Date: 2006-08-08
From: Mountain Meadows Lodge, Killington

To: View Entry
Miles today: 13.3

There's nothing quite like the feeling of freshly brushed teeth. The smooth white surgaces that your tongue can so easily glide over. The tingly clean feeling that mint toothpaste leaves in your mouth. Toothpaste companies are coming out with new flavors like lemon and orange, but they don't have me convinced. There's a reason people say "minty fresh" and not "orange fresh." Orange and lemon are great scents for cleaning supplies, but keep them out of my toothpaste! Mint is the original and there are times when the original cannot be beat. Tonight as I lie in my sleeping bag I am grateful for my freshly brushed teeth. People, especially hikers, must relish the simple pleasures in life. Nothing else about me is clean, but my teeth are glistening.We awoke at Mountain Meadows this morning and stumbled sleepy-eyed down to breakfast. I was so hungry I was actually dreaming about continental breakfasts (which were conspiratorially empty). Thankfully Bill and Anne offered a wonderfully full array of foods. We enjoyed mini-bagels, cereal and fruit with hot chocolate. By the time we finished our second round we both felt ready to face the day.We hit the trail at 11:30 and made it the 6 miles to the next shelter very quickly. It was a nice shelter with a quaint stream. We decided to cook dinner so that we didn't have to cook our evening meal on the observation deck (where there is no water source). We tried a new blend of Lipton's today. It's hard to believe there are any combinations left to sample at this point in our trip, but there was. We mixed jalapeno and alfredo noodles and it was really tasty. After "lunch" which was really dinner, I thought I was hiking very quickly. We went up a large incline and I pushed myself to maintain the same speed. When we finally stopped to consult Wingfoot it was disheartening. It seems impossible that we were walking as slow as Wingfoot's mileage suggests. Very discouraging. We scarfed down King-size candy bars and pushed on up up and more up. My exhausted legs became wobbly and I was forced to rely heavily on my poles and arm strength to pull me onward. My aching legs burned and tingled and protested each motion. My legs were ferociously upset about the 5 lbs of water-weight I was voluntarily humping up this mountain. Finally, as my internal motivation switch stuttered to a halt, we saw the sign for our stop. "0.1 miles to Observation Deck." Suddenly I felt a burst of energy. I glanced at the sky and the retreating sun and determined that we might just make it in time for the finale of the sunset. Soon we saw the building towering over us. We virtually flew up the ladder leading to the observation platform on the roof. The platform is rather haphazardly attached to an extremely pointy roof in what appears to be a rather unprofessional style. But, being determined to catch the fading sun we scrambled up the ladder without pausing to debate the safety of this endeavour. From the top we could see forever. Mountains of all sizes extended as far as we could see in every direction. The sun was still painting the westward sky orange. Souleman snapped a million pictures as I began skeptically eyeing the platform and ladder. Did I really just thoughtlessly ascend this? We were at least 40 feet in the air with no way down except that one rickity ladder. As I inspected the craftsmanship I saw that the nails intended to attach the ladder to the platform were almost entirely pulled out and totally rusted. Also, the one handrial seemed scarcely attached. I tried to enjoy the view -- all the time knowing that we both had to go back down that ladder somehow. Miraculously we both descended unscathed.We are sleeping in the cabin's loft. Hopefully a new day tomorrow will restore my energy. Oh, I heard these lyrics today and I found them applicable to our current lifestyle: The going is easy when the ground is flatThem damn hills will get you every timeThe good Lord gave us mountainsSo we could learn how to climb ... The song also talked about how there are times in life that you have to crawl and that is OK, but eventually you must get up again. Hopefully I'll hear the song again so I can get the lyrics down.