Date: 2004-10-12
From: potaywadjo spring lean-to

To: cooper brook falls lean-to
Miles today: 11.4
Weather: overcast clouds

"free food, late starts, and beans"so, if i wake in the morning and it is pouring rain, chances are that i¢m not going to dash out of the shelter to do some hiking. wake up. rain. roll over and sleep some more. wake up. still rain. read for a while. sleep some more. wake up. rain, rain, rain. sleepy, sleepy, sleepy.this went on all morning. was i going to end up not hiking at all today? it seemed very possible. at a little before noon i had resolved that it was time to finally get out of my warm sleeping bag and do some hiking. the rain had let up some. as i was trying to make myself unzip my bag, two soaking wet hikers showed up. then, two more hikers arrived, followed by another- five northbound hikers. three of the thru-hikers were brothers from north carolina. i can¢t believe that three brothers had made it this far. i was thoroughly impressed. hey- gresh and skwid, you guys want to thru-hike the AT?two more hikers arrived. these were both women and they were southbounding the 100 mile woods. they were wet and their gear was wet and they looked miserable. one woman was named mona and her friend i decided should be called, beans. she works at l.l. bean and calls it ¢beans¢ and i never caught her name, so i¢ll just call her beans. every single piece of gear these two women owned was from l.l. bean they may have been sponsored.mona decided that her food bag was entirely too heavy. so, she started giving away lots of food. she just kept reaching into her bag and giving away whatever she came up with. i scored quite a bit of loot- some breakfast bars, pita bread, tortilla shells, peanut butter, and a fresh cucumber? yeah, i thought that was kind of interesting too.the thru-hikers pushed on while mona and beans decided to stay at the shelter for a while. they both pulled out their sleeping bags and climbed in them. i didn¢t think they¢d be going anywhere for the rest of the day.i finally packed up my gear and hit the trail at 3:00. and, grizzly adam- the hiker, finally decided to show his pretty little face. that¢s right. i¢m back and i mean business. i don¢t know what was going on today, but i was feeling good. i¢m not sure if it was the amount of rest that i got last night and this morning, or the cooler temperatures, or the nice breeze that was blowing all afternoon, or the light rain; but, i was cranking out the miles today. i felt strong today. i could have hiked twenty miles today.i really enjoyed hiking this afternoon. the hiking seemed easy. the time passed quickly. it rained off and on for most of the afternoon. it felt good. the sun set and i hiked as long as i could without the aid of a headlamp. i was able to see until about 6:45. the rain grew heavy as i neared the shelter. i slipped on a rock and almost feel into a creek. when i got to the shelter at just after 7:00, i met two thru-hikers that were heading off to put in some more miles. they were clad in raingear and wore their headlamps and didn¢t have much to say. i told them to be careful out there and turned to head down to the dry, empty shelter.the temperature has dropped quite a bit since i got here and there is a steady rain falling.an interesting fact for you: i stayed at this shelter a year ago today....and it was raining.