Miles 1725.6 | A long, fast-paced 21-mile day through Vermont with an early sunrise start, waterfalls, and rolling green hills. Fatigue set in late, but the day ended in Woodstock, VT with family, swimming, and a much-needed home-cooked meal.
Day 167: Mile 1705.1 | Gifford Woods State Park (Lean - To)
Day 168: Mile 1725.6 | The Harrington's House
It was a chilly morning but it was beautiful. We powered through the day and I didn't really get tired until almost 14 miles in. We stopped for breaks, of course, and late in the day we came across a rock garden where we took our longest break. We pushed through the butt, knee, and calf pain to make it up to Woodstock. We crested the hill before the place where we agreed to meet her and the rolling green hay fields brought me back to childhood memories.
On day 168 we got up early! Sunrise early! Miles and I hiked as fast as we could all day so that we could meet up with my cousin, Sam, in Woodstock (and make some progress because we had been 'chillin'). It was a big day for us, a full 21 miles over some big hills. Out first trailside attraction was a beautiful waterfall with a lovely board walk to accompany it.
My sister and I stayed with their family during so many of our childhood summers. We would swim, ride horses, go to York Beach in Maine, and dress in matching outfits for all photos. The smell of the hay field in the warm afternoon sun and the green mountains that surrounded them reminded me of the hay fort days and riding horses through the woods. In the winters sometimes we would visit them, too, and Uncle Bob would take us to gather maple sugar and go sledding.
Somehow, I realized, I had lost a lot of these memories. Only now, the smell of the hay strong in the humid summer air, did I remember them more vividly. All along on trail I'd been remembering things I'd forgotten or blurred out. It seemed like, as the depression lifted, my memories began to return. A slow trickling stream of memories triggered by smells or sounds or feelings.
Like pine needles baking in the air by a stream reminded me of the picnics I used to take my dolls on. Or the crisp air one February morning by a rhododendron bush felt like the forts we used to make out of the suburban rhododendron bushes in Massachusetts. Listening to Wait! Wait! Don't Tell Me! brought back Saturday morning road trips. Friendships I'd forgotten, cousins who had practically been my siblings, and silly memories with my sister would flow back randomly and slowly.
The fog of depression blew away and the SSRI's stopped numbing me as they left my blood stream. At this point in my journey the medications I had been taking before I left were finally out of my system. For the first two months on trail some of my medications still affected me, but as more of a half life dose. I noticed the more time I spent alone with my thoughts in the woods (no podcasts, no music, no Miles), the more memories I began to recover that I hadn't even realized I'd lost.
We made it to Woodstock, VT by 2pm and Sam picked us up at the trailhead. While she was looking for the trailhead to pick us up at she had found a couple of other AT hikers nearby and she'd offered them a ride back to the trail. We ended up bringing them home with us. Its funny how the trail community seems so small but we were always meeting new people. Ring and KStar came back to the Harrington house with us. We swam in the pool, Sam made us dinner, and KStar and Ringo decided to sleep outside in their tent. Sam set up Miles and I in one of the guest rooms upstairs.
I stayed up and caught up with my cousin for a few hours. We stood out on the porch and talked about the past and the future and growing up. How much we'd missed in each other's lives when we all got busy after middle school. In the living room we sat in the reclining chairs and talked about her new path: Norwich University, a military school. I headed to bed around midnight and said goodnight to my not so long lost cousin.
