June 30 Bivouac

June 30 Wed

Last night the owner’s wife, her 2 sisters and their 7 children came for a visit now that the schools are out for the summer. They had 2 large SUV's, lots of food, games, and DVD's. One of the interesting things about Vinnie and Lew, was their habit of eating and then leaving around at various places half eaten bags of potato chips. The Inn, served as a get away place form NY, City for these families. And possibly a tax write off, but it clearly was their place in the country, an 8-hour drive from NY, City. I stopped at a convenience store and drank 840 calories of chocolate milk. YUMMM Today was my longest distance, hit 3 miles an hour maybe more on the road walks, the FLT has allot of road walking, where the AT has minimal. About 50% road today. I made a wrong turn at a 3-road junction and took the wrong road. Once discovered, I had gone too far to back track, so I had to angle over east and south to hit another road that would take me to the Bivouac spot shown on the map. I had to cross a large creek where a bridge was out -- the dilemma was to take my boots off and wade or walk up stream or down and find a place to cross on some rocks. I opted for the look for rocks, did not find them, started throwing rocks into the creek to make a crossing which I eventually did, I was unhappy about the length of time the project took, because it was clearly faster to take the boots off and wade -- however there is a moral to the story, as has happened several times now, things come together in a helpful way. I continued the road walk up a couple of long stretches. I saw on the map that there was a road, Brewer Rd that lead off my final dirt road and lead to the Bivouac. Area. As I topped a hill, there was a woman standing in the road looking at her flower, we talked, she told me there was a big swamp where I planned to Bivouac and that she knew that Brewer Rd was now private. I said that I would have to take the chance due to the lateness of the evening and my water supply. We also talked about hip replacements, she had her's last Dec. and I two years ago. I started off down the road with my plan in mind. She and her husband pulled up beside me and asked if I would like a ride down to the next FLT road crossing. I said yes, they were from this area, but live in Florida during the winters. Sure enough there was a sign on Brewer Rd clearing stating that the road was closed. They drove 4 miles, which would have been my walk of 1 1/2 hours; we did in 5 min's. There was a second Bivouac. area about .3 of a mile from the road crossing, which I hiked back to and set up camp. The moral is, TIMING, while I was kicking myself for taking so long to cross the creek, it worked out that the lady was in the road when I got there, there was really a small window of opportunity, and I came through that window. Oh, yea of little faith !!!!!!!!.