the NEXT big thing

winter gets me down.

don't get me wrong. the winters down here are way mild compared to those of new england. daytime lows rarely drop below 40, and in the sun it can still be downright balmy. but it's definitely winter. and winter gets me down.

which starts the chain of thoughts that leads to my non-traditional lifestyle. namely, long distance self-propelled travelling.

john and i moved to asheville with the intention of escaping the northern climes of our youths, enjoying the community of a hippie town, and putting down temporary roots while we planned our next adventure; plans are in the works. i hesitate to write them down, because, notoriously plans change, especially when they are as far off as these, but they are so exciting, and writing them makes them feel more real.

the short-hand version is "PCT 2012." gotta get it in before the world ends, obviously. the longer version is more exciting, tho. our goal currently is to leave asheville early (possibly as early as Jan 1) 2012, and head south by bicycle, escaping the cold mountains for the beaches of south carolina, georgia, and florida. travel all the way to key west (the southernmost city in all the continental US), and then make our way (by bicycle, of course) across the southern portions of this country to SoCal, probably closely tracing the route mapped by adventure cycling. all told, we should arrive in Cali with comfortable time enough to ship our bikes up to BC and make our lives once again about walking.

of course when we finish the PCT we plan to continue travelling, but where exactly and to what end is not allowed to be on the radar yet. that's just too far off. but with skill and forethought we're hoping to make this next trip last upwards of 2 years, ideally even longer.

so the question becomes: can we convince ourselves to stay put for that long? 2 years is longer than i've lived in any one home since moving out of my parents house at the start of college nearly 8 years ago (actually i believe the current record is held by a dover, nh apartment at 15 months), and i'm obviously already feeling the itch, considering how much planning i find myself doing for a trip that's supposedly 24 months away. lately my average seems to be about 6 months in one place or doing one thing, which will only get me a quarter of the way there.

anyway that's our current plan for the next big thing. assuming we can wait that long.

i've got a bike you can ride it if you like

first order of business upon arrival to asheville: finding adequate modes of transportation. john and i both vowed, somewhat coinciding with the time line of our at hikes, not to own cars anymore. this worked out fine for me living in boston, and fine for him living in new york, but the rest of the world is hardly so self-propelled/public transit friendly.

living in boston, everything i could conceivably need was within easy walking or bus/train riding distance. my mile walk to and from work passed a grocery store, the laundromat was around the corner, as were all manner of restaurants, and let's face it, there wasn't much else i wanted. there were many a time i took 2 hr walks to get to a luncheon date, enjoyed a meal, and walked the 2 hrs back home--but this was for pleasure, not ever out of necessity. after walking for 8+ hrs/day for 6 months straight, walking for the better part of a day doesn't feel like a waste of time.

moving to asheville sight unseen was risky, given my commitment to not owning a car. that, and the fact that i didn't own a bike or any other means of transportation other than my shoes (which were brand new thanks to an awesome return policy from patagonia!). but, with some generous help from chaco and wak, john and i were both able to procure cheap old 10-speeds at reasonable prices. my bike is a red schwinn world, with a white water bottle cage and white handlebar tape. it looks pretty awesome.

biking in asheville is moderately challenging, because it's so mountainous, and there are a few places that are less than convenient to get to (i'm thinking of crossing the french broad to get over to west asheville, specifically), but generally speaking it is a very manageable town. so far my coveting of 4 wheeled rapid transport is mostly connected to my coveting of freecycle furniture that requests "must be picked up today." biking up to the real mountains for a hiking trip is also self limiting: by the time you get reasonably out of town you've already climbed over 2000 feet, and you're downright exhausted. this is, in part, a result of the quality of our bikes. but it also means we don't have to travel far for bicycle based entertainment: a 7 mile climb out of town means a 7 mile descent back down.

when it began, choosing to be self propelled meant having less impact on the world. i'm finding, tho, even more important, it is a way for me to remain present in my life. it's hard to remember that the journey is the destination when you're trapped inside a car, zooming to a destination, or stuck cursing in traffic, separated from the rest of the world; travel becomes only the means to an end. being forced to ride a bike to get anywhere (everywhere) reminds me daily that it's important to slow down and appreciate all the moments, because they are ALL part of life. and no matter how grumpy i am when i wake up in the morning and have to go to work (and believe me, i can be a grumpy ass grump in the morning) by the time i get to the hospital, after 15 minutes of pedaling hard and wind in my face, i couldn't feel better. rainy days included.

southern living

it's been a long time since i've posted on this blog, and recent updates in blogosphere (namely maury's blog resurrection) caused me sufficient blog envy as to push me back into blogging mode. there are a lot of things i've been meaning to catalog, and for as many things to write i've had as many excuses.

turns out excuses are lame. so i'm writing again!

first and foremost, i've moved to the south. and i'm not talking connecticut, it's technically new england but not really, "south." i'm not even talking delaware, the state no one (except my great-aunt, apparently, and john's parents' beach house) actually lives, "south." i'm talking several states south of the mason dixon line, south. i'm talking, if someone passes you in the street and you make eye contact get ready for a half hour conversation, south. i'm talking grits loving, barbeque loving, tempeh loving south.

wait... did i just say "tempeh loving south"? OH, yeah, that's right, i moved to asheville: hippie capital of the south east.

asheville is beautiful. for those of you who don't know, it's up in the mountains of western north carolina (wnc), about 40 miles north east of the great smokey mountains national park. it's far enough south that it doesn't suffer from debilitating winters that last 6 months, but high enough in the mountains that it still boasts beautiful fall foliage and occasional snow storms (that melt the same day). but don't let that fool you. i didn't move here for the weather... (or did i?)

asheville is one of the most progressive towns in the south. many of it's 70,000 inhabitants are transplants from around the country, drawn to the open, free spirit and insane amounts of street musicians. oh, and did i mention vegan food? yeah, they have that here. lots of it.

asheville is the kind of town that felt like home as soon as i arrived, which is impressive for a native new englander in a southern town. don't get me wrong, the southern stereotype is alive and strong in the surrounding communities (i come into contact with them a great deal at work), and no doubt this is the buckle of the bible belt, but people don't look at me funny if i'm wearing my patch pants walking around town, or question that i don't own a car and ride my bike everywhere for transportation, and dug up my whole back yard to make a vegetable garden, and *gasp* don't eat animal products. who wouldn't love a town that has a drum circle downtown every friday night, a bike recyclery where you can get free help and advice on fixing your bike, and unbelievably cheap parts (both new and used), a local whole foods type grocery store that sells bulk tofu for $1.79/lb, a thriving artists community and downtown art scene, and street musicians on every corner? well, i'm sure there are people who wouldn't love that, but i do!

so i'm settling up for a while. two years of travelling and living with one foot out the door is enough for a while.* besides, i'm out of dough. time to re-try my had at the domesticated arts and nesting.

*this is my current opinion and is subject to change without notice

journey's end

to fill in the final details:

the evening in johnson was filled with an open mic concert out in the town park, complete with a town drunkard's rendition of "rockin' robin" and highschool death metal garage band.

we hitched in the dark back out to the trail, and walked up a road about a mile to prospect rock, which apparently was a cool spot to the locals, since there were "no camping" and "no partying" signs up everywhere, tho honestly i was nonplussed. we camped there, because it was late and it was going to rain.

eventually we made it to the road crossing for eden, vt, which is a town made of a general store and a highway. there is an rv campground not far up the road, that let us set up a tent, take showers, and do laundry all for a total of $20, which is pretty good. the owner was a very nice woman who just happened to be a little crazy, also. she gave us a ride back to the trail the next morning, and was very firm in letting us know that we were about to hike the MOST difficult part of the entire long trail (the 10 miles between eden and hazen's notch, over belvidere mtn), and that we should be aware that it would take us no less than 2 full days, and that should we find it too hard we could take this or this blue blaze to a road with people where we could call her and she would come pick us up. oh, and also, if it rained she wouldn't let us leave her campground.

so we crossed our fingers that it wouldn't rain, since obviously we didnt want to have that argument, and made it to hazen's notch by 1pm the next day (after about 4 hrs of hiking). perhaps because of her goading, or perhaps because we were just ready for real showers and cotton clothes, we decided the last 30 miles, which we planned to hike in 3 days, were definitely going to be a 2 day hike.

and so on saturday we embarked on an 18 mile sprint to the finish, up and over jay peak (which may have actually been the hardest climb on the whole long trail), where we unexpectedly encountered bathrooms with running water and had a washing and drying party of unsurpassed awesomeness. and after hauling through several 3+mph miles, at less than 1/4 mile from the finish, on a slab of algae coverered wet rock, in downpouring rain, my feet decided they didn't want to be under me anymore and the next thing i knew my head had collided with something that was decidedly not air. john was terrified, i didn't really know what had happened, but apparently i was bleeding from my head (just above my left eye) and my hip was pretty messed up as well.

so after getting cleaned up, i hobbled to the finish, we took some mediocre 'summit' photos, and then limped the last .6mi to journey's end camp, where we cooked dinner and went to bed.

then what should have been an epic hitch-hiking journey began, but instead, we got a first car hitch with another hiker back to his car (about 20 miles south on the trail in hazen's notch), and he drove us nearly the entire length of the state of vermont back south to bennington.

and then we got a 3rd car hitch to my parent's house and now i'm getting kicked off the computer.

but we're home and neither of us are dead! hurrah!

johnson, vt

two town days in a row. awesome.

so we managed to delay hiking until about 530 last night, and then walked 3.4 miles to a pond on top of the smuggler's notch ski mountain...which was awesome. then we explored the warming hut .1mi away, to find it filled with garbage and totally disgusting (although someone did bring a large amount of rope and hang a couch from the ceiling...that was interesting). so we decided to cowboy out on the top of the ski hill, and had only been settled in for, maybe, 10 minutes, when i thought i saw lightening out of the corner of my eye...we all know how i feel about that.

so i stared at the horizon for 15 minutes or so, and saw nothing, gave up and decided to get back to getting to sleep, when john thought HE saw lightning. so then we BOTH stared at the horizon until we were able to confirm that neither of us was crazy, and we both saw lighening at the same time. and then we packed up our stuff and night hiked to the .3 miles to the nearest shelter, which was a fee site ($5 each). sort of a bummer, especially considering it didn't rain at all overnight, and we had to shell out $10 to sleep on the floor of a pretty crummy shelter, listen to mice eat the caretaker's food, and the section hiker's snoring.

oh, but then the caretaker said he would make us pancakes for breakfast as a special thru-hiker trail magic treat...which he did, but we had to wait around for nearly an hour for him to wake up (which was a bummer, given our desire to start hiking early and beat the heat), and then add to that, they were probably the grossest pancakes ever created and consumed by a human being (i venture to guess...i imagine if ever worse pancakes were created, they were most certainly not consumed but rather turned into trash or compost as they rightfully deserved to be).

in any event, we managed to climb the two small mountains in our way and make it down to johnson, vt, where we have so far spent about 2 hrs trying desperately to avoid the heat and eat food. guess how hot!? keep in mind, this is vermont, and practically canada:

94

yup. that's only 4 degrees colder than blue ridge parkway death heat.

on the plus side, tuesday is apparently the coolest day ever to be in johnson, because there is a farmer's market at 4, then a free open mic concert at 630, then bluegrass at the local pub/pizzeria in the evening.

oh, and we're only 50 miles from canada.

stowe, vt

it's been hot. not quite death heat hot, but hot, none-the-less.

we walked for a couple days over the tallest mountain in vermont, also known as mt. mansfield, and the home of stowe ski resort. pretty awesome day for it, sunny, clear, warm, etc, but the haze was so bad we couldn't even see back the 30 miles or whatever it was to camels hump, where we had been only a couple days earlier. supposedly we should have been able to see all the way to canada from there.

so last night we slept at the picnic area just down the hill from smuggler's notch, and are now spending the day in stowe, vt, where everything is overpriced and touristy. things are so overpriced, in fact, that we're NOT going to ride the alpine slides. at $20 each a ride, it stops being awesome and starts being a total rip-off.

i bought a sweet pair of socks to put on my pack shoulder straps to protect my bare shoulders from the abrasive heat induced pain they've been suffering. that's a picture of them there, with the bear. and i think our plan is to hike out of town tonight after dark, to avoid the heat of the day. something like 3ish miles up to sterling pond shelter. maybe spend the rest of the day today avoiding the heat in a movie theater...we already had thai food, which was my main town objective.

one week left til canada.

waterbury, vt

back on the trail again. we hiked over camels hump yesterday, which was a pretty awesome climb to an amazing 360 degree view of the green mountains. the hike down was LOOOOONG (we just passed the lowest point on the entire LT at 36o ish ft at the winooski river). tomorrow, or perhaps the next day, we pass the highest point on the entire trail, mt mansfield, which apparently is shaped like a face, and the peaks of it are so named (the forehead, the chin, the nose, the adams apple).

today we are in waterbury, where we will eat thai food, resupply, do laundry, and look like bums. we officially have less than 100 miles to go, and current plans put us in canada around the 23rd or 24th of this month. that's 10 days from now, and an average of 10mpd. awesome.

saranac lake, ny

detour!!

so long trail fest was pretty awesome, complete with homemade oversized slip'n'slide and gelatin off ramp, and some psycho threatening to kill everyone with a pick ax and burn down all our tents...

so this guy's a total creep, camping right next to us, giving everybody scary looks and not capable of normal conversation, yet wearing a gmc polo with gmc patches and at patches etc, supposedly a ridge runner somewhere, and right outside his tent is parked a giant pick ax. and then later that night this thru-hiker from french canadia named julien decided in his drunken state that it would be a good idea to jump over this guy's tent. ok so he does successfully jump the tent, but not without knocking the cross pole with his foot and clearly distrubing the crazy dude resting inside. so the crazy dude climbs out of his tent, grabs his pick ax, wields it like a weapon, and says, 'who f*cked with my tent?!' serveral times in a row, then threatens to kill whoever f*cked with his tent, then threatens to burn down all our tents if we don't tell him who f*cked with his tent. so lumpy gets up and trys to mellow the guy down, and then a crowd of guys get up and sort of surround him and try to talk him down, then john trys to lead him over to the check point where the event organizer is hanging out, and as soon as he turns his back on the dude he raises his ax again like he's about to swing it into john's back. so needless to say the crowd of guys around him quickly (and quite impressively i might add) remove the ax from him and pin him on the ground.

long story short, he was eventually escorted to the twelve tribes for the night, not allowed back to the party the next day, but instead layed down outside the entrance ALL day 'waiting for his boss' to show up, who apparently fired him, and then somehow got a ride back to some place in connecticut. apparently also, he's some kind of witch and none of this would have happened if he'd 'had his crystals with him' (this is rumor coming from when he stayed at 12 tribes).

but slip'n'slide was awesome, and so was the rest of the festival, and then neon and cc showed up and we chilled, and then they drove us to the adirondacks where we spent a zero hiking 15 miles over the tallest mtn in new york (mt. marcey) and along avalanche lake through avalanche pass, which was totally amazing (the peak sucked, but only bc we were stuck in a cloud).

important info: slip'n'slide is a serious ab work out (who knew?) and all of our abs are incredibly sore, which is trouble when you're hanging out with three of your best friends, because you can't actually laugh without discomfort.

tonight i believe the plan is to head back to vermont, camp by clarendon gorge, (which we bypassed on our hike this year due to laziness and convenience) and then go to some apparently amazing pancake place, where i will be dearly tempted from my veganism with 'the best pancakes on earth.'

and then, swear to god. i'm actually gonna start hiking towards canada again.

waitsfield, vt

so a lot's happened:

we went to the bromely thrill zone, where i totally crushed the alpine slides. we only rode once, due to cost, but also due to impending thunderstorms for which they kept shutting down the lift. then we walked up the ski trail to the top of bromley and played around on the ski lifts, ate some left-overs from the green mountain house and then watched the sunset from the lookout tower.

we walked from there to big branch shelter the next day, which is the same hike i did a year prior, only this time without the rain and impending death and doom. no trudging through ankle deep standing water, or walking over a ridge with lightening crashing all around. needless to say, this time was much nicer. on the way, at peru peak shelter, we ran into sam and darcey, aka swami and duckfeet, with whom john hiked last year, who are now working for the GMC leading trail maintenance crews.

we camped right by the river that night, and here's the crazy story from that: so chance apparently has been practicing swinging some stress balls around on string with he intention of 'eventually lighting them on fire.' so obviously we just convinced him that that night was the eventually he had been waiting for (even though he'd only been working on it for 3 days and still frequently hit himself wih them). so we soaked the balls in white gas and waited for darkness, then had him swing them around while standing on a rock in the river. that was fun, but ended pretty quick, after the strings got tangled and one of them was burned through. the fireball flung straight up, and landed on the rock and rolled into the river, so luckily there were no casualties.

eventually we landed in rutland, and stayed at the twelve tribes hostel, which was fun, but only for a night. i got a creepy 'women are slaves' vibe from them, and also, they actually make you work for your work for stay, which is not so great for the relaxation part of a zero. the highlights of the rutland series of zeroes include: long trail brewery, thai star, pico peak alpine slides, meeting a thru-hiker's town girl who drove up from palmerton and turns out went to the same college and graduated the same class as john.

and then we were no longer on the AT.

and to make a long story short: we accidentally took a blue blaze off of breadloaf mountain, and didn't realize it til we'd already walked nearly 2 miles down, when we were supposed to be up on the ridge. needless to say we had to truncate that day, which ended in us staying with bobcat (AT '07) here in waitsfield. she put up last night and now tonight, and today slacked us between lincoln gap and appalachian gap, only 11 miles, but not a very easy walk. the stretch goes over sugarbush and mad river glen ski resorts, which are the 5 or so peaks of lincoln mtn, and gen. stark mtn., respectively.

tomorrow will see us to burlington for a day, and then down to rutland (again) for the start of the long trail festival. secret surprise in store for those making the trek!! can't wait!!

manchester center, vt

so about an hour after my last post from bennington, johnny and i were hanging out in the outfitter in bennington, waiting for a bike to return to go grocery shopping, when chance walks in and says, 'you guys wanna go get a beer at the brew pub while i wait for my bus?' of course, we do. and on the way there, chance explains his need for the bus:

giant trail magic party up in manchester (a $2 bus ride from bennington, the next trail town north) being thrown by rainman and ahab, both of whom johnny had done trail magic for before in the south. as we're walking, john says to me, 'don't let me get on the bus to manchester,' to which i reply, 'why not?? what do we have stopping us'

fast forward 2 hrs, and we're sitting in the back of an enterprise rent-a-van with 20 other hikers on our way to rainman's parents' house, were a party 40 strong (it had been 60 the night before) was playing croquet, cooking absurd amounts of food, and watching movies such as life of brian, home alone, superbad, super troopers, etc.

and so, instead of a town day in bennington, we spent a town day in bennington and manchester. and seeing as we were already in a trail town, instead of riding back to bennington to hike back to manchester, we just got right on trail and hiked south. yes, that's right, i hiked south.

we blue-blazed out of town to prospect rock (on a trail i learned about last year from zack and mike from connecticut), and then went swimming in stratton pond before camping for the night. the next day, up and over stratton mtn, birthplace of the AT, where once again i was inside a cloud; the day did clear up tho, and ended up being really beautiful, which was good since we walked over 18 miles! (in one day...we're supposed to be taking our time!!) to goddard shelter. we met a sweet southbounder named ledge that day, who had spent the previous year bicycling over 20,000 miles, and had arrived at big k via bicycle, and was planning on returning to ontario by bicycle after he arrived at springer. he's an ecologist from ohio state who is currently on sabbatical and thinks he might just never go back to working... OH, and, he is old friends with wasabi, wookie's best friend from home who started the hike with him. so when we made it to bennington we had beers with him, lost rob (who was famous for being lost for 4 days with no food or water in the okefenokee swamp back in 2008), and a weekend hiker who gave us a ride back into town, then caught the bus back to manchester.

we spent last night at the green mountain house, the hostel in manchester that opened last year, and we're planning on spending our day today at the bromley thrill zone before hiking out to the top of bromley mountain, and saying at the warming hut. check it out! they have zip lines, alpine slides, a water slide (the longest in vermont), mini-golf, a giant swing, and a trampoline thing! hiking is my favorite!

bennington, vt

it may only be our second day on the actual long trail, but you can never have too many town days...

our first night out we cowboyed on top of mt greylock, woke up with the sun and the dew falling around 5am, and made it to the williamstown stop & shop before 9am. that afternoon, set up camp in the rain, only to discover this monster of a tent we are carrying is too large to fit on a standard wooden tent platform. it rained all night our second night out, ensuring that the vermont/mass border would be as muddy as we remembered it.

it was. a giant mud pit surrounded by and filled with rocks. vermont, some things never change.

we are now in bennington, our first official town day on the long trail (yes, only one day in...) staying with chris and arla, trail angels who open their house and barn for hikers to stay and chill.

oh, and fyi, long trail festival in rutland, be there or be square.

the beginning of the long trail

circumstances being what they may, i have not updated my blog in ages. here's a quick recap of the last 2 months of my life:

• got diagnosed with mono while staying with a friend in orange county, ca
• flew home that night on the red-eye to boston
• stayed in bed at my parent's house for nearly a month
• got tonsilitis so bad i couldn't eat
• got liver inflammation that gave me jaundice and misery
• fell in love
• spent a week in nyc
• found out delaware really exists
• sobo'd the the monadnock-sunapee greenway trail in nearly constant rain
• spent some time with my 95 year old gramma
• acquired a monster blister at the most rediculous italian wedding ever
• served hotcake to a funk of thru-hikers at tom lovardi's in dalton

and that just about puts me to here. johnny thunder and i are leaving today from cheshire, mass to hike up and over greylock as the official beginning of our long trail thru-hike, which will hopefully take 5 weeks and no less (which is a LONG time to hike 300 miles). wish us luck!

los angeles, ca

well, now that arizona is behind me...

some highlights:

• wind that melts your skin
• "enjoy the cool weather" and "it's really not that bad out there today" re: 90 degree days
  
• 'misters' spraying water over outside patio seating...in a desert...
• getting accepted to volunteer at dandelion farm
• last minute cancellation of ALL plans
• it's my bike in a box!
• NOT buying new clothes (i'm so awesome)
  
• migraine headache that had me passed out on the bathroom floor for hours
• gender stereotypes and new state mottos
  
• 1am train with migraine hangover to LA

i arrived in LA at around 9am after (mostly) sleeping off the remainder of the migraine on the train. then i ordered some maps to be delivered to tyler's place (pronto!), half-assedly put the bike back together, then took it back apart to put it in tyler's car, dropped it off at a bike shop to have it tuned up once again, and bought myself some soymilk, bananas, and a mango. i'm pretty sure the best ever cure for hypotonic dehydration is banana mango mash with a glass of soy milk. oh, also, it's delicious.

so i'm in LA for the weekend, mostly on my own, since unfortunatly tyler is hosting his mom and they're going to be in palm springs until monday. my bike won't be ready to go until monday evening, and tho there's a chance my maps will be here tomorrow it's far more likely not til tuesday am, so best case scenario i'll be riding north starting the 26th. apparently, there's a constant headwind riding north up the california coast. that sounds awesome.

taking it easy

my bike made it all the way to arizona

that's one bad ass bike.

albuquerque, nm

the bike ride to damascus from maury's ended up being 108 miles, which was awesome, especially considering i didn't have any weight (well, nearly) on the bike. maury carted all my stuff to trail days in the jeep. i thought initially that west virginia won, what with the rail trails and pretty scenery, but i've since determined that my favorite days are based on weather and not really anything else. virginia was my favorite biking. it is such beautiful country, and so nostalgic. and the 70 degree, sunny days don't hurt, either.

trail days came and went, and sunday morning at 8am maury and i left damascus in her jeep to make the long trek out to phoenix. we pulled into albuquerque this afternoon around 5ish (mountain time) after two LOOOOONG days on the road (yesterday we drove for a combined total of 16 hrs! to oklahoma city). with few exceptions (california at the age of 3, san francisco for a day with the parents back in highschool, and hawaii for 5 days) this is by far the farthest west i've ever been in this country, and most certainly the first time i've really felt like i got to experience it at all.

i went for a walk with aaron and the dogs in the mesa, surrounded, of course, by enormous death clouds of doom. aaron didn't know about my acquired lightning phobia, so we had a conversation that went like this:

"are we going to be murdered by lightning?" asks jess
"hopefully" replies aaron

groom, tx

a spiritual experience you'll never forget

mississippi river crossing

it's a long drive from virginia to oklahoma city. this is just one of the many exciting things you may be able to experience along the way.

virginia!!!!

this is the top of potts mtn. which was a pretty big climb, but more importantly, it was a HUGE descent. so so so much fun.

i'm in christiansburg with maury. tomorrow i'm hopefully riding to damascus. and that's it...wow.

thinking about tagging along with maury out to pheonix arizona... because why not!?

finally, a computer!

i feel like for some reason i've been computer deprived lately...

anyway, rode the rest of the greenbrier river trail to lewisburg, wv, today. now i'm at robin's house, where she showed me around town (which is very cute, and pretty progressive for west virginia) and finally got my ipod charged up and uploaded some photos.

turns out i didn't exactly regret the cowboy camping as much as not do it. i woke up at 2:30am to rain on my face (it had just started, and i'm pretty good at waking up when that happens) so i just got up real quick, set up my skeleton tent (just the fly and footprint) and then went right back to bed. it kept raining until about 9:15, when i decided to finally wake up, and just sort of spat at me for the rest of the day.
the trail is very pretty, i would totally recommend it to anyone. a couple of tunnels that make for interesting journey, since they are unlit, and you cannot see the ground when you ride through them.

virginia tomorrow! wooooo!