Day 7 – Tuesday, September 9, 2014

We started walking from the border, les douanes américaines.

Today was the day that we would walk beyond 100 kms.  No photos because at that point, Pauline, Dean and I were all at separate areas.  My fault.  All of a sudden, I noticed I didn’t have my sunglasses.  I told Pauline.  I remembered I’d had them, as I still had a memory of holding them in my teeth while taking a photo, of one of the mailboxes along the way.  I felt my neck, my head, and my pockets and no sunglasses. I started heading back.  And to think we had over 20 kms to walk today!  I reached the mailboxes and still no sunglasses.  Pauline had kept walking forward as she is so good at doing.  I kept checking my body for the sunglasses and just couldn’t believe I didn’t have them but I couldn’t see them.  I decided I would go no further than Fox Hill Rd.  I could always ask Dean to drive me back if I need to look forward.  I continued to search myself for the glasses as I walked back at a brisk pace: I put my hand in my right pocket and there they were all folded up next to my iphone. 

After visiting the side of the road, and seeing two handsome leopard frogs, I headed back.  Wouldn’t you know it that when I went on, there was a turn to make on hway 78! No sight of Pauline either way.  My instinct told me to go right. To be sure, I took off my pack back and checked the map.  It was a left turn on highway 78.  As I returned the map to its place, there was a honk.  Dean and Pauline were in my vehicle behind me.  Dean said he was not impressed that I had left Pauline.  Pauline had sat on a rock by hway 78 until Dean had shown up (he was walking back, from moving the RAV4 up 4 kms.)  She told him what happened and he headed back to the car.  So Pauline said hop in the car, you’ve walked the distance to where I was last.  So I got in without objecting.  It was only a short jaunt on hway 78 and then a right and then another right on the only abandoned rail bed Dean had found when laying out our route. It was nice and natural and probably the closest to what the walk by the Deerfield captives would have been, though it would not have been mown.

Before Dean left us to go back to the car, Pauline and he exchange cell phone numbers as I no longer have the use of my iPhone now that we are in the States.  We are getting smarter as we go along!

When we finally got to the bridge that takes us from the mainland to Grand Isle, Pauline and I saw one of the men fishing on the dock.  I thought he’d been there since morning but he said no, that was the other old guy.  He was catching sunfish that were going to Montreal.  He would get $1USD per pound.  He asked me as we were walking away if I wanted to reel one in.  Of course I said yes.  It was a long line and surprisingly harder to reel in than I realized.  Thanks Carmi for the unforgettable experience: that was so kind of you.

Over the bridge, I planned to use the johny-on-the-spot.  I stop at every chance I get.  Then I noticed a sign that said something about Champlain Clothing so in we went.  That business was actually in the basement and they did custom logos.  The grocery store was so charming!  I am so impressed at how nice some make their convenience stores. We decided we would come back after we had walked our last 2.7 kms and buy wieners to cook over a wood fire back at our campsite. I forget the exact distance but we did it in 4 hours and 43 minutes today.  We finished walking around 3:30 pm.  We had time to get the wieners, get them to give us a little mustard and a little relish, then drive back 20 kms to the campsite.

We checked out the beach_all stony on beach and in water: nevertheless we soaked our hot feet and contented ourselves with our .50 warm showers before supper.

Addition on October 23, 2014:

One thing I was very aware of as we walked, was the presence of vehicles in this day and age. 

Here I have posed the Native Doll alongside the asphalt road, against a piece of rubber 

presumably from a transport truck.