Date: 2008-12-26
To: Murder stories around the fire
Miles today: 0.0

   Erik got up early to use the bathroom and dipped under my tarp to see how I was doing. I was fine. It had gotten down to 25 degrees, but I was not too cold. In fact, Erik¢s feet were colder and more uncomfortable than mine! The wind did blow my tarp onto one side of my hammock and the dew made it stick, but overall, it was a successful first night! My pelvic bones felt extremely bruised from the hip belt on the Catalyst, and I was thankful to be lying in the hammock and not exacerbating the pain by lying on the ground. Since it was really cold out and we were in no hurry to get to a particular destination that day, we decided to rest a little while longer.        We had an oatmeal breakfast when we did get up, changed, retrieved and purified water, packed up, and headed north. We had successfully sterilized our water with the steripen the night before, but after purifying one liter in the morning, Erik tried seven or eight more times with no luck. I thought it might have been the brown particles that came out of the drainpipe and were swirling around the water, but even after settling, the steripen would not complete its cycle. We had to resort to our back up Aqua Mira drops. Our goal on this trip was not to get in a lot of miles, but to get comfortable with setting up the hammock. In these shortest days of the year, we needed to get back early in order to make use of the remaining light. We decided to hike about three miles out and then head back to spend another night at Calf Mtn shelter. Soon after we set out, we passed under several power lines buzzing loudly with electricity. Later, we found ourselves walking along the rim of a hill with a creek to our right. We stopped to strip off a layer of clothing and Erik started hamming it up. Only seconds after he had fully dressed again, a woman and her small dog came walking toward us! It was a narrow miss. She asked if we were doing the whole trail and Erik told her I would be doing it in March. She seemed happy about that, said I was doing the right thing by trying it out in the cold, and said to look up her husband when I got into the area, as he was a trail angel and loves the thru-hikers. She looked at our packs and commented that if mine was almost 40 pounds, Erik¢s must be 100! (Poor Erik!)After she went on her way, Erik joked, ¢I want some trail angel magic right now!¢ Sometimes his word choices amuse me¢¦After ascending and descending a hill, we came to another road and saw an overlook, which we decided to check out and take some pictures. We climbed one more hill, found a log to sit on and eat some lunch, and then made our way back. Raindrops were starting to fall as we approached the shelter and I tried to pretend that it was raining hard and that I would have to set up my tarp quickly to keep everything dry. Again, my hands were cold and swollen, but I didn¢t have a pounding headache this time and was able to think more clearly, making for an easier time tying the knots. I bounded back to the shelter in an attempt to generate some body heat as I retrieved my hammock, but was stopped in my tracks when I saw a silent, seated figure at the edge of the shelter. I was so scared that I just stopped and looked at him for a few seconds. ¢You looked busy over there, so I didn¢t want to disturb you,¢ he said.His name was Jim and he was doing a short section of the trail over the holidays. He started the trail many years ago, and joked that he was on the fifty-year plan. I finished hanging my hammock, and sat down on the shelter floor with my mittened-covered hands under my legs. It was cold! Jim set up his things and reclined in his sleeping bag until he felt ready to fire up his stove and cook dinner. Boy did that thing sound like a jet engine!   We got our dinner cooking in the dark, and then Jim made a fire. It ended up blowing smoke right onto the picnic table in front of the shelter, and also seemed to follow us as we stood around the fire, but we enjoyed it nonetheless. We heard a distant clanging sound, which Jim thought was a bird. I was confused because I never heard a bird that made a metallic sound. Later, I realized it was the chain banging on the metal bear bag pole. We talked about hiking the AT, and soon got on the topic of the murders that had occurred on it. Jim asked me if I was scared to hike it alone. Both he and the woman we met on the trail thought Erik should hike it with me. He seemed amused that I knew all about Wapiti shelter and what had occurred there even though I had never been there myself. He was surprised when I mentioned the shooting incident earlier this year with the fishermen, as he hadn't heard anything about it. As the conversation progressed, Erik started wondering if this guy could be one of the murderers¢¦        After the fire died down, we said good night and headed to our shelters.It turned out that my hammock was not as well set-up as the previous night. It sagged so much that it was almost reaching the ground, but didn¢t actually touch it. However, the wind and rain blew my tarp onto the sides of my hammock, causing parts of my down underquilt to get wet! I still have a lot of learning to do...