Date: Mon, 31 Jul 2006 18:38:31 +0000

Hello, y’all.

Thank you everyone who has sent me emails recently. I regret that I am unable to respond to them personally at this time, or even send a proper bulletin, because these unholy bastards in the library at Gorham NH charge $1 per half-hour to use their computers! So much for the lie of free computer access for all in the peoples’ libraries I seem to recall from the giddy dawn of the I.T. revolution… This is wrong, wrong, wrong. I mean, isn’t it? Whatever happened to the NH state motto, ‘Live Free Or Die’? In this friggin’ library it might as well be ‘Give Fee Or ‘Bye’.

Anyway, I will go out in the woods soon and scream my rage at the moose and poor old Firefly. Meantime, my location of course is Gorham; we came down out of the White Mountains yesterday after a week or so of adventures above treeline, jumping from one 4,000-footer to the next, getting our Trail-withered arses almost blown off the top of Mt Madison in the Presidential Range, and generally dodging the $100-per night accommodations in the huts by either doing work-for-stays, sleeping on tables after the fee-payers had retired, or stealth-camping in places where the signs said ‘NO CAMPING’.

The Whites were gorgeous, sometimes intimidating, occasionally utterly bloody enervating, but there were days when we hiked to perfection. We managed to strip our food bags to the bare minimum and top up our calories with bottomless soup bowls or chocolate-coated cornbread in the huts. I am still not sure about the hut system - the Whites are over-trampled by hiker traffic and do need protection, but I resent having to suck up to a bunch of Ivy League kids for the priviledge of a roof for the night. Some of the hut staff have been wonderful; some have been arrogant shits. And the insecurity of never knowing where you’ll be ‘throwing down’ (as FF puts it) that night forces you to compete with your fellows for that rare handful of possible bunks. Also, I’ve heard stories of older, less robust hikers being told to move on with night approaching and no legitimate alternatives within coo-ee.

Anyway, it’s hard for me to be objective right now. I have lost my credit card and am totally cash-less; I never wish to experience again that sickening heave in my guts when I pulled out the ziplock that serves as my wallet and realised that little strip of plastic was missing and I was utterly penniless and a long, long way from home. I’ve squandered my afternoon in town dealing with the MORONS at Mastercard, trying to line up a replacement at Stratton. Firefly has lent me some cash, but life is much, much simpler in the hobo woods, and I can’t wait to get back in there where money means nothing but extra pack weight.

I have now done 1,876 miles on the AT plus the 170 of the LT. More news as it comes to hand.

mg   x

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