Day 39: trail magic

Miles 13.8
Water 4 l plus a beer and a Pepsi

Long day, I tried a new method, I hiked all morning until I got to a shelter and I took a nap for a couple of hours. Then hiked again afterward. I ended up hiking until about 8. I'm camped on top of a mountain illegally. I have wandered into the world of Connecticut. Where you can only camp in official spots.

I almost stopped at a shelter around 530, but moved on anyway. I'm glad I did, the trail was following the ten mile river, and just past the ten mile shelter I came on a side path to a set of rapids. I walked past it at first, then after a few minutes of walking headed back. If I'm not here to play in random rapids, why am I here?  So I went down and did some wading, there were lots of holes. I saw a blue Herron fly by, I got washed up, soaked my shirt, so I was sorta clean, it was great.

Hiking at dusk is good from a temperature standpoint. But it is a bit scary, there is a clock ticking as the sun goes down, the idea of night hiking is pretty scary. Maybe if I hadn't stopped for the rapids I might have made it down to the next campsite.

So! I've used the term trail magic before I'm sure, but today I'll talk about it until it is boring.  Let's explain trail magic.

New York was pretty bad for trail magic, but as soon as I crossed the border into CT it started like crazy.

Trail magic at its core is just someone doing something nice for you. It takes many forms. The most common is people leaving food or water on the trail. I'll just list a bunch that I have encountered.

Got a ride from the owner of the doyle to a grocery store. Flicker gave me some water from his supply. A guy today gave me a beer, he was carrying a cooler up the hill to the shelter I was just napping in. Found a cooler full of bananas and soda, another cooler with soda and chips, both today. Then in my bonus hike today, just some bottles of water on a rock. The best trail magic was in New Jersey when blue bandana make jamie and I pancakes and Orange juice.

There are other kind of trail magic ish things. Often hikers will abandon food or gear in shelters or even just in the middle of the trail. Leaving something in a shelter I'm ok with. They are well traveled and tended by volunteers. Leaving your stuff in the middle of the trail just seems lazy. If you didn't want that oatmeal chances are no one else does and you are just leaving trash on the trail. When Mike and Phil were here we found a nearly empty fuel can for a stove at the shelter. A person can rationalize, hey I'm giving free fuel to hikers. But he is really just leaving trash for someone else to carry out. We used up the fuel, and Phil packed the empty can out.

Who is responsible for all that magic?  A mix of people, trail volunteers, ex hikers, friends of hikers, current hikers coming back on the trail. Anyone who wants to get a little piece of AT joy.

I hope the trail magic keeps coming.