Date: 2002-08-05
From: KATAHDIN

To: GA
Miles today: 11.0

Monday, August 5, 20026 am got my tent all packed in and pack is packed and ready to go. My blisters just look horrible; I have the moleskin and duck tape clear down my heel and up my ankles on each side of both feet. Maybe if I can just hold off and make it into Monson I can heal them up. I don¢t have any calluses yet because they just keep getting rubbed raw. Doesn¢t look like rain but I need to climb that Chairback Mountain before it does. They say it¢s tough to climb if it does rain. Need to shave but I will wait till tonight. Hope to make it to Long Pond lean too. I am at a little wayside by the Hermitage and crossed the river and damn near fell on my ass, which would have been a disaster.   Had to fjord the river and go across the rocks.   About 200 feet down the trail this guy named Diesel told me there was nice little campspot. Heard you can¢t camp in the Hermitage.   So I this is a nice place. A lot of bugs but glad to have a camp spot. Didn¢t sleep too well. I am going to try to make it to long pond, which is about 12 miles. Last night a young lady (with the trail association) came along looking for Snowman her name was Singbird or Songbird or something. She was going up and down the trail looking for this guy. I ask her if it was an emergency and she said no she just wanted to talk to him. Yesterday I did 12 miles.   Day before that I did approx. the same. I need to keep track of these and record that.   I hope this recorder is working because I am not writing anything down.   A lot of climbing this morning, ups and down, up and down. I stopped about every hour. That backpack is just tearing me apart. Hopefully it¢s just the pack, not me. Who knows, we¢ll see.   This is day 7 of my hike.I am a couple of days behind schedule. I was really optimistic about the hike and I am facing the cold hard facts that I am not going to make the mileage I thought I was going to make. I will be darn lucky to finish before Xmas.   But if I don¢t I will just come home and sometime will just go back and finish it.   Well here I am, a mile from the shelter, it¢s a quarter to 4 in the afternoon and I am out of water. And I am sweating and hurting. There just has been no water for the last 4 miles, no streams, nothing. Springs are dried up, must be having a drought in this area. Oh boy I will tell you, it¢s something. Being without water. Met a couple of guys who were section hiking from Auburn, Alabama. Saw just a few northbounders, met Crispy, a young guy who is gonna get his hike done in a little more than four months. Got to the Cloud pond shelter about 6. Was one of my toughest days so far I think. Were a lot of mountains to climb. Whenever I stop I have to take my pack off and lay flat on my back because of that catch in my back and to make things worse I am out of Advil. So when I get to town I am going to buy a big supply and I know I had it in my mail drop but that won¢t be enough. The campsite was full of kids and they just put all their tents right out in the middle and there isn¢t any room for anybody so I found a little spot just outside there a little bit.   It¢s not really handy but I got my tent pitched. I might try using the shelter one of these times. All they do is sleep in the open, it¢s a 3 sides open shelter but there aren¢t too many bugs right now. My sleeping closes up pretty good so tomorrow I might do that.   Tomorrow I am going to try to make it 10 miles will see what happens. I have one more mountain to climb and then it looks like the elevation stays about 900 feet so we will see what kind of walking it is. Was running out of water today there just wasn¢t enough places and then when I got here I didn¢t get enough water filtered so I will have to filter some more. Went down to the lake. There¢s a lake right next to my tent here so I went down there and took a skinny dip and washed off and washed some clothes. Boy I was really stinking.But smelling better now, NIght, Pa Kettle