Date: 2007-08-14
From: Gorhem

To: Rattle River Shelter
Miles today: 2.3
Weather: scattered clouds

mi. 1.6sleep hammockdest. Rattle River Shelter day 33 I got pretty lucky. I called JacksRBetter and left a message explaining my situation and email address. I got back from dinner to and checked my pocketmail to find and email from them. I called and talked to them for awhile. They are going to send me a prototype of their Bear Mountain Bridge Hammock to use. This is really huge for me. I think I need a good month or so of sleeping on my stomach or side for my tail bone to heal. This fits the bill. I was told this is a prototype and that their production model is going to change. I will say that please do not ask me to give any directions, dimensions, detailed pics, or anything else for the construction of it. I will have to defer questions on this hammock to the Jacks themselves. Thanks again for letting me use this on my hike. As we all know, it all works out in the end. One my first night into town before I lucked out with this hammock, I asked my good online buddy Frilicking Dino to post something online asking if anyone had one that I can use. I wanted to think her again for helping me out with this. Someone online offered for me to use his. I wanted to think him again for offering it to me. It just worked out to where using this one is he better way to go. There are less questions on it's setup and use. Thanks again. I'm pretty lucky to know people like them that will help me out without expecting anything in return. I also saw in my guest book that the southbounder I hiked around for awhile is laid up in Andover with the big G. Sorry to hear that. He as looking and feeling pretty bad for a few days and having trouble eating. Hopefully he'll get it cleared up and get going again soon. Today just reinforced my opinion that each is divided into 2 completely diferent parts. In the morning I woke up slowly. I tossed and turned all night, It was hard getting comfortable in a hard bed with a bad tail bone. I did shower again before leaving. Something I saw Karl doing. It makes sense. I was also starting to smell from all my town walking. After packing up we headed down to the PO. Someone was still waiting on a package. I was going to each my trademark ben and jerry's ice cream, but I was still feeling the 3 klomdike bars from the day before. I forgot to mention yesterday that Clay was having a lite fever and dragging pretty bad. His ankle was red and swollen. It got infected pretty bad from a cut he had there. Not surprising when you consider all the bogs and nasty water you walk in out here. He was going to see a doctor at 3pm today. I really didn't want to spend anymore time or more importantly money in town. So I headed out. There was a lot of traffic, so I figured a hitch would be hard in town. Everyone thinks someone else you pick you up. I decided it was best to walk a little ways out of town. On my way out of town I walked by a shady looking guy trying to hitch to Maine. Funny thing is I stopped and talked to him for a minute. He was coming from Vermont. I figured with him trying to go in the same direction of me, I was screwed with getting a ride. So I kept walking. It was farther out than what I remember. About 1.5 or so into my walk a van stopped. I saw an AT sticker in the back. I lucked out. It was someone who hiked a little and was following a northbounder. She gave me a ride right to the trailhead. She did a northbound thru hike a few years ago. At the parking lot I ran into Mountain Squid of WB. He was following the pack of northbounders up helping them out and doing some day hikes. It would be cool to have the resources to do that. I know someone out there is thinking that I didn't do the rest of the road walk that is part of the AT to the trailhead. Yes I skipped about .5-1 mile of road walking that is part of the official AT. I consider myself lucky to have missed it. I had already done enough road walking for one day. I was thinking about it a lot and that really helps it. But I figured out that I am in no way a purist. I feel no need to walk past every single white blaze. I can't even find every white blaze. I'm out here to hike and experience everything I can. As long as I go that I consider it a success. I am going to keep the mileage on here up with the offical ATC mileage though. Today I hiked a while 1.6 trail miles. I got to the shelter and decided that it was far enough. I sat down and eat some of my snacks. Someone left part of a newpaper here. A good light read, best of all the funnies where there. By far my favorite part of any newpaper. I remembered my talk with everygreen on Bigelow about this place. I am making notes in my guide when ever someone tells me about a place. It was also in the registery. The stream next to it has a great swimming hole. Just down 40 yards or so down a side trail. It is a really cool one. The stream looks like a giant waterslide. It empty's into a 15 foot or so in diameter circle pool. It was way deeper that I could touch. To me it doesn't matter if it is 5'10" deep or 100'. After 5'10" I can't touch and breath I have to tread water. I really wanted to swim and have been thinking about this place for awhile. I stuck my feet it. It felt cold but not too bad. So I walked in the water to right next to where it dropped off. No going in gradually here. So I went for it. I got a huge shock. I didn't put my head under water. But this is by far the coldest water todate. A lot colder than the other day at the pond. It took my breath away. I was in for all of 30 seconds before I had to get out. This is all mountain runoff. So pretty cold. It felt really refreshing though. I went back to the shelter and made dessert. I thought of something in walmart I had to try. I made some instant pasticio {got to love my spelling skills with this one} pudding. All the directions call for is 2 cups of cold milk. Well I have cold water and powdered milk. While I was waiting for it to solidify I picked up the novel left at the shelter. A lot of them have books people left at them. This one was title Vice Gril. It was about the first female Vice Captin in the country. It was in Cleveland, OH, so I knew some of the places and names it it. Well have you ever started watching a really bad movie and kept watching it just because. This was exactly like that. I opended it about half way and started reading it. It had to be the worest story or book i have read. It was hard to follow and skipped around a lot. But yeah I read about 30 pages or so and 3 chapters.