Date: 2013-08-22
From: Past Zeta Pass

To: Rattle River Shelter
Miles today: 9.7

Last night I didn't sleep good, worrying about Cash and some other stuff. I must be wired different than others as Sky Pilot went right off to sleep. I can hear him sawing some big logs and where I'm tenting I can hear wood beetles eating the falling alpine tree next to me. The terrain on the map for today¢s hike looks pretty easy, but it¢s kicking our butts. About halfway to Imp Shelter we see Buddy Backpacker and his parents. They said they saw Cash yesterday. When we made it to Imp Shelter and no Cash. So we ate lunch with Funkytown, Roadrunner and Steamer, who is dressed in pink including his hair. He said he's doing it to raise money for breast cancer. After lunch, we struggled to make it up every mountain we came too. Once we were on top of Mt. Moriah, we dropped the packs and just laid out on the boulder and took about a ten minute nap. After that we felt like putty, but found the strength to continue, sweat just rolling off of us. It¢s a surprise to both of us that we still have toes, as much stuff as we have kicked with them today.We have noticed on the trail that where there's a rock wall to climb or go down, there's no man-made foot holds, but where there's man-made foot holds, you don't need them. (I need a Snickers!) I was telling Sky Pilot that one of the things I have wanted to do was to go swimming on this journey and that hasn't happened yet, for one reason or another and then the trail turns and we¢re hiking next to a wide river. He kept saying, ¢Lets go, let's go!¢ I said, ¢Man, that water is going to be cold!¢ He said, ¢I'm going in.¢ Then for some reason, I said, ¢Not before me!¢ The next thing I know, I'm standing on the edge in my shorts, feet touching the water. Damn, that's cold! I can't do it, it¢s too cold. Then he dives in and lets this scream out, so loud that I thought he had hit his head. All he could say over and over was, ¢#%!+? that¢s cold!¢ I said to myself, ¢I can't let him out-do me.¢ So I slowly walked out up to my knees and just stood there for a few minutes. I started getting light headed. He kept egging me on, so I jumped in and shot back up and yelled so loud, people in Maine could hear me! Then I started saying, ¢%#?!$ that's cold!¢ It was a short swim, but thanks to Sky Pilot, I got my swim in. After we got dressed I told Sky Pilot that my shoes feel bigger and I can move my toes inside. He thought it was because all the blood in my legs and feet moved to my upper body to keep my organs warm - made sense to me.Just a half mile more of hiking and we are reunited with Cash. We didn't yell at him and he had texted me, I just didn't have a signal. We were just glad to see him. Before I go, I have a little story to tell that almost took me off the trail, or should I say off the planet. We have been looking for a place to burn our straw hats, mainly because they¢re coming apart and they¢re hot to wear. So we put them on one last time and Cash starts a fire in the fire ring, which is made of rocks. So we take them off and put them to rest. Later, I noticed the fire is going out and I go and bring back some wood. I have this stick, hard as a rock and two inches by three feet long. So I angle it across the rocks and I pick up this rock about the size of a cantaloupe. I tell the guys that are sitting fifteen feet away in the shelter, ¢Lookout, I'm going to drop this on the stick and break it.¢ When I did, the piece broke off, spun right over my left shoulder, missing my big hairy head by inches and landed twenty five feet behind me. It was so close to my ear that I could hear it rotating as it went by. There was dead silence and then they all busted out laughing, not at just what had happened, but at my facial expression. I can see the headlines now, Hiker Killed Today by Flying Stick! That's not funny - I'm going to bed!