P E D R O ' S   A P P A L A C H I A N   T R A I L
T H R U - H I K E   J O U R N A L

W E ' R E   G O I N G   T O
T H E
G R E A T   W E N T

I don't know the date or what day it is.
I think it's Wednesday the 18th.

We began our Journey to Darien Center, N.Y. yesterday to see Phish, then to get a ride to the Great Went from there. Sister got to Hanover a couple of days ago and we hitched from there to Northampton, Mass. and decided to stay there for the night. It only took 3 rides. We found this great shelter behind Smith College in a Japanese Garden. It was so pretty. At first there were so many bugs that we couldn't even sleep, so we set up our tent. Then one cop came by and said we weren't supposed to be there, but it was O.K. just for the night since we didn't have anywhere else to go. Then,  2 more cops came by and said it was dangerous where we were and made us leave. They said they'd give us a ride somewhere, but actually only dropped us of in downtown Northampton at 2 in the morning. LET ME TELL YOU, downtown Northampton at 2 a.m. with people roaming the streets and starring at these 2 crazy hiker chicks walking down the street is much safer than being asleep in my tent in the woods. YEAH, right!

We walked around, and there was nowhere to go, no hotels, no nothing. Then we met someone going to Boston who said he'd drop us off in Springfield where there was a bus station. He was really nice and traveling with his dog. He took us to several hotels until we found a fairly cheap one to grab at least a few hours of sleep before the bus station opened.

The next morning we took a bus from Springfield to Rochester, N.Y. It took a really long time. There were lots of stops. We then met Benjamin in the bus station. He helped us figure out where Darien Center was. He was super nice, and a cutie-pie! We then took a bus, well actually, we're in the process of taking a bus to Batavia, which is the closest buses get to Darien Center.

I don't feel so well right now. We've been on buses all day and I haven't had time to eat a natural meal. All I've eaten is a Pop Tart, 2 Kit Kats, Cheese balls, and a pint of Ben & Jerry's. And I wonder why I don't feel so well.