Date: 2022-06-07
From: Hemlock Springs Campsite

To: Dennytown Road Campsite
Miles today: 12.3
Weather: overcast clouds

I awoke this morning to the sound of our bear hang hitting the ground. It¢s a sound like your own baby crying in a room full of crying babies. It was about 6:45 - not typically bear raiding time. I asked Joni if she heard it and she said Baxter had gone to get the food. He pulled the slip knot securing the hang and the whole lot - 5 bags together - fell about 25 feet out of the tree. Thankfully nothing was damaged except a breakfast essentials packet (exploded) and thankfully Baxter wasn¢t standing under it. No single one of the bags is very heavy but the group of them is probably close to 15 pounds. Breakfast was delivered!We left camp around 8:00 headed for the Appalachian Market 3.8 miles away. There were rumors of a short-order grill on premises. The 3.8 miles was nearly certainly our fastest stretch so far. We covers that ground in about an hour and a half. Appalachian Market did not disappoint! Though really just a fancy convenience store, it had everything we could have possibly wanted. We resupplied for the next three days (bars, honeybuns, cookies, oatmeal, candy, tuna packs, Knorr sides, cereal, pop tarts, etc). They offered a full menu for breakfast. Jasper got a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich. I got the same with ¢double everything ¢.  The others went for the baked goods. There was a big TV in the bathroom viewable from the commode. We keep saying ¢goodbye¢ to Margaritaville and Lightyear - they left camp before us this morning- but they were wrapping up their Appalachian Market experience about the time we got there. It was fun to compare notes again. We spent close to $170 in that convenience store! The boys were giddy at the amount of ¢treats¢ we loaded onto the counter at checkout in 2 full baskets. It was a fun stop and a good lesson on the savings of buying in bulk.The rule-of-thumb for trail budget is $1000 per person per month.  This rule is typically applied to groups of 1 (?) or 2. A group of 5 gets some economy-of-scale when it comes to the $1000 rule. The room at Greenwood Lake, for example, was $120 for 5 people. The price for the same room for 2 people was $80.  That¢s a per-person price of $20 vs $40!  I think we¢ll benefit from this ¢phenomenon¢ in many places. The Appalachian Market is not one of those places.The rumor on the trail today was burger trail magic at Dennytown road. That was a 12 mile day for us right on the heels of a 13er. Burgers worked like a magnet, though, and we arrived at Dennytown Road at 4:30 just as the crew was packing up to leave. Rain was moving in and they were moving out! They had left 5 burgers (all-the-way) together with a box of chips, oranges, sodas, and beer (& real stroopwaffles!) and were just about to pull away when we arrived. Honeybag and Digits are two Dutch brothers we met briefly at Pochuck Mountain Shelter. Their parents and sister were here in the states to meet up with them. They decided to do some trail magic while here. Lightyear and Margaritaville had let them know we were pushing hard to get there and expected to arrive before 5. I¢m glad they passed on the message! Dinner is easy when someone else cooks!We inhaled the trail magic, said our thank-yous and goodbyes, and headed into the nearby campsite to set up camp before the rain. We¢re in a large field that gets regular maintenance. Porta potties, picnic tables, and fire rings. The tents were set up quickly while I went to hang the bear line. I¢ve got bear bag hanging pretty well scienced-out. I¢ve never had one taken (though I don¢t know how many ¢attempts¢ have been made) and I¢ve never lost a line in a tree. My streak is over. The rock sack I threw to carry the line over the high limb landed exactly on the limb in a fork. I thought pulling it down would be easy but it was stuck fast. A quad-advantage pulling-rig didn¢t budge it. I tied a second rock to the loose end and threw it over in hopes that pulling from a different direction would help. That rock flew amiss and started a series of over-and-backs that ended with both ends in the tree (rock sack attached). It was a good bear line. We have 2 more in our inventory. I chose a lower-less challenging branch and got the kitty hing just before the rain began. It¢s raining now though not particularly strong. Forecast says rain all night. Bring it on! It makes a great sound machine!