Date: 2007-08-21
To: Past Mt. Garfield
Miles today: 10.8

mi.10.8 sleep hammockdest. stealth site past Mt. Garfield day 40 Ahh my 40th day on the trail. Last night went pretty good. I woke up a lot. But my pad is very uncomfortable and I wake up a lot on the ground anyways. It was great sleeping out there. I really recommend it. I'll have to post a pic I had Curt take of me in the morning laying there. I did get woken up by somone coming into the hut at like 2am. He scared the crap out of me. I expected to turn over and see a moose or something. But it was a guy with a headlamp. He stuck around and got water and moved on. I asked about it the next day. Apparently there is a hut marathon that the people working there do. They hike to every hut in a 24 hour period. It's something like 50 miles. Doable if your in good hiking shape. I might have to give it a whirl at some point in the trail. I would be interested to see what I can do in a day. But I'll probibly end up stopping at a cool place 2 miles in and ruining that plan. I left the hut after a big breakfest. Curt was only a few minutes behind. I passed a family where the young daugther and mother were stopping before the father and son. The young girl obviously had to poo. I just hiked on. When Curt caught up with me he said he came up on them when she was going iterally on the side of the trail. She was holding onto a tree with a white blaze on it. Someone really should tell them to to a little ways off trail. If not, don't be surprised when someone comes around the corner. I ended up walking with Curt for most of the day. It was different, but a nice change. We hiked the rest of the way to the next Hut together. We stopped at Zealand hut for lunch. My first lunch hut stop. Who should I happen across but our good friend from whiteblaze.net but Baltimore Jack. I hadn't seen him since trail days in VA. Chomp and one other from WB were also there. Funny who you may happen across out here. For those how don't know him he is one of those trail people you know and happen across on the AT. He has done something like 7 or 8 northbound thru hikes, lives in Hanover N.H., he writes a complete resupply breakdown for the trail and updates it every year, and I think he does the ATC compainion for this section. We sat around and had lunch and talked with them for awhile. He drew us a map to the stealth site we heard about and were aiming for tonight. He also told us about a great bar in Hanover. He said if we are in Hanover and he is there, he'll help us out. I also want to point out he was hiking out southbound. Yet again this would mean a lot more if you knew him. He also gave some great advice for finding stealth sites. Along with a great one ! I'm aiming for in a couple days if the weather is good. Ok. I try not to talk bad here about people. But this one erked me enough I have to say something. When we were in the hut I commented that why in the world is this place handicap asscessable. If you couldn't walk up stairs there is no way you are going to walk the 6 miles over mountains to get here. This northbounder, a woman in her 50's or so, chimed in well sometimes it nice for people finding their way to the bathroom. Come on there is a ramp into the place. It comes out to legal issues when the place was recentally built. Her rant went on for a good 10 minutes. Needless to say I walked away as she was talking. Later as Curt, Baltimore Jack, and I were sitting at the next table {after I picked up and moved my soup that was put next to her and sat with my back to her} she got even worse. Some of the people staying there really don't know that much and ask a lot of questions. Which in itself isn't a bad thing, the best way to learn. But unforunatly they asked h! er. She was giving a big rant about how none of the younger people out there had no back country skills. She goes on to say no one can thru hike on liptons and roman. Not all of us can spend $4000 on 6 months of Mountain house meals. Come on that is the stapple in most. Curt, Jack, and all I all were getting annoyed by her. If we were anywhere but a hut i would have called her on all of it. It came down to not wanting to ruin it for the next guy. All I have to say is if 2 people 1 month into their hike, not to mention someone who hiked the whole thing 8 times, thinks someone is full of it chances are they are. They story gets better. Later on when we were at the top of the next mountain, MT Garefield, we talked with 2 northbound flip flopers. They started in Harpers ferry north and are going to flip down after Katadin. We told them about Shiver and what she said. They said she skipped all of Vermont. So she was even more full of it. They had hoped they got in front and away from her. I think she is one of those people everyone comes to want to get away from. Like I said I don't like to put this in here, but it erked me. We got to the stealth site around 6pm. Rigt across from the Garfield pond. We found 2 people in their 20's already there. I originally setup really close to there tent. I'm glad I moved. You'll find out why tomorrow. They are a couple starting their last year of college in Vermont. Tonight is really strange meal wise. I have a lot of food. Over 2 days. Not enough not to go into Lincon tomorrow. I have been on the edge of going in for awhile. I still haven't changed my footwear. More on that in 2 days. I ended up eating 2 instand breakfests, snickers, and a lipton with pepperoni, stuffing, mashed potatoes, chz, and veggie oil. Oh and get this I broke my plastic sea to summit spoon stiring it. So I had to shovel the food in. I had the spoon for over a year and and used it on every trip. At least it broke tonight. Another reason for a town stop. I think today I also found the limit on how long I can go without washing out my hiking shorts. I haven't rinsed them out since Gorhem. They could almost stand up by themselves. Good to know it takes 7 days. I also gave Curt his trailname. We decided to have a campfire. He was tending to that while I moved my hammock. I was finishing setting up my hammock when all the sudden I heard a big woosh and seem a huge flame shoot up. We talked about starting it with white gas. Not too big of a deal in itself. What I didn't know is Curt hasn't started a lot of fires the Ohio way. He poured about 4 oz on it. The weekender guy commented that he didn't know there was going to be fireworks. It really seemed to fit. So after this Curt is called Fire Work. The plan was to get up early and hike the 3 mils up to the ridge and watch the sunrise. We talked ourselves out of that one. A good nights sleep and waiting for warmer temps won out.