[at-l] Report from Thanksgiving trip

[rockdancer97 at comcast.net (Arthur Gaudet)]

Trip Report
Lowell, MA to Hampton, TN (Kincora)
Reason: Thanksgiving dinner with friends, see southbounders, give them some hats
Score (of 100): 75

The medium score is a reflection of some difficulties that I came up against,
and not the hospitality & friendship of those I met along the way. It's just
that I was a bit optimistic about my physical limitations and the combination of
long distance driving, sleeping on different surfaces (woods, bunk beds, etc.)
and fatigue from some short hikes wore on me. I'm feeling much better now that
I've had a chance to unpack, cleanup, rest & recover.

I gave away 22 hats during this trip, many of them at Miss Janet's where the
meal prep was in full swing when I arrived. It was a delight to have Chase
Davidson along with me on the short trip from Kincora, and also to meet up with
Sloetoe & his boys who were there for the meal. Filming was in full swing at
Miss J's, I think it's a documentary re: the AT. My contribution was some
mundane talk about making the fleece hats. 

The meal at Kincora was fabulous, with 12 or 13 for dinner. One hiker, Memphis,
strolled in near the end and he was pretty pleased with the feast laid out.
"Anxious" was in the company of 3 friends from southern Michigan, hiking
sections with him. Sly (from this list), Cheryl, Seiko were all attending. The
stuffed mushrooms were excellent once again, thanks Pat!

Friday post feast was a short hike to Laurel Falls. This was my second chance to
use the hiking poles, and I think they're going to be a big help with getting
back out there. I stumbled a lot on rocks, but didn't take any falls - saved by
the extra two points on the ground. Saturday was the beginning of the long drive
back to Lowell, with a rest taken in Harpers Ferry.

All in all it was a worthwhile test for me to take this trip. I needed a change
of scenery, and some new thoughts from the trip may help guide my recovery. In
the meantime I want to thank Willow for helping out with making hats this year.
They were welcomed as usual, with a slightly jaded look or attitude, it seems.
As I explain to the SoBo's what I'm doing they look over the hats, as if to
evaluate if they're worth the price (free). They must get so little "trail
magic" because they are hiking late in the season. And they don't often have
necessary cold weather gear with them. They've been hiking all summer, into the
fall, so they didn't have to prepare the way the northbound hikers did when
starting early Spring. The temps in TN have started to fall and they've already
had some light flurries on the high ridges. The night-time temps at Thanksgiving
were around 15 F at Kincora. So, the hikers take a chance, grab a hat and then
head out for the last 400 miles of the trail, over a 6000+ foot peak, to
Springer. I sometimes get messages back about what a difference the hat's make
to their trip. Feels good.

This is year 5 in this project of buying remnant fleece and distributing hats.
The hat count has reached 200 as of this year, distributed to friends, local Boy
Scouts, AT-L hikers(for donations) and the SoBo hikers on the AT. This began
with $20 seed money and the rest has been funded with donations since. This year
I've run out of fleece so yesterday I headed to the Malden Mills factory once
more and returned with 25 lbs of fleece. Since a finished hat weighs about 2
ounces this purchase should hold me for awhile.

--RockDancer aka Arthur Gaudet