Day 80: Reflections on a Backpack 

Summary

July 30th

NOBO mile# 1747.7

Tolmann’s daily mileage 0.6

Tolmann’s total mileage 724.0

I’m counting the additional .6 miles from the river to the center of Hanover as my mileage today. 

Sleeping on the couch last night was a bit of a challenge. The parish house is also home to a pair of kittens that have pretty much the run of the place. They obviously saw me as either an intruder or a toy. I was able to get them settled some after they had crawled all over me, and the purring was probably loud enough to keep the folks upstairs awake. In the end, though, it was another light sleep for me. 

So the Deuter folks say that it will take 5-7 days for my new pack to get to my home. My current schedule gets me to Moosilauke in 3 days, so then I’m “in the Whites” and it becomes difficult to work logistics for a good place to meet up with Deb. 

I decided to zero today, to give a delivery cushion. Except that today is Sunday, and they probably haven’t seen my email with the address to send the pack, and so won’t be actually starting the delivery clock until tomorrow… so, after talking with Deb, I’ve decided to wait for the package at home. 

Since my son, Jeff’s birthday is coming up this week, I get to be home for that. I’ve purchased a bus ticket from Hanover to South Station, then will catch the commuter rail to Walpole. 

I’m also going take the Oboz folks at there word that they have a thru-hiker guarantee on their hiking shoes. I have significant wear on mine, including the tread in the soles. I hope I can work out the timing on those, as well. 

So I used my zero to take my time over breakfast, making myself up a plate of cheese and sausage omelette, exploring the town of Hanover, sitting with my uke, and lastly, sitting with 8 other hikers watching the new Beauty and the Beast on a projector at the parish house, and making thru-hiking jokes/comments in a Mystery Science Theater 3000 fashion. Just being with this crew and watching a Disney movie (unlike watching True Grit in Manchester) was a bizarre and most enjoyable evening!!

It’s kind of funny; as a hiker, you begin to have this complicated relationship with your pack. On one hand, it’s your home, you are self sufficient while you have it on, you become figuratively (and literally) attached to it. On the other hand, it can be, and often is, your nemesis, the thing that pulls you back as you climb, or pushes you from behind as you go down; it can (and does) drive an ache into your shoulders and back. It sets your center of gravity high, and  a trip or stumble can start as something comical and become something terrifying. 

It’s a love/hate relationship, to be sure. 

All that comes out of an unexpected feeling of affection and sense of loss as I think about moving my trail stuff into a new home. <sigh>

More reflections to come…