.

A wolf spider carrying her babies.

A beaver swimming around his pond.

I cannot believe we found a post office with less business than mom's. This post office is only open one hour a day Monday-Saturday.

The view of NYC from Ben's apartment. It is sooooooo nice to take a few days off and have a bed, kitchen, tv, couch, bathroom, and computer!