Thurday 4th September - Sunday 14th September

Distance Covered: 86.1 miles
Distance to Finish: 1181.1 miles

Melissa Sunshine offered to slack-pack (drop us off at the trail with a light pack then meet us where we finish to drive us home) us for 2 days. This was music to our ears, the thought of walking 32 miles over 2 days with virtually nothing in the pack, having had a fry-up for breakfast made us nearly weep with joy. To finish a days hike and have a couple of pints after a shower was also a lovely treat. Once again Sunshine, we thank you for your empathy and hospitality.

The send off was jolly, having spent nearly 2 weeks on her farm we had become good friends and very fond of Manchester in Vermont. Duffy as an Arsenal fan couldn't believe he'd ever utter the words 'I'm loving Manchester!'

We managed a good solid mile the day we were dropped off due to adverse weather conditions. The drizzle just seemed too much to take on, especially given the hangover due to the previous night's farewell barbeque.

We had been told by Sunshine to visit the Irish Pub which serves the best Guinnes for miles around and she duly gave us enough for a pint each. On one condition however, we had to hike to the shelter that was 2 miles away from the pub. It was about a mile off the trail and after a 16 mile day we arrived at nightfall for a hot meal and a few Guinness' We set off for a cold midnight hike with our 'beer coats' on, not without a few wobbles and remarkably arrived at the shelter in one piece. Thankfully there was nobody else staying at the shelter. If it was full we would have been forced to hike to the next one which was a 3 hour hike away and so a huge sigh of relief was uttered when we arrived.

The next 2 days hiking was done on much warmer andmore humid days, due to the tropical depression soaring through America thanks to hurricane Ike. That, coupled with the shock to the system of hiking over steeper more mountainous terrain again rendered us exhausted by the end of the day. To make matters worse, as we were all nighthiking at the end of the night Duffy and Tom missed the shelter. So they had to hike a mile or so until they reached some flat ground where they rolled out their mattresses and decided to risk sleeping in the open, rather than hike back uphill to the shelter. If it rained in the middle of the night, they'd have to get up and walk. I'm sure many of you wished it rained that night but unfortunately it didn't and they awoke with delight to another reasonably warm morning.

26 miles was the ambitious plan for the day but unfortunately that didn't materialise. We made good pace in the morning but got seperated in the afternoon when the rain came. Charlie was supposed to hike past the turning for the first shelter, then stop for lunch at the next one, where Duffy and Tom were waiting for him. He didn't look at the sign which said the first shelter was 0.6 miles off the trail, so with his head down he went off to a shelter that was rarely used, with an overgrown trail leading to it.

Only when he arrived confused as to why it was so far off the trail, did he consult the guidebook which informed him he had walked to the wrong shelter, also adding a mile and a half to his journey. He also managed to get lost on his return walk and so for hours wandered around trying to find the trail path leading back to the A.T. Meanwhile Duffy and Tom were very confused, hoping he wasn't injured or hiked on past while they were waiting at the intended rest stop. So they decided to hike onto West Hartford where there was a deli selling a vast array of hot sandwiches and pizza. This was actually on the trail itself, a hikers dream!

So after 15 miles behind us we arrived and got stuck into some good old fish n chips. The owners were friendly and allowed us to wait on their porch for Charlie to rock up once they'd shut up shop. It soon got dark, leaving Tom and Duffy baffled as to Charlies whereabouts, had he hiked onto Hanover at some point passing them when they were just off the trail? Had he injured himself? Thus deciding to stay at the shelter they were just at? Options were to hike onto the next shelter for hours in the dark and rain or set up camp in the village somewhere.

Another option came to them which they duly took up with gusto which was to take a taxi to Hanover where Charlie must be! It was raining after all, and one can't possibly hike in the rain at night! Charlie couldn't possibly be behind, so they duly went and booked a taxi and decided to hike this section when they returned to Manchester after finishing the Northern section of the trail.

It would be an hour and a half wait as it was quite a remote village and would cost 20 dollars. After about an hour we see approaching us from afar, wearing a pink rain jacket of course, Charlie. How on Earth had he managed that?! He duly informed the others of his ordeal, which was how he got lost at the wrong shelter. He also injured his achilles, therefore slowing him down considerably as well as suffering from severe chaffage on his wedding tackle thus giving him the only option of hiking in the nude underneath his pink overcoat because the chaffing was caused by the shorts.

He was cheered up dramatically when he found a sandwich waiting for him, and the news of an impending taxi. On a more sombre note, it wasn't looking good on the injury front. In the past week Tom's left knee was giving him grief, Duffy too had even worse knee trouble since he felt 'go' on one of the slack packs. Typical how he's walked 900 miles with a pack and without one on he injures himself. Now Charlie too had hurt his achilles. However, it would take far more than this to get them off the trail, they are after all men of the mountains now. So off they went to buy some ibuprofen. Whilst in town, Duffy managed to catch a game of American football. Entry was free due as it was a prep game for the coming season's opener in a weeks time.

Tom had been suffering from diarrhoea for several days too. It wasn't getting better and so he went to see the doctors who informed him it was most likely giardia. The virus originates from raccoons faeces and the symptoms can be very severe. So a course of anti biotics was prescribed to get rid of the parasite.

The White Mountains and Maine are now summoning us. This section is notorious amongst the trail goers as the harshest, most challenging and also most beautiful part of the trail. The climbs will be rocky and steep, mainly around 4 to 6,000 feet and the weather can be very windy, wet and cold at this time of year. We have 440 miles to complete by the 15th October. By the 15th wee have to journey into Canada and back to get our visas extended. Not many people complete this section in 30 days, though it has been done by a few Southbounder's that we've spoken to so it isn't too unreasonable a target to aim for. We need an injury free spell and weather permitting we'll finish in time.