Out of Sequence - Day 192

  For reasons I will explain when I get to the catch-up post that covers the day this little walk goes with, I hiked 2.7 miles today that count for this quest. Then I walked the 2.7 miles back to the car.

This lovely little beaver pond has no name. It's weird being eye level with the water. The trail dropped down in front of the dam to cross the stream. You can see the top of the dam on the left of the photo.

This probably was a beaver pond at one time. Now it's just a wetland. Openings like these in the woods are important for wildlife. They are pretty, too! But I wouldn't want to walk through there.

Blue flag growing at the edge of the water.

This little hike was surprisingly hilly. It went up and down a couple of times, then climbed 400 feet and dropped down 200.

Then I finished driving to Vermont. This view isn't at the Crown Point Bridge. It's across from Ticonderoga. Have to love the Eastern mountains. Not shabby at all.

I'm not going to report these 2.7 miles now. I'll add them to the day where they should have been. Tomorrow, I'm back on the trail eastward! I left Sunny in New York. I'm being hosted here in Vermont by a generous family.

Blue Hill Trail, out and back. NY Adirondacks

See It's All Good

It's All Good - Day 191

  First and most importantly, the car is fixed and the transmission wasn't damaged. See those shiny new lines right near the center of the photo?

Next, I hadn't quite realized how close to where I am staying Marie's brother Larry, and wife Pam, live. Like 15 minutes away! So I popped over for a visit. They pretty much think of me as extended family. Larry has hiked with Marie and me several times before. For example, in June 2013.

Pam thinks I'm crazy, but she's glad I'm still alive. Larry wishes he could come too.

And, to celebrate my relief that the car is OK, I brought pizza home to eat with Mary and Bill.

Other than that, I did a bunch of computer stuff. It rained all day, sometimes hard, so it was a good day for indoor tasks.

Tomorrow, I really and truly am going to try to drive to Vermont. Isn't this blog supposed to be about a hike? Soon, really soon, there will be walking involved again. It takes a lot of logistics to do a trip that lasts a year or more.

See Never a Dull Moment

Never a Dull Moment - Day 190

  On my way to Vermont. Not a dozen miles away from Mary's house. The car decides to dump all its transmission fluid. Fortunately, I had a clue because it started slipping and I pulled off and stopped before it really puked.

Well, that's a tow!

I know that I'm being cared for. It's unlikely that anyone, anywhere can go for a year without having some needed car repair, so I did no moaning about "why now." But think of all the places this could have happened. I might have been at some remote trailhead, miles from a good-sized town. I might have been towing the trailer. I might have been far from a place to stay. I found a garage that can fix it right away as soon as they can get the parts. (tomorrow- they have to come from Buffalo). They don't think I damaged the transmission because I stopped right away, but I'll know the answer to that for sure tomorrow, also. Keep it up, all you folks who are praying. This is good stuff here.

Bill came and picked me up, so I'm back in Sunny and will await a call from the garage. This is probably another two-day delay. We shall see.

I hoped to do a lot of reports and stuff today. I did some, but mostly I fell asleep and took a long nap.

See Map Fun

Map Fun - Day 189

  Today I planned the Vermont section, did a catch-up blog post, did some reports on the pieces I hiked, tried to get some stuff ready for the Vermont leg, made phone calls, tried to rest a bit.

I'll just show you an example of what I was able to do with the Avenza app. The orange line is a track of my bushwhack from Day 175 between the two red markers. I also added markers at other points of interest.

There are a lot of trail apps, and everyone has a personal favorite. I've only used a couple, but I'm really comfortable with Avenza.

That is all! Tomorrow I travel again, driving my car back to Vermont. Sunny is staying here again.

See Separation Anxiety?

Separation Anxiety? - Day 188

  I wasn't sure if I could take the backpack on public transport without it being enclosed in a duffel or something, but the lady who has helped me the last couple of days asked if I really needed to take it back to New York with me for these two days. What a great thought! Of course not. I pulled out the very few things that I needed and put them in a small backpack. No problem for me to kiss that weight goodbye for a few days.

What turned out to be much harder, surprisingly, was to leave my hiking stick. I realized that it wasn't crucial to have with me, but I couldn't believe how much I didn't want to leave it! Finally, I told myself, "Get over it, Joan. You don't need the stick for the next two days."

They are waiting for me in Vermont when I return to hike again on Thursday.

I boarded the bus at 6:15 in the morning. You already know how much I like early morning. I like bus travel about equally as well. But it was on time. The most stressful thing was that there wasn't very much info on the ticket. I didn't even know that when I transferred at Albany-Renssalear, it was going to be to a train. It took several of us to figure that out, and Marie helped via text because she could get the info from her computer easier than I could find it with the phone.

The most amazing thing is that Marie decided to drive up to the station (about an hour) to see me for the 25 minutes between bus and train. It was more like 15 minutes, but what a treat. She makes me feel so special- that she would do that just for enough time for lots of smiles and a few hugs.

The train was waiting.

The Maple Leaf 63.

Of course, I DO like riding the train. Back across the Hudson, but only temporarily.

The train was actually on time, and there were quite a few people using it. There were either 6 or 7 cars (it was hard to count), and each was at about half capacity. The conductor was a younger man who was thoroughly enjoying his job. The seats were much more comfortable than the bus. There was a cafe car, but I had packed a sandwich, so I didn't need to buy anything. The last time I took an Amtrak train (about 15 years ago), I'm sorry to tell you that it wasn't as much fun as I wanted it to be. The seats smelled bad, things didn't work right, it was hours and hours late and the food ran out. So today improved my opinion of Amtrak a bit.

These seats were new, they have added a 120V power line along the sides of each car so people can plug in their computers, etc. You are allowed more luggage, and you could understand the words on the public address system. You can take bicyles- they have a storage rack so you don't have to strip the bike down and box it. I didn't ask, but the backpack probably would have been OK. I could have taken the clipped-on things off, and it would have fit easily in the luggage rack. The whole experience felt like the powers that be have decided they should accommodate what people need if they want to get more riders.

Anyway, seeing Marie was best, but just to top off the experience, she brought me a whole rhubarb pie that she made yesterday! Mary picked me up in Syracuse, and as soon as we got back to her house, we had pie and ice cream.

Now I have to write the field reports on how I found the Adirondack trail and get organized for the Vermont leg. I'll do all that tomorrow, drive east on Wednesday and hike Thursday.