Date: 2006-04-14
From: Seeley-Woodworth Shelter

To: Dutch Haus
Miles today: 2.5

14 Apr 2006 - Destination: Dutch HausStaying over at the Earl & Lois Arnold's Dutch Haus in Montebello (800-341-9777). Totally recommended. $25.00/night AT backpacker special includes them doing your laundry, breakfast, and assorted shuttling. $12.00 more gets you a humongous supper. Today's walk was very short from the Seeley-Woodworth Shelter to where they picked me up on Fish Hatchery road. Partly in sun (first mile) and then in pouring thunderstorm (second mile). Frogg Toggs worked well to keep me dry.Good stuff. Personal endurance is improving. I can now walk 100 steps uphill before having to rest. When I started it was 25 steps. Eventually I should get trail legs, at least that is what I am told. Trail Legs, Where Are You?10:30 - I called them when I reached Fish Hatchery Road, in the middle of the rain (the globalstar worked!) and they said someone would be there in about 0.5 hours. I had the pack resting against a tree (with it's waterproof cover on), and the orvis coat suspended over my head while it poured and I waited, and sort of paced. Around noon, the rain tapered off and I called them again. There was a misscommunication. I had to walk down Fish Hatchery Road about 1.7 miles to the parking lot, as the road beyond that was currently blocked off. Cursing silently, soaked, cold, and somewhat unhappy I proceeded down the dirt road. At least the rains had stopped. Someway down it I passed a jogger going up and he told me I was on the right road, and that it was not to far infront of me. Then he passed me again going down, and said again, "not to far". I finally got to the parking lot and Lois was waiting for me with her SUV. She had talked to the jogger and knew I was coming down, so she waited. During the walk down I noted that the road was barred in several places, and I realized that I had misinterpreted "trailhead" to mean trail intersection.After cleaning up, taking a long hot bath, and getting my laundry ready for Lois, I called everyone in the late afternoon on the land line using the phone card. Karen said she would call back in the morning, and MLF said he would call back later. Nick said, among other things, that Suzanne's wedding is 10 March 2007 and I need to plan to be in Houston for it.I have shoulder and palm bruises from poleresting (vide supra).NOTE: using the poles provides upper body excercise that otherwise seems to be lacking when hiking.Later that afternoon, Lois took me to the local store to resupply. Their batteries also didn't work in the recorder, but I got Raisin and Spice Oatmeal and raisinetts for my gorp. While at the store I overheard the lady who takes care of the store and Lois sharing stories and learned that Lois regards her occasional canned diet coke at the store as a real treat. Having noticed that the two liter diet coke was only $0.79, I got one, and told Lois we could split it. Following a minor argument, she said ok. After we got back to the Dutch Haus, I relaxed, filled out their journal, talked with Lois abput the place and their history there, and how they came to acquire it, looked at some maps and took another hot tub. It is an absolutely gorgeous place. Supper was a tasty and humongous beef stew in a "bread bowl" inside a regular bowl, with a big salad, and some of the diet coke. MLF called back about 21:30 and we talked for about 1/2 hour. Finally her son got the computer working with their satellite internet access, and I handled some 300 emails and started filling out this electronic journal. Went to bed about 02:00. AS I was getting ready for bed I noticed and removed a still living tick from my left inner elbow and placed it in a container on the table. 07:30 - Saturday morning, I asked Lois about it and she identified the tick and she said that there were no local deer ticks, and that the local ticks could not carry Lyme disease, so this should not be a problem. We discarded the tick. I called Russ to set up the interview for about a short time later, when they would call me back on the landline. Just before they were supposed to call, Karen R. called back and I had to ask her to call back about 30 minutes later. Not hearing from Russ, I called them a few minutes after 08:00 and they claimed they were not getting through. We reconfirmed the number, they dialed it successfully and we talked on the radio about the hike.Breakfast was huge: eggs, sausage, potatoies melon slices, strawberries, cinnamon raisin bagels, butter and orange juice.