This update will be short, a better one will be up in a few days.

hiked through most of new jersey trying to make it to fatfest, a hiker feed put on by some guys from '98. goose and i were 42 miles away the night before, so we decided to try and hitch. We hiked to vernon, hitched out of town, hitched up to 17 in new york, then hitched down 17 to harriman, then walked a couple miles to the bbq. it was well worth it. We were given burgers as soon as we showed up, only because the bbq chicken wasn't done. After the chicken, we feasted on the fresh fruit and salads they had. we slowed down a bit until 5 when they threw several 5-pound salmon fillets on the grill. we ate salmon until we were full, then they told us the best was yet to come. They opened the next cooler full of marinating steaks. after eating a few steaks each, the picnic area was closing, so we had to move up to the camsite, where they had already built a fire for us. The pulled out two huge coolers of beer, and we sat around the fire, stuffed for an hour. Then a truck pulled up with a dozen new york pizzas. we had trouble getting them down, but managed. Finally, an hour after that, they started going around with boxes of ice cream sandwitches and hagen daz ice cream pops. Anyone who tried to turn it down was jeered until they accepted.

The hitch was well worth it, and the name fatfest was really accurate. goose and i hitched back and only hiked 5 miles that day before we stopped at a shelter to digest.

i've been hiking with goose from bluefield, WV for the past week, and will probably stick with him for the rest of the way. We have been a day or so behind rainy jay, but we should meet up with him sometime in MA. Roadrunner is 4 days ahead and moving fast, c-legs is about 3 days behind and probably closing space.

here's the short-term plan

sat: pine swamp brook lean-to
sun: limestone springs
mon: hemlocks or glen brook lean-to , stop in salsbury, MA
tue: mt wilcox north or south lean-to
wed: picked up about noon at rt 20, just past mass pike near lee, for a zero in worcester and the super chinese buffet
fri?: robs' hostel in dalton, MA (tenative)

plan right now looks like i'll get to the mass pike wednesday noon, where ben will pick me and goose up. I've been dreaming of the super chinese buffet for weeks, all these towns have tiny 12-item buffets that pale in comparison to the 188 items at the SCB. Most likely the first stop in worcester will be the buffet. anyone else in worcester, feel free to join, probably about 2:00 on wednesday.

it's already noon, and i do expect to do 15 miles today, so i really should be going. i will fill in alot more details when i stop and zero in worcester (and get to use my own computer with a decent browser (firefox))

-bilbo