Last three East Coast Roadtripping memories

Here are three more tales from our summer trip that I think bear repeating.

AT Thru Hiker
On our way to Boston, we listned to a CD of Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods" about his experiences on the Appalacian Trail. Mostly it was entertaining for the whole family, although next time we will try to time it so that the part about the bears in campgrounds will not be playing as we pull into a campground in the dark, in the rain, and are greeted by the sign "WARNING: Bear activity last night!".  Or atleast we will hit pause before Bill gets into a history of bear maulings in the Eastern United States.  None of us slept overly well that evening. 

Other than that, the book was quite entertaining, and on the day (after the sleepless bear-fearing night) that we were going to hike a little on the AT, we were all kind of hoping that we'd run into a thru hiker.  Bryson had made his encounters with this unique breed of hiker seem so colorful and exciting, we wanted a piece of that action.

We got our wish.  After hiking up a lovely river for about an hour, we were just about to turn around when a man called to us from the river's other bank.  Wanted to know if we were on the AT.  We weren't quite there, but we knew where the paths connected.  He dashed across the stream to have a look at our map with Jon.  The boys and I stayed around a bend, chatting.  I admit, I was a little nervous when neither Jon nor the man appeared for a while.  But then Jon joined us, and so did the stranger.  Even though the AT was further up the trail, he had decided to walk down the way were going in hopes of finding a ride to town for some breakfast.  A ha!  We had heard about this from Bryson.  Here it was, happening to us.  Only we weren't going to the town he was aiming for, which brought us all much relief, as he had not showered for awhile. 

The hike down was entertaining indeed.  Despite his large pack, he was more than able to keep up with us and had enough breath to spare to tell us some tales.  This man had been in the woods for months and was not entirely 'politically correct'.  When he told us that he knew he was getting close to a trailhead parking lot when he found 'fat people' on the path, the boys looked at me with startled eyes.  Were we the fat people he spoke of?  I mean, we had been sitting in a car for days, eating not well, but fat?  Not yet.  Then we got closer to the trail head and came amongst larger groups of people out for short hikes.  Larger in numbers and size.  Our new pal appraised the 'hikers' around us, chortled and said loudly, "Now we are getting really really close!!".  Theo had to turn away and giggle to himself.   Once at the parking lot, our friend kept talking, and talking and talking.  Stories about staying in people's houses, getting rides, and about the general friendliness of strangers.  Clearly he was hinting.  Kept saying "I haven't gotten killed yet!" as he looked longingly at the car keys in Jon's hands.  We made it a point of talking loudly about how we were going to go squeeze into our little sedan and drive off in the opposite direction that he had said he wanted to go.  Then another story would start.  Eventually we made our get away.

Once in the car, one of the boys said, "Do you suppose that he hasn't been killed yet because maybe he's been doing the killing?"  I don't think so, but I'm glad we didn't find out, one way or the other.

TIPI!
One night we camped at a lovely state park in Vermont.  After setting up our tent, Eli went off to the bathroom.  When he came back, his eyes were large, and he stage whispered, "There's a man setting up a tipi next door."  Hmmm.  Shortly I had to go to the bathroom.  Sure enough, in the spot next door, there was a man setting up a tipi.  Looks like he had brought his lodge poles on a rack on top of their pickup.  He was utilizing a large ladder to put on the finishing touches.  I always go camping with a ladder, myself.  On my way back from the bathroom I had to chuckle.  The tipi was up, the man, who earlier had looked like he had stepped out of LL Bean had ducked into the tipi and changed into a loin cloth.  That's right.  Took off his shirt too.  Had some leather strap tied around a bicep and some sort of leather pouch around his next.   Then he walked over, started up his GENERATOR and pumped up his deluxe queen sized air mattress. 

I returned to our site to give an update.  A little later Eli started stage whispering again.  "RIGHT THERE.  Look!  He's coming....coming- look over behind you mom!"  All of this was plenty loud for both me and the coming attraction to here.  But I think he liked it.  He was out for an evening stroll.  He seemed to have family with him, a wife and maybe two grown children.  But they were hanging back, and dressed in street clothes.  He was strutting out ahead in the loin cloth.  He took several laps around the campground, surely giving everyone a chance to see him.

Walden Pond
One day during our Boston stay we decided to head out to Lexington and Concord.  We stopped at several different historical sites and all of us found all of them quite interesting.  But strangely sapping of all energy.  Museum fatique to an expotential power.  So we decided to try to find Walden Pond on our way back to town, as we heard you could swim there.  Now, I've read the book by Thoreau and I always pictured it as a small pond.  Filled with reeds and brackish water, like the pond behind the house I grew up in.  Color us surprised when we pulled into a large parking lot across from a lake.  We stopped in the replica of his small cabin and read some historical data, but I was already fatiqued, and this lake had me chagining my opinion of the whole deal.  Thoreau was basically vacationing next to a lovely lake.  Now, his cabin was small, and he built it himself, but seriously, this was not what I had expected.  I was much more eager to swim now that pond had been redefined as lake.

So we passed a hot afternoon doing some water ballet and then trying to dunk each other in Walden Pond.  I'm not sure that's how Thoreau passed his days there, but I'd recommend it!

One last note

Niagara falls did not dissapoint.  Either in the shlock factor of the surrounding town, or in the majesty of the falls themselves.