Unionville

Day 62

hiked today: 20.1
hiked total: 1335.1
to katahdin: 843.2

We woke up with the scouts and head out on the trail. It wasn't great weather, but at least it wasn't pouring. We didn't have a long day today, so it was smooth sailing. The hike itself was pretty standard (as it has been lately -- I am eager to get up north to VT and NH.) The real story begins at the end of our day.

We were planning on staying in Unionville, NY where we saw there was a bunk house for $3 right in a bar. We thought that could be some fun so went over there when we got into town. We asked to stay, and the bartender said what most people do is stay with the mayor. We thought that sounded interesting, so we left the bar, and went up to the mayors house. We walk up to be greeted by Butch who said we were a day early. We had no idea what he meant, but then we saw Dennis and Dave waiting for us there, and had told the guys that they thought we would be there tomorrow.

The mayor (Dick) calls the place the Outhouse. It's basically the best place in the world. He opens up his home to hikers, and has a bunk downstairs, and old mess sargent named Bill lives here with him and cooks every meal for us. Butch spends the days here and drives the hikers around. We get in, get handed a beer, and start the evening. We had a big dinner, and watched some TV, and Dick told us about Paul Potts and how inspirational he is to him. He also told us we were insane for doing what we are doing, but he is happy to open up his home. These guys are hysterical, sailor mouthing, great people. Tomorrow we are actually slackpacking 17 miles. What that means is we are leaving our packs here, getting driven up 17 miles (we wanted to do more, but thats where the road is) and then walk back here to spend the night.