Date: 2003-09-24
To: Long Pond Stream
Miles today: 14.3
Weather: broken clouds

Up at 6:00 this morning and downstairs for breakfast ten minutes later. As you come into the kitchen you give Keith Jr. your order of 1 around, 2 around, 3 around and so on. I had a 2 around which means I get 2 of everything ¢ pancakes, French toast, eggs, ham, bacon, sausage, potatoes, donuts, coffee, and milk. It was so good! I have to admit I did have some trouble eating it all. Once breakfast was over, Double Dare, Niagara, Daisies, Bumpkin, Mud Butt and I piled into Keith Jr.¢s truck for the COLD ride to the trail to begin our slackpack. The hike took a lot longer than I expected it to, it was much more difficult than the profile led you to believe. I think there were 4 or 5 different stream crossings today and none of them are what I would consider to be a stream, in my opinion they are rivers. A couple of them weren¢t all that easy to get across either because the rocks just weren¢t spaced close enough together. I found myself really stretching to get from one rock to another and hoping I didn¢t slip and fall in. At one point I ended up taking my boots off and working my way thru the knee-deep water to the other side. The water was numbingly cold, the kind of cold that turns your skin a deep shade of pink, and the rocks were really slick. I couldn¢t get to the other shore fast enough and when I did get there I figured it was the perfect time for some lunch. So I sat out on some rocks and ate while my feet dried. I did come close to seeing a moose today. I could hear it off in the trees. I stood there for a few minutes scanning the area hoping to get a glimpse but no luck. And wouldn¢t you know it, a little while later when I ran into Bumpkin she told me she did see a moose in that same spot. As the day went on it became clear that a few of us were probably going to be doing a little night hiking before the day was done. I wasn¢t too thrilled about this but thankfully I had my headlamp with me. When I reached the last shelter of the day, which was 3 miles from the road, I saw that I had missed Daisies by 20 minutes. By this time darkness was definitely getting near. I never did catch up with Daisies and I walked the last hour of my hike in darkness. The terrain seemed to get a little easier in those last 3 miles or maybe it was just because my adrenaline had kicked in but either way I was able to pick my pace up a great deal. I couldn¢t believe how dark the woods seemed to be. I kept hearing noises every now and then but they didn¢t seem to bother me. I think I was more concerned about falling over all the roots in the path and not losing the white blazes, which were pretty hard to find at times. When I reached the road there was no Daisies, it turns out I missed her by 15 minutes. Apparently she got to the road right after Niagara and they used a cell phone to call Shaw¢s for a ride. So my options at this point were to 1) sit and wait for Bumpkin and Mud Butt, but they could be a while, 2) walk the 4 miles to town on a dark curvy road traveled by speeding semis, or 3) try to hitch a ride from someone in the dark. Well, there was no way I was going to do option 2 or 3 so I put on everything I had with me (hat, gloves, fleece, rain jacket, pants) and propped myself against Bumpkin¢s car (which she dropped off there earlier this morning), and waited and waited and waited. I sat there staring up at the stars, which were absolutely amazing, for 2 hours before Bumpkin and Mud Butt walked out of the woods. I had begun to think they weren¢t going to show up. It was 10 pm before we made it back to Shaw¢s and the three of us were starving. Bumpkin cooked us some pancakes. I normally have trouble eating one but tonight I ate 3 of them. So we ate our pancakes and sat around with many other hikers, some of whom I hadn¢t seen in months and others meeting for the first time tonight and listened to Loser sing and play his guitar. It was a great ending to a very long day.