“Don’t do what you can… do what you can’t.” I was struck by this line. Someone said it in the podcast we were listening to this afternoon. The reason it made me pause was because of how much it applies to life. So often we settle for mediocrity citing adversity or even impossibility as our reasons for not pushing forward. For me in this moment, there are times when this trail seems almost unobtainable – especially when my body is tired. Fear surrounds upcoming challenges, particularly the Whites. However, if there was no threat of failure, there would be no pride in the victory. We must be bold and take risks in life, we must attempt to do what we “can’t”.
On a lighter note, apparently what I “can’t” do is wake up on time. I suckered Warthog into an extra ten or fifteen minutes this morning before I had to get moving. We still made it out of camp at our goal time, so I don’t feel too bad about it.
We had to cover about five miles to reach a road where we hitched into town. It was a longer hitch than normal. The town was only a few miles away. Unfortunately, the grocery store was a few more miles beyond town yet. The guy who stopped was generous and happily took us. We offered him money for going out of his way because it was a long hitch, but he refused to accept. We had to stop here, we all desperately needed to resupply.
We were standing outside of the store having just finished breaking down our food, when all of a sudden a couple walked up and offered us a gift card. They apparently returned something but the store wouldn’t give them cash back. They said they were from out of town and wouldn’t be able to use it. It’s a $36- card, we were excited to get it! Even though we were all set for this resupply, we will hit many more towns with a Hannaford. It’ll be put to good use.
It took forever to get a ride from the grocery store back into town. It was seriously something like thirty minutes. We stood at the side of the road with our thumbs out for a long time. Finally I said, let’s pick up Wonder Woman and she can throw her thumb out. We did and it made a lot of people laugh. That’s the biggest thing I think, get people to acknowledge you and smile. Our third time trying it, a man stopped.
We asked where to get a good burger and Dan (our hitch) dropped us off at the local tavern. Literally no one was there. We were the first customers for the day. The service wasn’t awesome, but the food was amazing. I had a chicken club sandwich that surpassed all expectations. Everyone else had burgers and were very happy. It was the kind of delicious food that made the table go quiet. You know what I’m talking about.
After lunch we tried to hitch out of town and weren’t having any luck. What to do? Walk back down and get ice cream. I got a Brooklyn Egg Cream, basically a mix between a chocolate soda and float. It was even better than the club. Warthog got a macchiato and a scoop of ice cream. We sat outside in the shade enjoying our treat. When all was gone and it was far too late, we decided to try our luck again hitching out. The second car to come along stopped for us. His name was Sam.
Sam had never picked up hitchhikers before. “But,” he said, “I have friends that do it all the time so I thought, why not?” Sam seemed like he was going through a transition stage. He was helping another friend move out to Colorado. In fact, he was leaving in just a few hours to do that. He has plans to move into New York City for a job. He’ll be living with a friend there and won’t have a lease so if it doesn’t work, he can come back. Finally, he told us of his plans to eventually open a business in Connecticut. We wondered what had just happened in his life, because he had that sort of motivated “let’s change things” demeanor when he spoke, the kind people get after a big life event. He was a neat guy to meet and we thanked him repeatedly for the ride.
Funny story; when Sam stopped he asked where we were headed. Like an idiot, I responded with, “Do you know that really big oak tree?” Since he was a local I expected he would know this tree. Apparently I was wrong. So there’s this tree, it’s estimated to be approximately 300 years old. The AT crosses right by it. It also happens to sit right on the road. In fact, the road itself is named after the tree. So I guess it shouldn’t be all that absurd that I assume he knew where a really big, old oak tree was. When got him there. It was straight shot back to downtown. Now he just needed to get himself to Colorado and us to Maine.
It was mid to late afternoon when we got back on the trail. We still had a goal of covering twelve miles. We hiked next to an old wooden water tower, through cow pastures, over railroads (complete with a platform for riders going to NYC), in front of a plant nursery that welcomes hikers to hangout, and finally, back into the woods. The afternoon wasn’t too bad. It was just so late in the day that we would have gotten into camp at 9:30p. We stopped four miles short at a shelter. It allowed us to make dinner and set up camp with sunlight. Tomorrow we will have to hike almost twenty three miles to make up for our short day, but I think we can do it.
Hiker friends were at the shelter, old and new. We met a section hiker named, “Magnet”, today. There was something about her spirit that I liked. We talked for a while and sat around the table until night fell and it was time to go to bed. The shelter is busy and tents are everywhere. One thing I like about camping away from shelters is the privacy. However, there is convenience to having water readily available and a privy nearby. With hopes of an early take off, we will need all of the conveniences we can get.
I am bummed we didn’t hit our goal tonight, but town was a lot of fun. I’m thankful for our time in it this afternoon. It’s worth an extra long day tomorrow… I think. I’ll let you know tomorrow night I guess. Goodnight!
-Ansel