Day 57: Hike Naked Day and Mowing for a Place to Sleep

Summary
June 21st

NOBO mile# 1559.2

Tolmann’s daily mileage 9.5

Tolmann’s total mileage 535.5

My goal today was to get to the Cookie Lady’s place on Mt. Washington Rd. It was around 10 miles, so I was fairly confident I’d make quick work of that. That meant letting myself sleep a little later, and taking my time getting everything together. 

I left around 10:00. 

As always coming out of town, the first part of the hike is the ascent back into the mountains; in this case, summiting Becket Mountain. From that point, elevation changes were moderate. 

I had been reminded by a couple of sources that June 21 is “Hike Naked Day”! I’m not sure how that particular tradition was born, but I was pretty sure I was not going to participate. For one thing, it wouldn’t do anything for my self esteem to see the revulsion on the faces of the folks unlucky enough to meet me on the trail!!

I was curious, though, to see if I might run into others who might feel differently… 

Alas, it seems no one got the memo.  

I also face-planted again today; what I thought was a stick turned out to be a completely exposed root, and down I went. Would have been oh so much worse had I been completely unprotected!!

Although it was hot at the motel, especially in the sun, the day turned out to be quite pleasant, weather wise. I never really got to that soaked-with-sweat place I’ve been in the past few days. 

So with a moderate trail, and decent weather, the day passed with nothing really standing out. I got to the October Mountain Shelter (daily mile 6.2) around 1:45 and hung out to eat my lunch and visit with Wonder Woman and Six Pack. Wonder Woman is thru-hiking, and her friend is hiking with her for the month of June (June is month 6, and she’s backPACKing, thus “Six Pack”).

Then it was just 2.6 miles to the Cookie Lady. At the road I met a young man from Canada SOBOing starting at Pinkham Notch in NH, and we both came down to the Cookie Lady’s farm. She has a working farm, selling eggs, and blueberries. 

There are sometimes hiker amenities, like hard boiled eggs and soda and ice cream for sale, and occasionally she puts out home baked cookies for free. They also let hikers camp in their property, if the hikers ask for permission. 

When we got to the farm, it seemed like no one was home. There was an empty basket that looked like it had held cookies, maybe even recently, but no sign of soda or ice cream. There was a sign pointing to a water tap, so we each filled bottles. Then the SOBOer left, very disappointedly, but with visions of reaching Upper Goose Pond Cabin and getting pancakes in the morning!

I sat around, waiting to see if any one would show. 

While I was sitting there, a elderly man came out of the garage. 

“Oh, I didn’t think there was anyone home,” I said. 

He said something softly that I couldn’t catch. 

“I was wondering if I might camp here tonight,” I said. 

It sounded like he was saying yes. 

“Thank you,” I said, “is there any place in particular I should set up in?”

I still wasn’t quite getting what he was saying, and by this time it was obvious he was walking out to a field where I now noticed a elderly woman was working. It baffled me that I hadn’t seen her before. 

I had started following the gentleman, in case he was leading me to where I could camp. He stopped and smiled and said I could use the picnic table and set up my tent under the trees. He had to go talk to the woman, so left me to my own devices. 

A little later, the woman (Marilyn) came in from the field, went into the house and came out with the basket with three chocolate chip cookies. We talked a little, then she said she had to get back out to do some planting. 

I finished setting up my tent, went to scout out a location for my bear bag hang, and when I got back the guy was there, telling me I can use the bathroom in the derelict house attached to the workshop (use a bucket of water to flush), and telling me that usually the people who stayed paid by doing some lawn mowing, and would I be willing? “Of course,” I said; so it was off to the workshop to collect a lawn mower. There are MANY mowers. And snow blowers. And chain saws. And pieces of things my sons probably would recognize, but not I. 

I’m told to use one  particular mower  cuz it’s the most reliable. It has no “on/off” switch. How do you turn it off? There’s a loose wire that you ground it to the body of the lawn mower to stall it out. Okay…

And there I am mowing “wherever the grass is long.”. As you might imagine, there was a lot of overgrown lawn on this farm. The one lawn mower runs out of gas before long, so I’m off to find a gas can. Nope. Well, another mower had gas; I’ll try to start it. Success!

Then the Cookie Lady and Cookie Man come by to tell me they have to leave to shuttle some hikers, not to overdo it, and their off. I finish the area of the front lawn I had started, put the mower away and close the garage door. Time for supper. 

Chicken-flavored rice side with cheddar cheese and Deb’s home-made turkey jerky. Yum! 

I must say, this has been an experience right out of one of the AT thru-hike books. Maybe I will write a book, after all. 

So tomorrow is 10 miles to Dalton (the trail goes through the center of town), and then 4 miles to the campsite to set me up for meeting Jon in Friday morning. Gonna be a stretch for me.