Date: 2009-08-21
From: Logan Brooks Lean-To 

To: Carl A. Newhall Lean-To 
Miles today: 7.2

9:15 am ¢ During the night I awoke and admire the beautiful night sky, but by 5:30 am this morning when I woke up, the bottom of a grey, dank cloud was right at treetop level. I decided to get up, retrieve ¢Miss Piggy¢ from her resting place in the trees, and bring her into the shelter, and tucked myself back in to go to sleep. I am now up and enjoying my coffee, having stretched and meditated, organized my gear, and devised a ¢diaper¢ from a drop box liner (the plastic bag I used to wrap up my food) to use on my camel pack in case the duct-tape repair job doesn¢t hold. I spent some time lollygagging around this morning preparing myself for another great day of hiking, thus shaking off last night¢s negativity.Today is planned to be really short. The next shelter is 7.2 miles away on the south side of White Cap Mountain. (I spent last night on the north side of said mountain.) It¢s a short distance, but it involves 2,200¢ of climbing over four peaks. The shelter I am planning to stay at is the closest to the Gulf Hagas side trail that I want to tour tomorrow without having to backtrack. Gulf Hagas is reportedly the ¢Grand Canyon of the East¢ except without the donkeys and tourists ¢ a spectacular gorge with great vistas, steep ravines, and numerous breathtaking waterfalls. In order to go on this five-mile, sightseeing trail in the middle of nowhere, I¢ll have to cut today short to be in a good position to access it and still meet Cathy Pringle for my afternoon food drop. It is time for me to pack up and get going now. ¢Smiley¢ just arrived from where he camped last night and, as requested by ¢Tinkerbell¢ (whom I passed two days ago on the Trail with ¢Phoenix¢), asked me to ask him, ¢Is there is Starbucks up there?¢ Smiley smiled broadly and acknowledged that, that¢s a question others tend to ask him when he passes them and found it quite funny that it would be applied to him in this case. 10:50 am ¢ Just after ¢Smiley¢ arrived, so did ¢Hoosier Bob¢ and ¢Ruins¢ (as in ¢ancient ruins¢ ¢ a good natured Scotsman who spent 20 years as an inspector for a New Zealand police force before retiring last year. He and I had a nice conversation, and I ended up giving ¢Hoosier Bob¢ some of my Motrin when I found out he was about all out. He, in turn, gave me four mini cigars that he had found in a hiker box when he found out that I was all out ¢ ¢one good turn deserves another¢). It¢s now 11:00 am , and the skies are still grey with slips of clouds slipping through the woods, and I am about to leave for the day. 12:00 noon ¢ I¢m on top of White Cap Mountain. It is grey and dank. I am in the clouds. On the way up, I chatted with some young men en route to Katahdin. ¢Smile Train,¢ ¢Flex,¢ and ¢Wimbledon¢ who were all very nice and engaging young trail hikers. ¢Smile Train¢ asked me if I had been hiking in Virginia last spring when I mentioned by name to him. He remembered me from when we passed one another at Mt. Rogers. I guess it¢s a much smaller world than any give credit for it being. 1:30 pm ¢ I am now at the top of Hay Mountain. I just got a cell signal and got through to Cathy Pringle, whom I will meet tomorrow with my drop box. She asked if there was anything else I wanted, and I put in my special order for a banana, a diet Pepsi, and a small bag of chips! I also called my business partner, Barb, to check in on things but got her voicemail instead . . . while the cat¢s away, I guess the mice will play¢¦ (Ha! She does most of the work at Crenshaw anyway!). I am currently eating a blueberry bar and a tuna fish wrap, standing in some scrub pines in the clouds and enjoying the fact that I am doing exactly what I am doing, which seems quite preposterous relative to being at work.2:30 pm ¢ I am standing on top of West Peak, the third of the four to cross today. I am still in the clouds. Every so often, an apparition of cloud breaks away and floats up the trail and ¢ poof! ¢ disappears into the woods and out pops BOB! 3:30 pm¢ Now I am at the top of Mt. Hagas. The weather is still the same. I take my hat, however, to the main Appalachian Trail Club, who is responsible for this portion of the Trail. They¢ve done a wonderful job (a huge job!) of building stair-steps along this section of the Trail. A vast improvement over most places. 4:00 pm ¢ I just arrived at the Carl Newhall Lean-To, I¢m shaken and bruised after yet another fall on wet rocks only 10 minutes ago. Again, no real damage other than a severely bent pole (fortunately, it wasn¢t the one that snapped already) and a dent in my new water bottle. My left shin has a lump the size of a baseball on it, and there is a golf ball sized bump on me right forearm, very reminiscent of the one I got on my left forearm on Katahdin. Damn these falls are unsettling! 7:00 pm ¢ After treating water and getting organized for bed, I made mashed potatoes smothered in hot beef stew, which I shared with a Thru Hiker, ¢Fly By,¢ who was most appreciative of his ¢Bumpo Blue Plate Special.¢ ¢Fly By¢ is trying to catch up with his girlfriend, ¢Hard Core,¢ whom I passed a few minutes after I fell. In addition to ¢Fly By,¢ there were two college seniors who are from the section known as the 100-mile Wilderness. They are staying in a tent not far from the shelter, as is another Long Distance Section Hiker, ¢Nor¢Easter,¢ who has completed about 1,200 miles, two female Thru Hikers, ¢Skittles¢ and ¢Moonwalker,¢ who arrived a few minutes ago and who are settling into the lean-to here with me. It started raining just after they arrived, and it is now raining very hard with intermittent lightning flashes ¢ a great night to be in a shelter and not in a tent!