Paddling Back Into the USA

June 24, 2024

Mile 251.6-263.4 (Newport, VT)

Worst night of sleep yet. My Thermarest of 6 years, the pad I bought in Franklin, NC on my first AT thru hike, finally has a hole in it. It deflated repeatedly throughout the night. I would wake up, blow it up and fall back asleep for maybe an hour or so before I would wake up again on the ground. At 2:45 am a mystery man started playing guitar and singing nearby. Henry and I muttered to each other wondering what the fuck was going on. Thankfully it was a two song concert and ended quickly. An hour later a bobcat screeched into the night. At 4:30 our alarm went off and I was tireddddd. We wanted to get up early to avoid any employees catching us stealth camping but unbelievably someone showed up at 5 am before we’d had a chance to take down the tent. He wandered over to talk to us but didn’t care that we’d camped there. We should’ve known that Canadians were so nice they didn’t even care if you broke the law. It takes us awhile to get moving but we were finally on the lake by 6:30.

It was warm and sprinkling and it took me awhile to get into my groove. Henry told me to put music on the speaker and it helps a lot. The miles fly by, we sing Loretta Lynn and Conway, a huge flock of birds flies by our side down the lake. We cross back into the US and arrive at Prouty Beach Campground not much later.

We’d decided earlier to treat ourselves and stay here. We reserved a tent site and set up at a spot within a hundred yards of the lake. I crawled in the tent and fell right to sleep while Henry walked around exploring. He woke me up when he came back and asked if I want to zero tomorrow. As if I would ever say no to a zero.

The weather tomorrow is going to be very hot and sunny and there is no shade at this campsite so I demand a hotel room for tomorrow night. Henry calls and reserves it (I love having a man that makes all my phone calls for me tehe). I start feeling hangry so we walk in the pouring rain to Wendy’s where I sit inside shivering and dripping rain water while devouring chicken nuggets and fries dipped in a chocolate frosty. I felt better after, we walked next door to the outfitter which was in a pretty sad state and had little to no gear and certainly not a replacement Thermarest. Next stop was the grocery store to grab some dinner to cook tonight. We bought some mac n cheese and ground beef and headed back to the site. I needed a nap badly. Laid down in the tent and got a few hours sleep while our laundry washed until a staff member woke us up to tell us crows were eating our food off the picnic table. Found our bag torn and our ground beef half eaten. Sigh.

Went back to sleep and woke up around 5 deciding to go to Eastside Restaurant since our beef was now in the dumpster. It’s hard to impress Henry with restaurant food but this place got a “This is the best chicken parm I’ve ever had”. It really was good food, we had poutine as an app and I got chicken and biscuits. Picked out some chocolate truffles for dessert and walked outside to a beautiful full rainbow.

Held hands walking back to the campground feeling full and content. We walked down to the dock where Henry fished and I sat and watched the beautiful sunset. Henry caught a pickerel!

It was the perfect ending to the day. I called and talked to mom on the phone for an hour before falling asleep.