Date: 2014-07-17
From: Logan Brook Lean-to

To: Antlers Campsite
Miles today: 19.6

We did get rain the previous night and even with 7 in the shelter I was grateful that I was not hauling a wet tent. I had snacks for the day and one dinner left so it was important to get to our food drop today, it was about 15.4 miles away and then the next camp site was another 4.2 miles beyond that. The trail was starting to level, all the peaks were behind us. As I was coming down a hill a south bound hiker told me to look out for the Dalmation sitting on a rock. Seems someone has hauled a Dalmation statue out into the wilderness? Actually I should probably let you know something about this wilderness, yes you go 100 miles without a town or store close by but on the other hand I saw more hikers in this section than anywhere except at Mt Washington NH and Bear Mtn NY areas. A lot of people come out just to do the 100 mile trek. I should also mention that besides people, I saw metal steps built into the bank of a river, multiple canoes, row boats etc. remote yes but not exactly the wilderness I expected. I did get to out "hidden" food bucket in early afternoon, I did not have the instructions but I did listen to Charlie as he described the drop area. It was not too hard to find, basically in the first place I looked. I was a little worried about Boulderdash, would he even make it that far, could he find the bucket? Etc There was a shelter about 3.7 miles before the food drop. Boulderdash almost always carried extra food so it was not inconceivable he may hold up there and pick up in the morning. I did wait by the food drop road for an hour and eventually 2 hikers came along who had seen Boulder at that shelter. I decided to move on to Antlers Camp. I got in about 3:30 and found a nice tent site up by the pond and set up. I had not even got water when Boulder walks in about 4;20 and asks if I had his food. I thought he was pulling my leg but it quickly became obvious he was serious. He had followed the instructions, found some buckets but not our bucket. He was incredulous that I had not carried his food in (as he said, "if I was 2 hrs ahead I would have carried your food" - BS in my mind - I would not want anyone taking my food, especially since we have separated in the past. As I started to boil over I also realized that he could not get back to hid food and back to camp before dark. If I gave him some of mine and he went back tomorrow I would possibly run out before I got out of the wilderness. I had to go get the food that night. I strapped on my belt bag, took some water and my rain jacket and set off on the 4.2 mile trek (8.4 round trip ). I was able to jog/walk the leg to the food in about an hour but the return trip took a full 90 minutes as the bag was awkward to carry and it was about 6 to 8 lbs (clearly more food than I had in the bucket). I was steamed when I got back, being accused of being insensitive/selfish since I did not carry it in the first place and he did not even walk up the trail one step to meet me and offer to carry his own food one step of the 8.4 miles. I made it clear,he now had his food and only 37 miles of wilderness - he was on his own, I would be out early on the morning. Too bad we had such a blowup, it was actually a beautiful night, a beautiful camp and the weather was turning in our favor. I did manage to get a few pictures of my view and of the sunset. I even got great cell phone service so I called Racquet, who talked me off my boil and brought me down to simmer.