Day 160
~ Zero Day ~
North Woodstock, NH
Miles Hiked: 0
Miles on AT: 1807.8
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Another zero day! It felt like I hadn’t had one of these in a while, so I was happy to put my feet up for a day. As a late season hiker, there were only about 6 of us at Old Colony Ski Club, the hostel where I was staying, so I got a whole room to myself. Nice! I did chores in the morning so I could have the rest of the day to just veg out. The hostel had a nice kitchen in the basement and lots of fridges and freezers for us to store our food. There was ample seating both in the basement and upstairs, plus there was a firepit that seemed to get lit every night. Even better, the laundromat was right next door.
Among the hikers at the hostel were Halfpint, a NOBO who was also a photographer; a group of 3 NOBO guys that included a father and son; and a section hiker who had gotten sick and was figuring out his next steps. I wasn’t the only NOBO out here! We swapped stories of people telling us we wouldn’t make it or we wouldn’t be able to beat winter. A few of them were considering flipping, but not me. My new motto was, “I’m not flipping!” And I repeated that to myself and others with glee.
The weather was so nice on this day, I couldn’t believe it was almost fall. The leaves were changing but the sun was still warm on my skin. My plan for tomorrow was to wake up early and slackpack the Kinsmans. Doing these ~17 miles without a full pack was like basically doing 2 days in 1. It would make up for the zero day I took, plus I would get a shower and warm bed to sleep in afterwards. Who could pass that up?
And that’s day 160.
A version of this post originally appeared on TheTrek.co.