Date: 2003-08-19
From: East B Hill Road (1500') 

To: South Arm Road (1420') 
Miles today: 10.1

Aloha! What a hump of a day. A lovely day for the most part but a hump nonetheless. Thank goodness for the kindness of Honey and Bear!   The morning began with a breakfast in the dining room (dinner is held in a separate room with a much longer table) and consisted of blueberry pancakes, bacon, toast, jam, and make your own omelets. All quite tasty! It was certainly a lovely way to start the day.   It was during breakfast that all the details of today's shuttles were finalized. In my case, Coffee and I were heading to South Arm Road to work our way back to East B Hill Road where someone would pick us up. Sundance would start further south and work his way to the same road. Hopefully we'll all arrive close enough not to leave anyone hanging out too long. It all worked wonderfully.   Once again I'll relate this in the north to south direction since that's the way we hiked it but for anyone looking at this in the future going north, feel free to reverse everything.   We started off with what would have been the most irritating of mountains had I been going north - Moody Mountain (2380'). Sometimes on this trail there are mountains and routings that play no real purpose in doing anything but irritating the hiker. Moody Mountain is one of these type mountains and routings. There was no, and I repeat, no, reason for us to climb up 1000' in a mile for no view and no particular reason other than because they could, and then back down the other side 1300' only to turn around and climb back UP 1700'! The only point Moody Mountain makes is to make you moody! The only possible good point I can see is that it was a hell of a lot easier going south than it would have been going north! Those folks looked in real pain!   We took our lunch break at Hall Mountain Lean-to (2635') where we practiced our stand-up comedy routine on two youngsters out for the weekend. I can't say we were a success. As a matter of fact I think what we considered comic banter might have even scared them! Oh well, youth of today... they just don't appreciate good comedy!   From there it was off to climb UP, of course, to Wyman Mountain (2945'), down to Surplus Pond (2050') for a snack waterside and then back UP over a small hill to head down to the road and shuttle. Not too bad.   The truth of the matter though is that this was one of the most boring hikes I've had on the whole trail. If I were prone to skip portions, which I'm not, this would be one. It truly was boring. Nothing to see for the most part and hardly worth all the effort. Especially the last seven miles. But that's not the point I guess. It's part of the trail and I do the trail. The good, the bad and the evil. This may have bordered on the evil. The only part that made it worthwhile was having Coffee along for fun chat and loads of laughs. That's what today was really all about.   Another good point to slack packing is that you get to your destination normally earlier allowing plenty of time to relax or do whatever else needs doing. In this case it was laundry and meeting the newcomers. The most intriguing for me is a NOBO named Recycle. He's an interesting study in lunacy. (His words, not mine.)   Recycle is a 68-year-old retired criminal court judge out of Minnesota who originally started this hike in 2000. Somewhere around Front Royal, VA he cracked or broke some bones in one of his feet. His hike came to an end at that point. (We've heard this storyline before, haven't we?) In 2002, Recycle returned to the trail to try again. Unlike Rooster, Storming Norman or me, he returned to Georgia to try again. This time he made it to Kent, CT before he broke his foot again. It's now 2003 and this is his third attempt to thru-hike the trail. Yes, he once again started in Georgia. Unbelievable. When asked why he would end up walking something like 5000 miles to walk 2172, he replies with a smile, "I have to do it the right way... and lunacy." Hummm... Well, I don't know about the "doing it the right way part", since that may infer that I'm doing it incorrectly, but I will probably agree with the lunacy part. I liken it to rereading the same chapters of a book over and over without ever finishing the story but he thinks of it as watching the same movie three times and falling asleep at different parts. Lunacy? You decide. Personally though, I do admire his fortitude. This trail is hard enough once but to start it over three times, it may be lunacy but you have to admire someone that sticks to their beliefs. He doesn't know it but I'm one of his biggest supporters. Wish I could have done the same.   Recycle's restarts were pretty much our dinnertime conversation. Quite entertaining to say the least. There were other folks at the table though too. Joining me in Honey and Bear's huge spaghetti with meatball spread was - Gutsy, Coffee, Recycle, Sundance, and two new-to-me NOBOs, Gimp and Scrounger. It seems that the bulk of this year's hiking community is slowly beginning to catch up to me. {sigh} It was a pleasant dinner anyway.   Since dinner it's been agreed that Coffee and I will be sticking around for another day of slack packing. Don't say it! This is my hike and I'm going to do whatever it take for me to make it to the end and if it's hiking south or not carrying everything in my pack then so be it. I'm following the path of the white blazes and that's what's important to me. Besides getting to the end that is. Recycle may adhere to the "constantly go north and carry your fully loaded pack every step of the way" philosophy but I didn't make that rule. Tomorrow I'll be chopping off another 13 miles and doing it a little easier. That works for me. (I did hear Recycle say that he was going to take his 4.9 lb tent out of his pack since many folks hike the trail without a tent, shelter-to-shelter. Hummm.... sounds a little like slack packing to me. Good on him!)   Bedtime folks. I'm tried and there's a long day ahead tomorrow. We'll chat again tomorrow evening as we always do. For now, sleep well. I plan on it.BSandTs: same-sameAandPS: what can I say? my knees hate me.MandGs: evil and mean trail creators/maintainers and their useless, senseless and viewless mountains...waah!Critter count: 3x spruce grouse Count down: 246.4 miles