Floods, Snakes, and James Earl Jones

I am officially out of New England. I'm hanging out with my cousin Paul, his wife Wendy, and their kids - Rebekah and Justin. I'm taking an official "zero day" today - swimming in the pool, jumping on the trampoline, and even hitting Texas Road House for a Texas sized lunch! Life doesn't get much better than this. After wading through the remnants of the Irene/Lee tropical tag-team for the past two weeks, this break was well deserved - if I do say so myself. A fire in the fire pit is still on the docket for tonight and I can't overlook another night in a comfy bed (I pulled into town last night). Three nights ago I didn't think I was going to make it. I was stuck in a downpour at night when my headlamp died. After using my cellphone to fix it (receiving a text in the process saying I had picked Peyton Manning in a fantasy football auto-draft), I finally started moving again only to slip on a rock and fall into a mud puddle. Picking myself up, I took a few steps and jumped from a ledge onto a pile of leaves. It was in every way a safe landing, other than the fact that underneath the pile of leaves was a nest of rattlesnakes. They shot out one direction and I in the other, none of us in the mood for a confrontation, luckily.

For the most part I've spent the last few weeks alone. There are almost no northbound thru-hikers left, at this point they probably couldn't make it to Katahdin before the cold weather rolls in. Every once in a while I'll run into another southbounder, but hiking speeds vary and I rarely see them for more than a day. By myself, in the rain, with no views or mountains to see them on - you might think I'd be losing my drive right about now. Fortunately, I have been blessed with a flow of animal encounters that have made the hiking well worth my while. In southern Massachusetts I ran into a bunch of beavers and almost stepped on a porcupine on the same day within twenty minutes of each other! I have videos of both, which I will try to post in the near future (been having some picture/video posting problems which has tempted me to move the blog to another site). Connecticut and New York have been full of White-tailed deer sightings - I've probably seen forty or fifty in the two states combined. I unknowingly came up behind one and scared it pretty badly - OK, we both jumped, but at least I didn't scream (yeah, deer scream, they sound like velociraptors from Jurassic Park). I don't think that deer get the proper respect or admiration that they deserve. I'm not ashamed to say that from a young age the deer has been one of my favorite animals. If you think about it, how many large animals do you see literally launching themselves through the air on a regular basis? Unless you count Tom Cruise jumping on Oprah's couch, or are in Australia, I'm guessing not many. You hunters out there are thinking, "Yeah, but they taste real good." Maybe, but so does beef, and last time I checked, they aren't doing anything cool. And I don't have any pictures of the deer I've seen, because they're way too fast...

No, I didn't personally meet James Earl Jones. But I almost kind of did, in some sense. By walking through Pawling, NY, I walked the same streets JEJ walks every day (assuming he's an avid walker). A couple hikers just ahead of me met him in the post office - unfortunately I wasn't expecting any packages there so I didn't go in. This made me think about what I would do if I met him personally (you'd be amazed at the things I think about after eight hours of walking). I finally decided that I would have to ask him if I could record him saying, "Remember who you are!" from his voiceover work in the Lion King. Then I realized I haven't really seen too many JEJ movies. I could only think of Star Wars, the Lion King, and Field of Dreams. I know he's been around a long time and has done a lot of work (according to IMDB, since 1963 he's worked on 179 films). How did I forget the Sandlot? Or the Hunt for Red October? Anyway, this makes for a great poll question: Outside of the already mentioned films, how many JEJ films can you name off the top of your head (we're on the honor system here). You have just experienced an example of a thought tangent that frequently accompanies my walk. This might have been the most "normal" of them all...

Here are some pictures (hopefully movies coming soon...)



Did you know that THIS is at the top of Mount Graylock???



At a zoo, but still...regal.

 

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Walt Whitman and I sharing a view.

Thanks for reading, and more to come soon! God Bless!