Catamount Hotel in Bennington, Vt.

And I slept on the strange pillows of my wanderlust

Appalachian Trail 2017

Day 122, Zero Day in Bennington

Thursday, August 10, 2017

When a long distance hiker takes a zero day, the idea is to not just hike zero miles. It is also to do as little as possible.

Truth is, there are tasks that must be done on a zero day to prepare for the next section of trail. The day is usually filled with a to-do list of laundry, resupply and loading up on extra calories.

The intent of the day is rest, but stuff has to get done. Still, it's important to let your body recover after the days and days of physical exertion.

I did my best today to achieve that goal.

Weather Partly cloudy with a high temperature in the low 80s
Today's Miles 0.0 miles
Trip Miles 1,610.6 miles

For this zero day, I was mostly successful in the morning of doing nothing. I was able to sleep until almost 8 a.m. Stick was keyed up about meeting his daughter, and Homeward Bound was preparing to get back on the trail, but they kindly did their best to not disturb me. I woke up just before Homeward Bound was about to leave.

Stick took our laundry down to the motel office. The manager did the washing and drying for just four dollars. That's definitely a small remuneration for handling toxic substances.

There was one slight problem, though. When we got our laundry back I was missing one sock. Fortunately, after I asked about it the manager found it stuck inside the washing machine.

Late in the morning, Stick left to pick up his daughter, Becky, at the bus station downtown. The room we had shared with Homeward Bound was now my room and I stayed there to rest some more.

After Stick picked up his daughter they moved to a different room.

Downtown Bennington, Vt.

Once Becky and Stick were settled in their motel room, we walked to downtown Bennington to run a series of errands. First was a trip to the post office, then came lunch at a local Mexican diner called Cilantros.

Boarding bus in Bennington, Vt.

Then we walked to the bus station where Stick had picked up Becky this morning.

We discovered Vermont has a well-developed bus system. In addition to the intercity system that Becky used to get here from Burlington, there was a regular run of intracity buses. We used a local bus to go to Walmart, which was located on the edge of town.

I was able to find nearly everything I needed for the next section of the trail. I looked for a replacement water filter, but this store didn’t have any in stock.

That was enough running around for one zero day, so except for making phone calls to my dad and my wife, I didn’t do much else.

For dinner, Stick, Becky and I walked back downtown to Madison Brewing Company. The beer was good, the food and service were only just okay, but I didn’t care.

I needed a day to relax, and for the most part, I got it.

I pulled into the Cactus Tree Motel
To shower off the dust
And I slept on the strange pillows of my wanderlust
I dreamed of 747s 
Over geometric farms
Dreams, Amelia
Dreams and false alarms

From “Amelia” by Joni Mitchell

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