Date: 2003-09-04
From: Chairback Gap Lean-to (1950ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ) 

To: Carl A. Newhall Lean-to (1840ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ) 
Miles today: 9.9
Weather: light rain

Aloha! What a day! I did a first for me today. You know what a first is¢¦ when you do something for the very first time. Well that¢s what I did today. A first. Wanna hear about it? Good.When we arrived yesterday it took no time at all to realize that tent spots were extremely limited here as they were last night. As a matter of fact, at both places two section-hiking NOBOs had already claimed the only somewhat decent spots and those were debatable should it rain. Because Gutsy has NEVER stayed anywhere besides her tent, she pitched right outside the shelter (the only other relatively flat spot) and I opted to sleep in the shelter. During the night, the skies opened up and poured. And I do mean poured, great big torrential buckets of water. I love my tent but I was damned happy to be in the shelter this morning. To see Gutsy¢s tent sitting smack dab in the middle of what appeared to be a small pond made me appreciate the shelter even more. As did when the two NOBOS, Thom and Thirsty Boots, stopped by and mentioned their ponds. You¢re still wondering about my first, aren¢t you? Well, my first came when I, along with everyone else including Gutsy, snuggled back down into our sleeping bags inside the shelter and did absolutely nothing besides nap, eat, chat, nap some more, and watch the rain come down. We did this up until 1045a! That was a first for me! Normally when it¢s raining I will sit and look at it for a few and then take a deep breath, take my jacket off and begin to hike. Hiking in the rain can be irritating but it really doesn¢t bother me as much as it bothers others. I believe I just accept the fact that it¢s going to happen, particularly this year. Today though, with only 9.9-miles to go (wimps!) there was absolutely no reason or need to hurry. It was actually fun hanging out in the shelter with a group of great people doing little more than napping, eating, chatting and laughing. Why I haven¢t done this before I¢ll never know. I¢ll definitely consider doing it again. Such fun!   Obviously we did finally get going. My only irritation with the day came shortly before our departure. As I was tightening down my pack, it ripped. Not a big rip but a rip nonetheless. Right above where the back ends and the pack material allows for either cinching down or bigger loads. That surprised me. I¢ve heard many speak of the stay coming through the bottom of the pack (still believe they over packed) and have kicked mine back a couple of times myself. But I have yet to hear anyone speak of the pack actually tearing. Again, it¢s not a bad tear but enough to cause some concern on whether or not this is the beginning of the end of this pack. If it can just hold out another week or so, it will have done its job. I do love this pack.Okay, as for the trail, how do I say this¢¦ oh yeah, it began by immediately going UP. Surprise! That¢s if you exclude the 50-yard slippery vertical down to the water source first. It went UP to the top of Chairback Mountain (2219¢) where we were suppose to have a lovely view but that didn¢t quite work out today. From there it was basically little roller coasters for two miles and then a 1.5-mile down to the old logging road where Old Corpus had hidden our food cache. Not a bad hike once it stopped raining completely. Old Corpus really does have an excellent way of not having to carry large amounts of food or going into towns every four days or so. I believe I already told you that he¢s been hiding food all along the way ever since he started his trek. He has these wonderful bags that are odorless and critter proof. Once placed in a camouflaged bag it is then hidden in the woods. To date he has yet to lose a cache to either human or animal. Once he found his memorized start point he followed his duct taped tree trail to the food. All worked just as it had numerous times before. This time though Coffee and I got ours too. Excellent. I carried only 2.5-days worth of food to this point and picked up another two. You have to love anything that allows less weight in the pack. In this case, I love Old Corpus!We had lunch sitting along the logging road. It surprised me how many pickups, not logging trucks but regular old pickups, passed by. This was my first indicator that the 100-Mile Wilderness was not quite the Wilderness I had expected. It became even more obvious that this was the case as we continued our hike. Once we crossed the West Branch of the Pleasant River (another that could have been roaring but wasn¢t though it did require actual shoes-off fording) we came to The Hermitage and Gulf Hagas areas.The Hermitage is a protected area home to some magnificent old-growth white pines. It was a lovely area to walk through.   The Gulf Hagas area, billed as the ¢Grand Canyon of the East¢, was formed by water eroding the slate walls of a narrow canyon. The result of this sculpting is many spectacular waterfalls nestled in a chasm about 500 feet deep. I could have experienced the gulf¢s scenery by taking a short hike to Screw Auger Falls but I passed it by. It was hard not to go take a peep but I¢m pretty sure I¢ll be back one day to do the whole 5.2-mile loop trail. The walk through the area convinced me first that I want to return to do it and secondly, that there¢s no problem getting to it. The well maintained and defined (smooth and flat) trail and numerous day hikers proved that point! A parking lot on the logging road allows hikers to come in for the day, weekend, or whatever. Wilderness? I¢m thinking in name only maybe. From logging road to here the trail went only UP. Something like 1200¢ over six miles. Not bad, just long. It¢s a full house here tonight too. Tomorrow¢s hike should be the last of the bigger mountains and major roller coasters. (Maybe it wasn¢t a bad decision to cut the miles back after all.) It¢s kind of sad actually, with the end of the bigger mountains also comes the knowledge that my Grand Adventure is slowly drawing to close. This is sad, very sad. We may get into that later. Suffice it to say for now; we¢re all a little melancholy knowing the end is near. You would think we would be happy but¢¦ that¢s just not how it works. Okay, enough of that. Plenty of time for crying later. For now, it¢s time to call it quits and sleep. You sleep well too and I¢ll see you tomorrow night. Buh-bye!Blood, Sweat and Tears: a little melancholy but no tears¢¦ yet.Aches and Pains: same-sameMoans and Groans: Wilderness with tourists! ¢¦ Waah!Critter count: not even the squirrels would come out today!Countdown: 78.6 miles